New York (HedgeCo.Net) – David Einhorn, the founder of hedge fund Greenlight Capital is going after anonymous blogger “Valuable Insights” who posts on the financial website ValueWalk.
Einhorn filed a lawsuit seeking to identify the financial blogger in order to sue him or her. The hedge fund had wanted to keep its trades confidential so no one else would buy the sought-after stock, apparently blogging about it rose the stock price, frustrating and angering the hedge fund giant.
ValueWalk reports that: Sometime prior to 9:32 AM on November 14, 2013, Valuable Insights posted “Expect one mega hedge fund rock star to show up as [Micron] holder today, not Ackman, Icahn or Loeb . . . .” Valuable Insights then followed up that post by giving hints to other users of Seeking Alpha. First, he or she posted “Hint…this hedge fund has experience in consolidating (oligopoly) tech industries….” He or she continued: “Hint…would not mention if fund added more than 2 or 3 positions a quarter….” At or around 9:32 AM, after the original and follow-up messages had been posted by Valuable Insights, Seeking Alpha user “Dr. Joseph Haluska” suggested “Einhorn”, referring to Greenlight’s President and co-founder, David Einhorn. Valuable Insights responded at 10:15 AM, confirming that Greenlight was the Micron shareholder referred to in its earlier posts with the statement: “The Dr. is in…you heard it here first.”
Greenlight had wanted to keep the investment in Micron confidential until Nov. 21st, according to the NYT. Seeking Alpha has refused to voluntarily reveal the name of the unidentified blogger.
“There is a serious First Amendment issue here,” Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer with Cahill Gordon & Reindel said to the NYT. “He will have a pretty tough job persuading a judge.”
Greenlight alleges that the blogger “wrongfully disclosed and misappropriated valuable trade secrets,” “breached confidentiality obligations owed to Greenlight, and / or “aided and abetted the breach of such confidentiality obligations.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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