NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 13, 2019 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Waitr Holdings, Inc. f/k/a Landcadia Holdings, Inc. ("Waitr" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:WTRH) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Western District of Louisiana, Lake Charles Division, and indexed under 19-cv-01427, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Waitr securities and against the Company and certain officers and directors and other individuals and entities associated with the Company for their violations of Sections 11 and 15 of the 1933 Securities Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 77a, et seq. (the "Securities Act"), and/or Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78t(a), (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (the "SEC") (17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5), (A) in connection with Old-Waitr's going public transaction and business combination on November 15, 2018 with Landcadia Holdings, Inc. ("Landcadia") (the "Going Public Transaction"), and the follow-on secondary offering on May 16, 2019 (the "Secondary Offering") of Waitr securities, and (B) for making materially false and misleading statements that were published into the market from May 17, 2018 to August 8, 2019 (the "Class Period").
If you are a shareholder who purchased Waitr securities during the class period, you have until November 26, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
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Waitr, an online food ordering and delivery services company, was formed through a going public transaction and business combination between Waitr Inc. ("Old-Waitr") and Landcadia in November 2018. On December 11, 2018, Waitr announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire BiteSquad.com, LLC, another online restaurant delivery service for $321 million.
On May 16, 2018, Landcadia announced it would acquire Old-Waitr for stock and cash valued at $308 million (the "Going Public Transaction"). In connection with the Going Private Transaction, defendants filed a Proxy Statement and a Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on May 17, 2018 and November 19, 2018, respectively (the "Going Public Filings").
On May 16, 2019, Waitr once again offered more than 6.75 million shares of its common stock at $7.40 per share pursuant to a Proxy/Prospectus, Prospectus Supplement, and Registration Statement filed with the SEC on April 26, 2019, and May 16 and 17, 2019, respectively (the "Secondary Offering Filings").
The Waitr class action lawsuit alleges that during the Class Period and in the Going Public and Secondary Offering Filings, defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse information regarding Waitr's business and operations. Specifically, defendants failed to disclose that: (i) at the time it went public, Waitr had artificially bolstered profits and revenues by raising prices in breach of its customer contracts and failing to properly reimburse its drivers, Waitr's software provided little or no competitive advantages, and Waitr's take rate of 15% was unsustainable; (ii) the purported risk factors in the Secondary Offering Filings were not contingencies, as stated in the filings, but were, in fact, already negatively impacting Waitr at the time of the Secondary Offering, including significant problems with the integration of Bite Squad; (iii) in order to achieve defendants' projected financial results, Waitr would have to make drastic and risky changes to its business model; (iv) defendants were planning to update Waitr's Master Services Agreement and it would be necessary to impose large price increases in order to remain solvent; and (v) as a result of the significant problems with the Bite Squad integration, by May 2019, defendants knew that management had become so distracted by the attempted integration that Waitr's operations had been significantly impacted. .
On August 8, 2019, after the market closed, Waitr revealed disappointing financial results for the second quarter of 2019, including that its integration of Bite Squad was not proceeding according to plan, that Waitr was laying off personnel, and that losses were running far ahead of plan and at a rate that eclipsed historical growth trends. In addition, Waitr announced the resignation of its Chief Executive Officer, co-founder Christopher Meaux. Following this news, the price of Waitr shares fell 50% to close at $1.89 per share on August 9, 2019, a decline of nearly 75% from the Secondary Offering price and a decline of 86% from the stock's Class Period high.
The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com
SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP