February 1, 2021 - An amended complaint was filed.

August 18, 2020 - An investor in shares of Genius Brands International, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNUS) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Genius Brands International, Inc. in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between March 17, 2020 and July 5, 2020.

Beverly Hills, CA based Genius Brands International, Inc., a content and brand management company, creates and licenses multimedia content for toddlers to tweens worldwide. Genius Brands International, Inc. reported that its annual Total Revenue declined from $993.45 million in 2018 to $5.9 million in 2019, and that its Net Loss increased from $9 million in 2018 to $11.48 million in 2019.

On June 5, 2020, a report was published a report entitled “A Bagholder’s Guide to Why We Think Genius Brands Will Be a $1.50 Stock Within a Month” (the “Hindenburg Report”). The Report questioned the Company’s actual value, noting that contrary to Genius’s representations, the Company’s highly-touted cartoon property “Rainbow Rangers” was airing only nine times per week, rather than 26 times as Genius had previously represented, and at unfavorable time slots.

On July 2, 2020, Genius Brands International, Inc. issued a press release touting the announcement of a purported “Key Business Development” on July 6, 2020.

However, the July 6, 2020 announcement merely touted the creation of a joint venture with POW! Entertainment regarding intellectual property that was created by Stan Lee after his time at Marvel Entertainment. Shares of Genius Brands International, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNUS) declined from as high as $11.73 per share on June 4, 2020, to as low as $1.08 per share on August 25, 2020.

According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges on behalf of purchasers of Genius Brands International, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNUS) common shares between March 17, 2020 and July 5, 2020, that the defendants violated Federal Securities Laws.

More specifically, the plaintiff claims that the Defendants violated provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making false and misleading statements concerning Genius’s Rainbow Rangers intellectual property, the Kartoon Channel! app that Genius launched in June of 2020, as well as its joint venture relating to intellectual property associated with Marvel creator Stan Lee.