b'also included significant stock sales, former employeesIn re Alphabet, Inc. Securities Litigation, allegations that defendants were aware of or recklesslyCase No. 18-cv-06245-JSW, 2020 WL disregarded the fact that Stamps reseller business2564635 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 5, 2020)practices were unsustainable, and allegations thatGoogle+ Data Breach defendants lied about the reason for the termination of Stamps.coms relationship with USPS. Alphabet, Inc., the parent company of Google, is a Finally, the court held that plaintiff sufficiently allegedmultinational technology conglomerate comprised of that defendants misstatements (regarding the strengthseveral former Google subsidiaries. Among its products of its relationship with USPS and USPSs approval ofare web-browser Google, webmail Gmail, and the now Stamps reseller products), as opposed to some otherdefunct social media platform Google+. In March 2018, fact, foreseeably caused the plaintiffs loss. It noted thatGoogle discovered a software glitch in the application other reasons offered by defendants for the stock priceprogramming interface in Google+ which exposed drops were factual disputes better suited for a laterhundreds of thousands of users personal data, which stage in the case. it promptly remedied, but did not disclose the breach Defendants filed their answer on January 31, 2020.at that time. Meanwhile, in its April and July 2018 Form On June 22, 2020, defendants filed a Motion for10-Qs, it stated that there were no changes to its prior Clarification asking the court to specify which allegedrisk factors. Such risk factors included warnings that statements remained actionable. On July 14, 2020, theprivacy concerns could cause reputational damage court issued an order addressing defendants motion,and deter users, that breaches of Alphabets security and dispensing with two disputed statements as nomeasures could cause significant legal and financial longer actionable. The remaining seven statements,exposure, and that any compromise of security that however, remain, as these statements could representresults in the release of users data could seriously that that [sic] Stamps had a strong partnership with theharm the business. On October 8, 2018, the Wall USPS or that the USPS fully approved Stamps use ofStreet Journal reported on the software glitch and the reseller program. The court certified the class ondata breach. Citing an internal Google memorandum, November 9, 2020. Fact discovery is set to close onthe Wall Street Journal stated that Google had not May 7, 2021, expert discovery is set to close on July 16,disclosed the data breach in part because of concerns 2021, dispositive motions and Daubert motions are dueabout drawing regulatory scrutiny and suffering by July 23, 2021, and trial is set for March 1, 2022. reputational damage. Later that day, Google issued a blog post conceding that it discovered and remediated the bug in March 2018. Subsequently, Googles stock price declined by nearly 6%. Thereafter, Google announced plans to shut down Google+.14'