A third short seller report has sent AppLovin’s share price tumbling – and once again CEO Adam Foroughi has been forced to address the claims on the company blog.
The fresh short seller claims come from Muddy Waters Research, which released a 50-page report which casts doubt on AppLovin’s move into ecommerce and also claims that the business is “Built on Systematically Violating Third Party Platforms’ TOS”.
AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi was moved to respond again, after its share price fell from ~$311 to close out the trading day at $262.
“Our business is technical, and we get it – it’s not always easy to understand,” said Foroughi in the blog. “It’s also incredibly hard for some who don’t understand this technology to fathom that we are building the world’s best advertising AI model, so they need a simple narrative that we’re violating policies in order to comprehend our success.”
“This complexity leaves room for short reports to stir fear and doubt. To investors, I’d say: dig deeper. Given the AI tools available today, it’s easy to discredit a short report like this in minutes.”
Later in the blog, Foroughi fed Muddy Waters’ claims into Grok3 and published the results. He also countered Muddy Waters’ claims that AppLovin’s tech is easy to replicate, and playing fast and loose with platform regulations.
“The report takes aim at our pixel, implying that it’s some outlier in the industry,” he said. “Let’s set the record straight: our pixel functionality is standard, and we collect the same user behavior as Facebook, Google, and others.”
Later, he added: “Despite competitors having decades of head starts, no one has matched our speed or scale. What we’ve built takes relentless focus and a commitment to innovation, which is why we remain the best in the industry.”
