Judge Dismisses Suits Against Morgan Stanley, Net Analyst

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. Internet analyst Mary Meeker and the brokerage Tuesday won dismissal of several shareholder lawsuits alleging she gave biased advice on a number of stocks.

A federal judge called the complaints “an entangled mass of verbiage” filled with “market gossip.”

The six suits, filed Aug. 1 in Manhattan federal court by investors in EBay, AOL Time Warner and Amazon.com, accused Meeker of offering tainted, overly optimistic research as a way to secure lucrative investment banking business for Morgan Stanley.

The complaints are part of a major backlash against Wall Street analysts in the wake of the plunge in technology stocks since 1999.

But U.S. District Judge Milton Pollack dismissed the suits, condemning the language in the pleadings as “gross and unrestrained.”

“A collection of market gossip pervades the endless stream of news organization tidbits which are spread throughout,” Pollack wrote. “A defendant facing this kind of a complaint is forced to select the relevant material from an entangled mass of verbiage.”

Pollack said the investors can refile the suits “to refine their pleadings to proper allegations.”

Fred Isquith, the lawyer who filed the complaints, said, “It would appear from this opinion the judge doesn’t think much of lawyers, but on reflection I guess he doesn’t think much of the press.”

Isquith said he would confer with co-counsel before deciding whether to refile the suits.

Morgan Stanley officials had no comment. Meeker is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

In the suits, Meeker was dubbed the Internet Queen and was attacked for ties to the Internet industry. Her attendance at a cocktail party with Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos was offered as evidence.