It had to happen: after its shares went into near free-fall following poor second quarter numbers (CI No 3,115), Oracle Corp has been slapped with an inevitable class action suit which charges the company, including the COO and CFO, with misrepresentation. It says Oracle effectively pointed to growth in database and applications business that wasn’t there and swept poor first quarter results under the carpet as an aberration. It claims five insiders sold stock before news of the rotten second quarter numbers was made public and that they pocketed over $28m in illegal insider trading proceeds. COO Ray Lane is said to have sold stock worth over $7m.
