Judge Paul Crotty
Investors accused Sequans Communications of making misleading disclosures in its initial public offering (IPO). Sequans supplied 4G semiconductor solutions for wireless broadband applications. The two primary 4G protocols were Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave ("WiMAX") and Long Term Evolution ("LTE" or "4G LTE"). Plaintiffs alleged the offering materials contained misleading misstatements and omissions because Sequans knew that WiMAX was stagnating and declining relative to LTE such that it would imminently affect Sequans financial results. Plaintiffs relied on several publications to support their argument. The court found that on a full reading of one of the articlesopposed to plaintiffs’ partial readingit said "LTE’s deployment as the mainstay 4G technology w[ould] take place gradually, and won’t even begin to gather real steam until 2013." Even if the court accepted plaintiffs’ allegations as true, it found the offering materials expressly disclosed that "the WiMAX market may decline significantly in anticipation of LTE deployments" and how such a development would harm Sequans. Thus, the court held that this disclosure directly addressed the risk that plaintiffs claimed was not disclosed. Sequans was granted dismissal.
