On September 23, AppLovin Corporation fell 3.45% in pre-market trading, trading at approximately $317.00 per share, with turnover of $2.348 million. The decline follows a coordinated short-selling assault by two research firms targeting the company's core business practices.

On the news front, short-seller Fuzzy Panda Research and Culper Research simultaneously published bearish reports against AppLovin. Fuzzy Panda alleged that AppLovin stole data from Meta, claiming that so-called \"dark advertising\" practices were the true driver behind the company's rapid growth. Culper Research accused AppLovin of exploiting app permissions to silently force-install backdoor applications on users' phones via advertisements. The stock reportedly plunged as much as 20% during the prior session on the initial impact of these reports.

The short-selling reports come at a sensitive time for AppLovin, which had been attempting to stabilize sentiment after its Q2 revenue of $1.92 billion missed expectations, triggering a wave of target price cuts from major institutions including Morgan Stanley (to $450 from $650), Evercore ISI (to $510 from $630), and Loop Capital (to $600 from $860). BofA Securities also downgraded the stock to neutral, citing insufficient evidence for the company's 30% long-term growth target.

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