In a rare about-face for the cutthroat world of short-selling, CapitalWatch just issued a public apology and retracted key portions of its explosive report targeting AppLovin shareholder Hao Tang. The firm admitted its allegations linking Tang to criminal syndicates were flat-out wrong, marking an unusual retreat after the mobile advertising giant dispatched high-powered attorney Alex Spiro with a cease-and-desist demand. The reversal comes as AppLovin's stock continues its meteoric rise, having surged over 713% in 2024 alone.
AppLovin just scored a major win against its short-seller critics. CapitalWatch, the firm that published a scathing report last month alleging financial crimes by major shareholder Hao Tang, has now apologized and retracted the most explosive claims. It's a stunning reversal in an industry where admitting error is about as common as a unicorn sighting.
"Descriptions asserting direct connections between Mr. Tang and Chen Zhi, Prince Group, Jin Bei Group, Tang Jun, and Yang Zhihui were inaccurate and failed to meet our publication standards," CapitalWatch wrote in its Sunday apology on X. The firm added it would remove passages about Tang "to prevent the spread of misinformation and protect the legal rights of the parties involved."
The climbdown came two weeks after AppLovin unleashed Alex Spiro, the celebrity lawyer who also represents Elon Musk, with a cease-and-desist letter demanding CapitalWatch retract what it called a "defamatory and baseless" report. Spiro's involvement signaled AppLovin wasn't playing around. When you bring in the attorney who's defended Musk through everything from Twitter acquisition drama to SEC battles, you're sending a message.
What makes this retraction particularly striking is how aggressively CapitalWatch initially defended its work. After receiving Spiro's letter, the firm posted a claiming the "coverage reflects a rigorous six-month investigation supported by documentary materials and multiple sources." That confidence evaporated quickly once the legal pressure mounted.
