Item 8.01 Other Events
Settlement of Derivative Lawsuit
Aterian, Inc. (the "Company") is filing this Current Report on Form 8-K to
provide an update on the proposed settlement of the previously disclosed
shareholder derivative action, captioned Zhang v. Aterian, Inc., et al.On
October 21 and 25, 2021, and November 10, 2021, three shareholder derivative
actions were filed on behalf of Aterian by Shaoxuan Zhang, Michael Sheller, and
Tyler Magnus (the "Plaintiffs") in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York (the "Court"). These actions, naming current and former
directors and officers of the Company as defendants, and Aterian as a nominal
defendant, asserted that the individual defendants breached their fiduciary
duties and violated federal securities laws, among other claims. (These actions
were predicated on substantively the same factual allegations made in the
previously disclosed putative securities action consolidated under the caption
Tate v. Aterian, Inc., et. al., 21-cv-04323-VM (the "Securities Action").) By
Order dated November 16, 2021, the three cases were consolidated into a single
action docketed under the Zhang case number (the "Derivative Action").
All defendants vehemently deny and continue to deny each of the claims and
allegations of wrongdoing made in the Derivative Action (and in the Securities
Action).
As previously disclosed, on September 12, 2022, the Court entered a final
judgment approving a settlement in the Securities Action and, on December 12,
2022, the parties reached an agreement and entered into a Stipulation and
Agreement of Settlement (the "Stipulation") to resolve the Derivative Action.
Under the Stipulation, the Company agreed to adopt certain corporate governance
reforms, the terms of which are outlined in Exhibit A to the Stipulation, and a
payment of the Plaintiffs' attorneys' fees and expenses of $250,000. The
proposed settlement was preliminarily approved by the Court on December 29,
2022, and a hearing to determine whether the Court should give final approval to
the settlement has been scheduled for March 17, 2023, at 11:00 a.m.
As ordered by the Court, the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement and all
exhibits thereto, as well as the Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of
Stockholder Derivative Action, are attached as Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 to this
Current Report on Form 8-K. Additionally, the Stipulation and all exhibits are
also available on the Company's Investor Relations website at
https://ir.aterian.io/.
Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(d) Exhibits
Number Description
99.1 Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement
99.2
Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of Stockholder
Derivative Action
104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL)
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