Wilmington, DE – Two groups of shareholders have filed competing pitches for the lead plaintiff role in a consolidated class suit seeking damages from World Wrestling Entertainment founder Vincent McMahon and others in connection with WWE’s $21 billion merger with Endeavor Group, both arguing they have most successfully pursued the suit’s claims.
Individual shareholder Dennis Palkon and the Laborers’ District Council and Contractors’ Pension Fund of Ohio filed a motion on Thursday to co-lead the suit. They are represented by Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP and Block & Leviton LLP, who seek an appointment as co-counsel.
A competing motion was filed by City of Pontiac Reestablished General Employees’ Retirement System, which was accompanied by a co-lead counsel bid by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP and Prickett Jones & Elliott PA.
The consolidated suit is the result of merged litigation filed by the three parties pursuing lead counsel appointment.
Palkon and the Ohio Laborers say in their lead plaintiff bid that they began their investigations on behalf of the WWE’s stockholders shortly after the merger. They claim that the Pontiac retirement system previously “caused unwarranted delay” in the suit by requesting unnecessary documents and then filed a plenary complaint against the WWE with additional claims.