The complaint charges defendants with violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint alleges that defendants issued materially false and misleading statements and failed to disclose material information to their shareholders regarding the spin-off of WCG from WMB, the accounting and financial impact of the contingent liabilities retained by WMB, and the nature of the assets and liabilities of WCG, causing the common stock of both companies to trade at artificially inflated prices.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all those who purchased WMB or WCG common stock during the Class Period, excluding defendants and their affiliates.
We are currently maintaining a database for those shareholders who have contacted us, and we will be using this database to contact you when the entire class needs to be notified of the developments in the case. If you wish to provide us with your full name and mailing address, please fill out your information on the contact us page. Please ensure that you include the name or ticker symbol of the company so we can add you to the correct database.

Update

On April 15, 2002, the Court consolidated 26 related cases against Williams and held off ruling on lead plaintiff(s).
On June 21, 2002, the Court consolidated 4 further cases and bifurcated the consolidated class action into two subclasses: (1) purchasers of Williams Companies, Inc. ("WMB") securities; and (2) purchasers of Williams Communications Group ("WCG") securities.
On July 8, 2002, the Court appointed Alex Meruelo as lead plaintiff for the WCG subclass and HGK Asset Management as lead plaintiff for the WMB subclass. The Court further ordered that lead counsel for the WCG subclass would be the firms Weiss & Yourman, Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, and Morrel West Saffa Craige & Hicks Inc., and lead counsel for the WMB class would be the firms of Schoengold & Sporn and the Seymour Law Firm. If you are member of the WMB subclass and would like more information about the case, please contact Schoengold & Sporn, (212) 964-0046, www.spornlaw.com.
On September 27, 2002, Mr. Meruelo filed a consolidated complaint on behalf of the entire WCG subclass.
On November 25, 2002, defendants (i) Williams Communications and its top officers/directors; (ii) the Williams Companies and its former CEO; and (iii) Ernst & Young, each filed separate motions to dismiss the consolidated complaint in this case. On February 21, 2003, Lead Plaintiff filed an opposition to each of their motions. On December 12, 2003, the Court submitted its ruling, denying the motions of WCG Defendants and Williams Defendants in full and granting the motion of Ernst & Young as to claims relating to Form 10-Qs, press releases and other public statements not attributable to E&Y, but denied as to remaining claims. In addition, the Court also granted in part and denied in part, defendants' motion to dismiss the WMB class complaint. Both orders are available for viewing below.
In addition, pursuant to the court's request, both sides submitted Proposed Findings of Fact and Law.