Acuity Execs Hid Market Share Decline From Investors, Suit Says (1)

Three former Acuity Brands Inc.'s executives allegedly misled investors about the lighting technology company’s eroding market share and propped up share prices while they sold more than $49 million in stock holdings, a Michigan pension fund said in a new lawsuit.

The Atlanta-based company’s executives breached their fiduciary duties by hiding how significantly foreign electronics and lighting providers had taken Acuity’s market share, claimed the suit, filed by the City of St. Clair Shores Police and Fire Retirement System and shareholder Stephen Davis Oct. 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Its financial woes were ...