Alibaba’s $433.5M Investor Suit Deal Gets Initial OK

By Sydney Price

Law360 (October 29, 2024, 2:45 PM EDT) — A New York federal judge granted preliminary approval to a $433.5 million deal settling a suit between Alibaba Group and investors alleging the company made misstatements about its exclusivity practices and the planned $34 billion initial public offering of a fintech affiliate.
In an order Monday, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels regarded the settlement as “fair, reasonable and adequate” and scheduled a settlement hearing for March 27, 2025. Judge Daniels also appointed four plaintiffs as class representatives for the settlement class.
The investors said in the motion for preliminary approval that the deal is the 21st-largestsecurities class action settlement in the Southern District of New York and among the top 50 largest in the U.S. since the Private Securities Litigation  Reform Act was enacted in 1995.
Three proposed class actions were filed in the Southern District of New York beginning in November2020 and were consolidated in April 2021.
The investors’ most recent complaint, filed in April 2022, alleged that they were damaged in December 2020 when trading prices for Alibaba’s American depository shares fell by about 13% after Chinese regulators announced they were looking into the company’s allegedly monopolistic practices.
The investors are represented by Kara M. Wolke and Melissa C. Wright of Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, Jeremy A. Lieberman, Jonathan D. Park and Patrick V. Dahlstrom of Pomerantz LLP, Peretz Bronstein of Bronstein Gewirtz & Grossman LLC, Frank R. Cruz of The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz and Lesley Portnoy of The Portnoy Law Firm.
The Alibaba defendants are represented by Jonathan K. Youngwood, Stephen P. Blake and Bo BryanJin of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
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The case is In re: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Securities Litigation, case number 1:20-cv-09568, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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–Additional reporting by Rae Ann Varona. Editing by Daniel King.

NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION: Please be advised that your rights may be affected by the above-captioned securities class action (the “Action”) pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) if you purchased or otherwise acquired Alibaba Group Holding Limited (“Alibaba”) American Depositary Shares (“ADS”; NYSE ticker symbol: BABA) during the period November 13, 2019 through December 23, 2020, inclusive (the “Settlement Class Period”).

NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT : Please also be advised that the Plaintiffs in the above-captioned action, on behalf of themselves and the Settlement Class (as defined in ¶25 below), have reached a proposed settlement of the Action for $433,500,000 in cash that, if approved, will resolve all claims in the Action (the “Settlement”)