Hagens Berman Advises Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) Investors of May 6, 2016 Lead Plaintiff Deadline in a Newly Filed Class Action

SAN FRANCISCO, April 04, 2016 -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a national investor-rights law firm announces the filing of a securities fraud class action lawsuit against Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE:WPZ) regarding misleading statements to its investors about an acquisition of WPZ by The Williams Companies and alerts WPZ investors of the May 6, 2016 lead plaintiff deadline.

If you suffered significant losses because of your purchases of WPZ between May 13, 2015 and June 19, 2015, or have information that will help our investigation contact Hagens Berman Partner Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firm’s investigation by calling 510-725-3000, emailing [email protected] or visiting https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/WPZ. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and investors have until May 6, 2016 to move the court to participate as a lead plaintiff.

On May 13, 2015, WPZ and The Williams Companies, Inc. (“WMB”) jointly announced that an agreement had been executed to merge the two entities.  The agreement provided that WMB would acquire all publicly-held WPZ common units at a 1.115 ratio of WMB common share per WPZ common unit.  In response to this news, the price of WPZ common units rose 22.7% that day.

However, as alleged in the complaint, Defendants failed to disclose to WPZ investors that before and after the May 13, 2015 merger announcement, WMB was negotiating to sell itself to Energy Transfer Equity (“ETE”).  On June 19, 2015, ETE submitted its written offer to acquire WMB for an implied price of $64.00 per WMB common share and was conditioned on terminating the WPZ/WMB merger agreement.  On June 22, 2015, ETE publicly announced its offer, including the requirement that WMB terminate the WPZ/WMB merger agreement.  In response to this news, the price of WPZ common units fell 7.6% while the price of WMB common stock rose nearly 26% that day.

The complaint also alleges that Defendants’ false and misleading statements and knowing failures to disclose ETE’s interest in WMB to WPZ investors when the WPZ/WMB merger agreement was announced on May 13, 2015 artificially inflated the price for WPZ common units at all relevant times.

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Williams Partners should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new SEC whistleblower program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 510-725-3000 or email [email protected].

Contact:
Reed Kathrein, 510-725-3000