ADVO may have concealed business deficiencies to artificially inflate its stock price in hopes of a merger.

This is a securities fraud class action against ADVO Inc. and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

ADVO is a direct mail media company that engages in soliciting and processing printed advertising from retailers, manufacturers, and service companies in the United States and Canada. The class action complaint alleges that during the Class Period, ADVO issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the ADVO's business and financial results, concealing material adverse problems in ADVO's long-term financial health and intrinsic value. ADVO concealed this information in order to accomplish a merger which ADVO had entered into with Valassis Communications, Inc., to create the largest integrated media services provider in the nation.

Valassis was acquiring all of ADVO's outstanding common stock in an all cash transaction. As a result of defendants' false statements, investors believed the acquisition would occur, causing ADVO's stock to trade at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, reaching a high of $36.80 per share in August 2006. Then, on August 30, 2006, Valassis announced that it had filed an action to rescind its merger agreement with ADVO. On this news, the Company's shares fell to $28.59 per share. According to the complaint, to accomplish the merger, ADVO officers and employees concealed material information, including that: (a) its business had deteriorated so badly that it would never be replaced; (b) its financial internal controls were woefully inadequate; and (c) its business was not as nearly successful as the market and Valassis had been led to believe.