Sirota & Sirota and Lovell & Stewart Announce Securities Fraud Class Action Against Autoweb.com, Inc., Its CEO, Founders, Directors, Investment Banks

    NEW YORK, April 23 The law firms
of Sirota & Sirota, LLP ((212) 425-9055 or http://www.sirotalaw.com) and
Lovell & Stewart, LLP ((212) 608-1900 or http://www.lovellstewart.com) filed a
class action lawsuit on April 20, 2001 on behalf of all persons and entities
who purchased, converted, exchanged or otherwise acquired the common stock of
Autoweb.com, Inc. between March 22, 1999 and April 18, 2001,
inclusive.  The lawsuit asserts claims under Sections 11, 12 and 15 of the
Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated by the SEC thereunder and seeks to
recover damages.   If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the
Court no later than June 22, 2001.
    The action, Michael McKay v. Autoweb.com, Inc., et al., is pending in the
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (500 Pearl Street,
New York, New York), Docket No. 01-CV-3360 (GBD) and has been assigned to the
Hon. George B. Daniels, U.S. District Judge.  The complaint alleges that
Autoweb.com, Inc., Dean A. DeBiase, its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Farhang Zamani and Payam Zamani, its founders, and Directors Mark N. Diker,
Jay C. Hoag, Mark R. Ross and Peter S. Sealey violated the federal securities
laws by issuing and selling Autoweb.com common stock pursuant to the March 22,
1999 IPO without disclosing to investors that some of the underwriters in the
offering, including the lead underwriters, had solicited and received
excessive and undisclosed commissions from certain investors.
    In exchange for the excessive commissions, the complaint alleges, lead
underwriters Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation and BancBoston Robertson
Stephens, Inc., together with underwriters Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.,
Incorporated and Salomon Smith Barney, Inc. allocated Autoweb.com shares to
customers at the IPO price of $14.00 per share.  To receive the allocations
(i.e., the ability to purchase shares) at $14.00, the underwriters' brokerage
customers had to agree to purchase additional shares in the aftermarket at
progressively higher prices.  The requirement that customers make additional
purchases at progressively higher prices as the price of Autoweb.com stock
rocketed upward (a practice known on Wall Street as "laddering") was intended
to (and did) drive Autoweb.com's share price up to artificially high levels.
This artificial price inflation, the complaint alleges, enabled both the
underwriters and their customers to reap enormous profits by buying stock at
the $14.00 IPO price and then selling it later for a profit at inflated
aftermarket prices, which rose as high as $41.00 during its first day of
trading.
    Rather than allowing their customers to keep their profits from the IPO,
the complaint alleges, the underwriters required their customers to "kick
back" some of their profits in the form of secret commissions.  These secret
commission payments were sometimes calculated after the fact based on how much
profit each investor had made from his or her IPO stock allocation.
    The complaint further alleges that defendants violated the Securities Act
of 1933 because the Prospectus distributed to investors and the Registration
Statement filed with the SEC in order to gain regulatory approval for the
Autoweb.com offering contained material misstatements regarding the
commissions that the underwriters would derive from the IPO transaction and
failed to disclose the additional commissions and "laddering" scheme discussed
above.
    Christopher Lovell, the senior partner at Lovell & Stewart, has been
appointed lead counsel or co-lead counsel in numerous significant class
actions, including actions involving reportedly the largest class action
recoveries in history under three separate federal statutes (the Sherman
Antitrust Act, the Commodity Exchange Act, and the Investment Company Act of
1940).  These record-breaking recoveries for class plaintiffs included the
$1.027 billion recovery in In re: NASDAQ Market-Makers Antitrust Litigation
and a $145.35 million recovery in 1999 in In re: Sumitomo Copper Litigation, a
class action against various parties who conspired to manipulate the worldwide
copper and copper futures markets for their own profit.
    Howard Sirota and the Sirota & Sirota firm have taken leadership roles in
numerous high-profile and legally significant cases, including serving as
Chairman of the Executive Committee of plaintiffs' attorneys in the landmark
In re: Crazy Eddie Securities Litigation case ($93 million recovery for class,
with additional payments from defendants expected in the future) and serving
as a member of the Executive Committee in In re: Structural Dynamics Research
Corporation ($37.5 million recovery).
    Investors who purchased Autoweb.com common stock during the period March
22, 1999 through April 18, 2001 may contact Sirota & Sirota or Lovell &
Stewart at the telephone numbers, addresses or E-mail addresses below for more
information regarding the class action lawsuit.  Investors can also visit
Sirota & Sirota's website at http://www.sirotalaw.com or Lovell & Stewart's
website at http://www.lovellstewart.com to view a copy of the complaint.


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