Zeta Global’s stock price jumped 15% yesterday as the company issued a detailed rebuttal to a report critical of its financial practices. Shares closed at $25.4 Wednesday after opening at $22.
Last week, short-seller Culper Research issued a report alleging the AI marketing cloud company “formed ‘two-way’ contracts with third-party consent farms wherein the Company simultaneously acts as both a supplier and a buyer of consumer data, not only allowing the Company to flatter reported revenue growth, but raising round tripping concerns.”
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Round tripping is when a company sells an unused asset to another company while agreeing to buy back it or similar assets at about the same price.
In yesterday’s response, Zeta stressed that its financial statements are complete, accurate and reviewed by its external auditing firm. The company refuted claims of “consent farms” and clarified round-tripping concerns.
Culper Research is owned by Christian Lamarco, who is known for short-selling stocks and may profit from a drop in Zeta’s stock price. A disclaimer for the report on Zeta states, “You should assume that Culper…has a position in any securities covered herein.“
About the author
Constantine von Hoffman is managing editor of MarTech. A veteran journalist, Con has covered business, finance, marketing and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been city editor of the Boston Herald, news producer at NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and many other publications. He has also been a professional stand-up comedian, given talks at anime and gaming conventions on everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the history of dice and boardgames, and is author of the magical realist novel John Henry the Revelator. He lives in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either too many or too few dogs.