By Staff Writer
NBC Bay Area reporter Scott Budman returned to the San Jose courthouse on Monday to continue his extensive and in-depth coverage of the Elizabeth Holmes trial, which was back in session following a week of setbacks.
Houston investor Alan Eisenmen, who along with his family, invested almost $1.2 million in Theranos in 2006, and an additional $100,000 in 2013, took the stand to testify that he repeatedly requested more information from Theranos than what they were sharing with investors as a whole.
According to Eisenman, he initially invested in Theranos at $3 per share, saw their value soar as high as $75 at one point, but chose to not cash in, leaving $30 million on the table. Partly, he said, because Elizabeth Holmes talked about an IPO in the future, and partly he said, because he was unable to reach company officials when he had questions.
Esquire Digital’s chief legal analyst, Aron Solomon joined Budman, saying, “A lot of start-up investors are bullies, who don’t think the rules apply to them. And a lot of start-up founders are terrible at communicating with their investors and those are the two things we saw with Mr. Eisenman on the stand today.”
Ultimately, as Theranos shut its doors and went out of business, those shares were, to quote Eisenman’s angry testimony, ‘worth zero.’
Solomon continued, “What happened here was a feeding frenzy on the idea that such a revolutionary blood technology could change the game for the investors.”
Budman added, “A feeding frenzy that led Eisenman to reach out to both the Theranos executive team and to the prosecution. Each of which rebuffed him, telling him it was inappropriate to make contact.”
Watch the full report below:
A Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, Aron Solomon, JD, is the Chief Strategy Officer for AMPLIFY. He has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was elected to Fastcase 50, recognizing the top 50 legal innovators in the world. Aron has been featured in Newsweek, The Hill, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, CBS News, CNBC, USA Today, ESPN, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, Venture Beat, The Independent, Fortune China, Abogados, Today’s Esquire, Yahoo!, ABA Journal, Law.com, The Boston Globe, and many other leading publications across the globe.
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