The Second Circuit ordered Getty Images to pay nearly $88 million to investors by preventing those investors from exercising Getty public warrants, consistent with Coherent Economics affiliate Allen Ferrell’s damages analysis. A Coherent Economics team led by Laurel Van Allen provided consulting support and expertise on this project.
The Court held that Getty Images improperly prohibited the investors’ warrant redemption in breach of their contract, awarding damages payments to the plaintiffs, CRCM and Alta, of $50.9 million and $36.9 million, respectively.
The investors bought warrants in Getty’s predecessor company, the SPAC CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II, allowing them to exercise shares at $11.50 within 30 days of its merger. However, a month after Getty went public via SPAC in July of 2022, Getty blocked the investors’ attempt to exercise their warrants, claiming that a second registration statement needed to first be in effect. During the delay, Getty’s stock price plunged from $29 per share to $8.49 per share, well below the $11.50 warrant price.
Coherent Economics was retained by plaintiff CRCM Institutional Master Fund and CRCM SPAC Opportunity Fund (collectively, “CRCM”) to calculate damages arising from Getty’s breach. Working with Professor Allen Ferrell, the Greenfield Professor of Securities Law at Harvard Law School, the Coherent team considered several different measures of damages based on the fair market value of Getty’s common stock, including the average between the daily low and high trading prices implying losses of $51 million. Getty’s expert offered a theory that Getty’s stock price was inflated based on “rumors” of a short squeeze, which the Second Circuit rejected. Instead, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s valuation based on Getty’s trading price, concluding that “any remaining speculation about the existence of a short squeeze or the value of the stock absent a short squeeze was irrelevant and therefore immaterial,” in line with CRCM and its co-plaintiffs-appellee’s position.
“We conclude that [the investors] carried their burden at summary judgment by establishing the amount of damages with reasonable certainty at the time of breach and Getty failed to identify any genuine issue of material fact.” Alta Partners, LLC v. Getty Images Holdings, Inc., 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 1090, *33 (2nd Cir.).
Coherent worked closely with counsel for CRCM, including Michael Rakower, Travis Mock, and Melissa Yang of Rakower Law; Brian Hail from Crowell & Moring; Jay Mandel, Kelly Spatola, and Danielle Rose of Kobre Kim; and William Savitt, Adam Gogolak, and Nate Cullerton of Wachtell Lipton. The Coherent team was led by President Laurel Van Allen and included team members Ian Day, Derrick Ding, Kiri Boung, Zach Stephens, and others.
Additionally, this holding is consistent with Berner v. Getty Images Holdings, 794 F. Supp. 3d 189, (S.D.N.Y. 2025) involving nearly identical facts and two additional investors, where the Court endorsed President Laurel Van Allen’s analysis and adopted her damages methodology “in full,” awarding $6.2 million in damages plus prejudgment interest.
Related Summary Judgement Win: Read more about this case here.