[rp-ml] Long-overdue update on Stratasys lawsuit and two more against 3D Systems

Marshall Burns ListMail2 at fabbers.com
Wed Sep 22 03:58:58 EEST 2021


Resending the e-mail below with one of the two attachments removed (the
complaint in the 2021 lawsuit) because it is apparently too large for the
list system. If you want to see it, I can send it to you individually if you
ask.

 

 

 

From: Marshall Burns <ListMail2 at fabbers.com> 
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2021 07:30
To: 'Rapid Prototyping Mailing List' <rp-ml at rp-ml.org>
Subject: Long-overdue update on Stratasys lawsuit and two more against 3D
Systems

 

Hi RP-ML, if anyone else is still here.

 

This e-mail is about three class action lawsuits, against Stratasys in 2012
and against 3D Systems in 2015 and '21.

 

 

Stratasys, 2012

 

I wrote to the RP-ML about this several times in 2012 and 2013. In July
2013, I sent you a copy of a letter I had filed with the court objecting to
the lawsuit:

              www.rp-ml.org/hut/rp-ml-2013/0116.html
<http://www.rp-ml.org/hut/rp-ml-2013/0116.html> 

A settlement agreement was reached in November of that year, which provided
nothing to Stratasys or its shareholders but $450,000 in fees for the
plaintiff's lawyers. I wrote to the lawyers, asking how to file an objection
to the settlement. After lengthy correspondence and phone calls, the lawyers
notified me in January 2014 (see attached e-mail) that they were dropping
the lawsuit and abandoning their request for fees in the case. 

 

I think the reason I didn't send an update here about that is that I was
exhausted by the ordeal and stunned by the result. It was a bit hard to wrap
my head around the fact that I had quashed a lawsuit and got a law firm to
back off on their attempted extortion of a half-million dollars from
Stratasys.

 

I did not get a thank you letter from Stratasys or their insurance company,
or from Scott Crump.

 

 

3D Systems, 2015

 

This was a much bigger deal, but I didn't find out about it while it was
still going on. This was after the stock prices of both 3D and Stratasys had
skyrocketed throughout 2012 and '13 and it was while both stocks were
collapsing throughout 2014 and '15 back to where they started. The complaint
alleged millions of dollars of illegal insider sales. The case was settled
for $50 million, of which about $15 million went to the lawyers.

www.3dsystemssecuritiessettlement.com/Home/FAQ

 

 

3D Systems, 2021

 

Now it's happening again. Similar to the 2015 case, it's taking place after
both 3D and Stratasys stock spiked early this year, but on a smaller scale
than in 2015. There are no allegations of illegal insider trades this time,
but the complaint does allege other "unlawful conduct".

 

The original complaint in the case, filed in April, was 16 pages. A revised
complaint was filed last week, and it has ballooned to 95 pages. The section
called "Substantive Allegations", from page 15 to 88, provides a fascinating
history of the company from its founding in 1986 through today. It has to be
read with a large shaker of salt because it is told from the darkly negative
perspective of the plaintiffs' lawyers, but it is an interesting view of
what caused the meteoric rise in price in 2012..13 and the subsequent
collapse, as well as the smaller spike this year. The revised complaint is
attached in case others here would find it interesting.

 

One example of the bias evident in that history is that it talks about a
large drop in the stock price after a press release was issued on March 1,
2021, blaming the decline on the bad news in the release, but completely
ignores that the price had already been steeply falling for three weeks
before March 1, so it's misleading to attribute the continuing drop to that
release.

 

I've had some discussion with the lawyers on both sides of the case. The
allegations appear to be much less serious than in 2015 and the complaint
doesn't appear to have the level of fraud that I found in the 2012 complaint
against Stratasys. Still, I intend to file an objection when the time is
appropriate for that, which will probably be late next year unless the case
gets thrown out before that.

 

 

The saga of the burgeoning fabber industry continues!

 

Marshall Burns

www.fabbers.com <http://www.fabbers.com> 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://rapid.rp-ml.org/pipermail/rp-ml/attachments/20210921/03b79db4/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2014 01 15 - Rigrodsky to MB re dropping lawsuit.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 74191 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://rapid.rp-ml.org/pipermail/rp-ml/attachments/20210921/03b79db4/attachment-0001.pdf>


More information about the rp-ml mailing list