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It’s the particular objective acquisition craze assembly the GameStop madness.
On Thursday, Hindenburg Analysis, the short-selling agency identified for flagging points with electrical automotive firm Nikola final yr, launched a report concentrating on Chamath Palihapitiya-backed Clover Health and known as it a “damaged enterprise.”
The insurance coverage startup agreed to go public through merger with Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia III in October. “This is without doubt one of the most easy investments I’ve ever made,” Palihapitiya said at the time of the announcement.
However on Thursday, Hindenburg Analysis’s report argued Clover Well being was not so straightforward: Amongst different points, the short-activist group accused the corporate of fueling gross sales utilizing deceptive advertising and marketing to aged individuals and alleged that Clover didn’t disclose a Division of Justice investigation into the corporate’s gross sales practices.
Clover Well being hit again at Hindenburg in a lengthy post Friday, accusing the quick vendor of “sweeping inaccuracies and gross mischaracterizations.” Whereas the DoJ had submitted inquiries to the corporate, Clover Well being downplayed the difficulty, characterizing it as a daily incidence within the trade that it didn’t contemplate materials to its buyers.
However because the launch of Hindenburg’s report, Clover Well being has obtained a discover of investigation from the Securities and Alternate Fee, the corporate revealed too. Shares of Clover Well being have been down 13% Friday.
Right here’s the large shock about Hindenburg’s report: Whereas quick sellers usually launch such papers alongside a guess towards the corporate, Hindenburg has no place within the firm. Lengthy or quick. As an alternative, the report appears to handle the latest flare-up in criticism towards quick sellers, despite the fact that Hindenburg says it started trying into the enterprise some 4 months in the past: “We predict on this second for public markets, it’s extra vital for individuals to grasp the function quick sellers play in exposing fraud and company malfeasance.”
As buyers flooded into GameStop shares final week, quick sellers have been heavily targeted by retail merchants. Palihapitiya in the meantime positioned himself on the facet of the retail merchants in a lot of the saga.
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As a sneak peek, some 62% of you say you made extra in private revenue in 2020 than in 2019.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
E mail: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
