C3.ai CEO Calls Short-Seller Report ‘Stock Price Manipulation’

C3.ai Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tom Siebel said the short-seller letter from Kerrisdale Capital that caused his company’s shares to plummet 38% the past two days was stock price manipulation.

The letter contained “not a word of truth,” Siebel said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Radio. “It was a very creative, very successful attempt at what appears to be successful stock price manipulation.”

Kerrisdale on Tuesday alleged C3.ai engaged in “aggressive accounting to inflate its income statement.” The software company had benefited from a recent spike in investor interest in artificial intelligence, and the stock had more than doubled ...