Court dismisses case against Seeking Alpha

The New York Supreme Court dismissed a company’s petition to compel financial news site Seeking Alpha to reveal the identity of a pseudonymous contributor who criticized the company and its management.

Eli Hoffmann, the editor in chief of Seeking Alpha, writes, “In February, SA Contributor Pump Terminator published the following article: NanoViricides: House Of Cards With -80% Downside, ‘Strong Sell’ Recommendation. Pump Terminator disclosed he was short NNVC, and that the article reflected his own opinion and that he wasn’t receiving compensation for publishing the article, in accordance with our editorial policy. Pump Terminator had much to say about NNVC and its management team; you can read his short case in the article linked above. You might have guessed that Pump Terminator isn’t the author’s real name. Seeking Alpha has always allowed and continues to allow contributors to use a pseudonym; I’ve written about that previously here.

“NanoViricides (NNVC), the subject of the article, was not happy. It petitioned the New York courts to compel Seeking Alpha to reveal the identity of Pump Terminator so that it could bring a libel claim against the author. NNVC alleged that the article, ‘contains defamatory statements about NNVC presented as fact and published for the sole purpose of destroying NNVC’s reputation and driving down its stock price.’ The details of NNVC’s claim, and the specific statements it claimed were defamatory, can be found in the court disposition linked above.

“Justice Cynthia Kern denied NNVC’s petition and granted our cross-motion to dismiss the petition.”

Read more here.