MultiPlan Corporation

On November 11, 2020, Muddy Waters Research issued a report titled “MultiPlan: Private Equity Necrophilia Meets The Great 2020 Money Grab,” alleging, among other things that Multiplan is “in financial decline, and its financial statements were engineered to obscure this existing deterioration.” It further stated that the Company “is in the process of losing its largest client, UnitedHealthcare,” which “has formed a competitor to MultiPlan that offers significantly lower prices and fewer conflicts of interest.”

On this news, the Company’s stock price fell $1.72 per share, or approximately 20%, to close at $7.01 per share on November 11, 2020.

The complaint filed alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that MultiPlan was losing tens of millions of dollars in sales and revenues to Naviguard, a competitor created by one of MultiPlan’s largest customers, UnitedHealthcare, which threatened up to 35% of MultiPlan’s sales and 80% of its levered cash flows by 2022; (2) that sales and revenue declines in the quarters leading up to the Merger were not due to “idiosyncratic” customer behaviors as represented, but rather due to a fundamental deterioration in demand for MultiPlan’s services and increased competition, as payors developed competing services and sought alternatives to eliminating excessive healthcare costs; (3) that MultiPlan was facing significant pricing pressures for its services and had been forced to materially reduce its take rate in the lead up to the Merger by insurers, who had expressed dissatisfaction with the price and quality of MultiPlan’s services and balanced billing practices, causing MultiPlan to cut its take rate by up to half in some cases; (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, MultiPlan was set to continue to suffer from revenues and earnings declines, increased competition and deteriorating pricing dynamics following the Merger; (5) that, as a result of the foregoing, MultiPlan was forced to seek continued revenue growth and to improve its competitive positioning through pricey acquisitions, including through the purchase of the healthcare technology company HST for $140 million at a premium price from a former MultiPlan executive only one month after the Merger; and (6) that, as a result of the foregoing, Churchill III investors had grossly overpaid for the acquisition of MultiPlan in the Merger, and MultiPlan’s business was worth far less than represented to investors.