And why they think, in this case, rejection was the right move for the courts...

What are we talking about? Well, it goes something like this... Back in a mystical time we call the dot com boom, there were lots of shady practices from internet-based companies that had a URL, a superbowl ad and not much else in the way of prospects for success. In turn, securities class action firms experienced their own boom, filing case after case, chasing busted dot coms on behalf of their investors (and boy, as a young investigator it was fun to be in the thick of it).

Another issue arising from this era has been the allegedly questionable conduct of the Wall Street bankers behind many of these IPOs. It has been suggested that they manipulated the prices of these public offerings in order to reap great monetary benefits for themselves on the backs of myriad small investors who got caught in their double-dealing wake.

There have been some individual settlements relating to this issue, but another suit had been working its way forward, in which the most of the biggest Wall Street banks would have had their dirty laundry aired. Earlier this month, plaintiffs received a serious setback when a Federal Appeals Court ruled that several of the 310 conglomerated cases that are part of the potentially massive class action were wrongfully given "class" status.

While this doesn't mean the case, which is being led by embattled plaintiff firm, Milberg Weiss is dead, it is a certainly substantial setback for one of the longest running class actions kicking around the courts. So why does TechDirt say this is all so much the better? Find out.

-- MDT

Labels: class action, IPO, Melvyn Weiss, Milberg, Milberg Weiss, securites, Techdirt, Wall Street