Thursday, April 7, 2011

American Supercondutor: Here Come the Class Action Attorneys (AMSC)

During early 1942 German submarines sunk 609 merchant ships sailing between the U.S. East Coast and England, roughly 25% of all German submarine kills during the war.
Later in the war U-boat crewmen would fondly look back on this period as 'Die Glückliche Zeit'. 
The Halcyon Days or more colloquially "The Happy Time".*


That's the way securities class action attorneys look at the period before 1995.
Then came the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
The act made it much tougher to file a case and then use discovery to put something together.
Prior to the law many public companies settled rather than spend possibly enormous sums to defend an action.


Now it costs the plaintiff bar some time and money to do a class action. The rewards though can be so great that they move fast, trying to secure the lead role. I believe the first of these advertisements hit the wire within four hours of AMSC making their Warning the other night.
This one is timestamped by BusinessWire at 7:32 pm on April 5: 
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation on Behalf of Shareholders of American Superconductor Corporation
BusinessWire's timestamp on AMSC's profit warning was 4:05 pm.
Not quite as quick off the ball as Howard, Levi & Korsinsky, LLP didn't get their ad out until the next day, followed by the sluggards at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC.
Oops, missed one:
Investor Alert: Dyer & Berens LLP Announces Its Investigation Concerning Potential Legal Claims of Certain American Superconductor Investors

We'll keep you apprised


*It was actually the Second Happy Time , the First being July-October 1940 when 282 allied ships were sunk.