Yonaton Aronoff Quoted in New York Times Article Regarding the Firm’s Buzzfeed Arbitration

April 25, 2022

The New York Times quoted Yonaton Aronoff in an article covering attempts by Buzzfeed (NASDAQ: BZFD) to block arbitration claims from 90 current and former Buzzfeed employees in connection to losses they allege to have sustained from the company’s initial public offering on Dec. 6. Aronoff, Jonathan Harris and Joseph Gallagher represent 42 of the employees.

Aronoff told the New York Times that Buzzfeed was doing “everything it can to avoid responsibility for what transpired” during its IPO in December 2021 in attempting to move the arbitration claims into court.

“Despite forcing its former employees to agree to adhesive arbitration provisions as a condition to their employment,” Aronoff said, “BuzzFeed first sought to avoid paying its fair share of the arbitration fees, and now seeks to avoid the arbitration altogether.”

The firm’s demand for arbitration, filed on March 15, alleges that BuzzFeed improperly instructed its employees on how to sell their shares at the time of the company’s IPO, denying them the opportunity to attain profits they would have realized before a notable drop in share prices. It alleges that the named employees, who held 400,000 cumulative shares of BuzzFeed stock, could not sell their shares until several days after BuzzFeed’s IPO. BuzzFeed shares had lost 60% of their opening-day value by that time. The demand additionally claims that some employees still cannot sell their shares. It seeks $4.6 million in compensatory damages for the employees.