SEC Charges App Annie and its Founder with Securities Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that App Annie Inc., a leading alternative data provider for the mobile app industry, and its co-founder and former CEO and Chairman Bertrand Schmitt, have agreed to settle securities fraud charges for engaging in deceptive practices and making material misrepresentations about how App Annie's alternative data was derived. App Annie and Schmitt have agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle the matter, which is the SEC's first enforcement action charging an alternative data provider with securities fraud. According to the SEC's order, App Annie is one of the largest sellers of market data on mobile app performance, including estimates on the number of times a particular company's app is downloaded, how often it's used, and the amount of revenue the app generates for the company.