Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (“Robbins Geller”) (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/advisoryboard/) today announced that a class action has been commenced by an institutional investor on behalf of purchasers of The Advisory Board Company (“Advisory Board”) (NASDAQ:ABCO) common stock during the period between January 21, 2015 and February 23, 2016 (the “Class Period”). This action was filed in the Southern District of New York and is captioned Monroe County Employees’ Retirement System v. The Advisory Board Company, et al., No. 17-5886.

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@rgrdlaw.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/advisoryboard/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.

The complaint charges Advisory Board and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Advisory Board is a provider of software and solutions to the higher education and healthcare industries. On January 9, 2015, Advisory Board completed the acquisition of Royall & Company (“Royall”), described as the higher-education leader in strategic, data-driven student engagement and enrollment management solutions, financial aid optimization, and alumni fundraising.

The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse information regarding Advisory Board’s business and operations, including that there were severe integration problems associated with Advisory Board’s acquisition of Royall and, as a consequence of these integration problems, defendants had no basis to increase the revenue guidance for Royall during the Class Period. As a result of defendants’ false statements and/or omissions, Advisory Board common stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period.

Then, on February 23, 2016, Advisory Board disclosed the extent of the problems with Royall. On that date, the Company announced a net loss of $101.8 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2015, compared to a net loss of $5.4 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. According to the Company, the increase in net loss was primarily attributable to an impairment charge of $95.7 million (subsequently increased to $99.1 million) to Royall’s goodwill, due to Royall’s “first year performance being below the expectations we had set as of the acquisition date.” Indeed, Royall produced only $118 million in revenue in 2015, compared to defendants’ guidance of $125 million to $130 million. In response to this news, the price of Advisory Board common stock fell approximately 27%, from $36.29 per share on February 23, 2016, to close at $26.50 per share the next day, on extremely high volume of 8.4 million shares.

Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Advisory Board common stock during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud.

Robbins Geller is widely recognized as a leading law firm advising and representing U.S. and international investors in securities litigation and portfolio monitoring. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For the third consecutive year, the Firm ranked first in both the total amount recovered for investors and the number of shareholder class action recoveries in ISS's SCAS Top 50 Report. Robbins Geller attorneys have shaped the law in the areas of securities litigation and shareholder rights and have recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of the Firm’s clients. Robbins Geller not only secures recoveries for defrauded investors, it also implements significant corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/rgrdlaw
https://twitter.com/rgrdlaw
https://www.facebook.com/rgrdlaw
https://plus.google.com/+Rgrdlaw/posts