Stake in Trustpilot Group Plc, the Danish-founded online review site listed on the London Stock Exchange, fell the most in a single day in its history, at over 30% after being attacked by activist short-seller Grizzly Research with a scathing report. The extortion claims of a mafia nature have caused ripples throughout the FTSE 250, destroying close to PS243 million of market value and casting deep doubts on the authenticity of the consumer review systems.

Grizzly Research Levels Grave Accusations

A scathing report by Grizzly Research launched the Trustpilot Mafia, revealing that it was shorting the company and alleging that the company was systematically developing fraudulent accounts to spam non-paying enterprises with negative feedback.

This strategy, the firm asserts, coerces businesses into having to subscribe to high-end services, whereby they would arguably be able to control their brands better. The report states that a business that does not subscribe to anything tends to attract a rating that is lower than 2 out of 5 stars, and then it may drastically go above the 4 stars in business when it subscribes.

The research conducted by Grizzly, which reviewed the profiles of thousands of people and interviewed former employees, creates a picture of a predatory business model. The short-seller claims that Trustpilo, under CEO Adrian Blair – who assumed the position of CEO in 2023 – has not been growing with any authentic innovation but through coercive marketing, which has destroyed consumer confidence.

Grizzly believes revenue increased 18% in that year and about 20% in 2024, though at the expense of hiding further underlying problems, including anyone, including regulators, was misled by artificial review scores.

The immediate panic sale occurred as a result of the release of the report on Thursday morning. Towards midday, Trustpilot saw its shares fall by a fifth, plummeting to 131.2 pence, the lowest intra-day price since December 2023. The volume of trading increased to more than 11 million shares, whereas the three-month average is 2.5 million, as the institutional investors scurried to the trading house in order to review their exposure.

Trustpilot Fight-back with Stinging Rejection

Trustpilot did not take long to deny the allegations, publishing a blunt statement towards the end of the afternoon. The company mentioned that the report prepared by Grizzly is selective, misleading, and is framed in such a way that it supports a predetermined narrative, which it claims lacks critical context and shows a basic lack of comprehension of its operations. In the statement, it was declared that they denied such charges. We offer a platform that is based on transparency and user-generated content with strong moderation rules to achieve authenticity.

Executives highlighted that every review is verified, and premium subscriptions provide to manage the genuine reputation and not manipulate the rating. Trustpilot pointed to its recent PS30 million share buyback scheme, which it introduced in September following strong half-year performance, as a sign of belief in its fundamentals.

The company bought back 400,000 shares on December 3 at an average price of 189.58 pence, and this is a good indication to the shareholders that the leadership believes that the shares are undervalued.

Just days prior to the report, analysts pointed out the timing of the buyback as an add-on to the unfolding drama. Although the rout occurred, according to some market observers, the slip would represent an acquisition opportunity, because Trustpilot has a cash-generative SaaS business and a growing enterprise customer base.

Wider Market Splashes and Investor Wariness

It was not just Trustpilot to suffer the blow, and the whole UK tech and consumer stock market felt the pain. On Thursday, the FTSE 250 fell 0.7 per cent, pulled down by industrials and financials in the general risk-off mood across the globe. Similar platforms are being scrutinised by investors now, and there is a rumour of more scrutiny by the regulators, such as the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK.

Trustpilot is a company that was established in 2007, and it has become a global giant with millions of users giving reviews on companies across the world. It is based on a freemium business model, with the free version of the profiles but premium features. Some critics, such as Grizzly, claim that it is a perverse incentive, as a device of empowerment has become a device of exploitation.

By Friday morning, Trustpilot shares were trading at approximately 152 pence, which is still a massive drop from the pre-report levels, but with a slight indication of an improvement. The company has also set an investor call next week to discuss the concerns, but the reputation damage might not go away easily due to the stock volatility.

Prospects: Recovery or Reckoning?

In the future, analysts are split. Analysts project that the shares would rise by triple digits at present values on the strength of robust H1 2025 results and enterprise progress. Nevertheless, the Grizzly report has stirred controversy about the ethical AI regulation and the review authenticity in the digital era. In the case of Trustpilot, it will be a test of leadership by Blair and the fundamental promise of the platform, which is to create trust in an online environment that is becoming more and more suspicious.

Amidst already existing challenges in the UK markets due to Budget uncertainty, manifested in a sharp fall of construction PMI to 39.4 in November, the episode underlines the vulnerability of growth stocks in volatile markets. Trustpilot will be closely monitored as it struggles to regain its story, but the Trustpilot Mafia brand has left a very dark cloud over what used to be a celebrity in the review industry.

Thursday saw AstraZeneca PLC shares decline 0.7% and close at 13,546p as the pharmaceutical giant came to grips with new fears over impending patent expiries, despite the continued growth in revenues as blockbuster drugs such as Enhertu and Imfinzi were on board.

The FTSE 100, which was trading slightly higher at about 9,710 points, experienced a poor outlook of the healthcare stocks in the wider market panic of anticipating U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts and rising trade tensions.

This fall in the stock of AstraZeneca has been recorded on a backdrop of the FTSE 100 recording a 22.8% year-to-date upsurge, which reflects the susceptibility of the sector to regulatory and competitive headwinds.

The investors are laser-focused on whether it can pull through a patent cliff estimated to cut the company’s sales by as much as PS3 billion by 2028, mainly as a result of the protection of Symbicort and Seroquel XR.

However, at an 18.2 forward price-to-earnings ratio, which is lower than the industry average of 20, analysts view the pullback as a buying opportunity for a company that has a market cap of PS200 billion and a diversified oncology portfolio.

Patent Expirations Cast Shadow Over Stellar Q3 Results

Third-quarter results announced last month by AstraZeneca reflected stability as overall revenue increased 19% to PS13.3 billion and the oncology sales rose 45% to PS6.8 billion. Such flagship products as Tagrisso and Lynparza were paying off handsomely, compensating for softer respiratory performance. The company also increased its full-year projections and now anticipates growth of its revenue in the mid-teens and core operating margin to increase to 34.

Thursday, however, was dampened by a recent review of the U.S. Food and Drug Advisory Panel that took place on the subject, only to examine generic challenges to the blockbuster asthma drug Symbicort of AstraZeneca.

Although the panel unanimously voted to permit the generic version of Teva Pharmaceutical to be approved, AstraZeneca argues that the ruling does not take into consideration important differences in the mechanisms of delivery, and it will strongly defend itself. This saga highlights the impending patent cliff: generics might take eighty per cent of the PS1.5 billion U.S. market in Symbicort by 2027, according to the estimates made by Barclays.

To make matters worse, European regulators gave the green light to a generic Seroquel XR by Boehringer Ingelheim earlier this week, which would cut PS500 million off the AstraZeneca revenues in Europe in the next two years.

CEO Pascal Soriot came to dismiss the effects with the term that they could be managed, and that the company is not about the legacy drugs but rather about innovation that is going to shape its future. According to Soriot, in a recent investor call Our pipeline is our moat he pointed out more than 180 projects in development, including some promising gene therapies for rare diseases.

This duality is reflected in the stock price of AstraZeneca on average trades at a discount to its peers, including Novo Nordisk, with a 2.1% dividend yield, and a record of 10% payout increase per year. This has seen shares increase more than fourfold over the last decade, beating the FTSE 100 by 150%, with its opportunistic acquisitions such as the PS31 billion takeover of Alexion in 2021 adding to its rare disease franchise.

Acquisitions and Research and Development Are Pointers to Growth Patterns

Aggressive expansion has been one of the responses that AstraZeneca has taken because of patent pressures. In November, the firm paid PS1.2 billion to acquire Gracell Biotechnologies, which helped it accelerate its ambitions to develop cell therapies in autoimmune diseases.

This is after the PS8 billion Daiichi Sankyo alliance of Enhertu, which is currently a PS2.5 billion annual breast cancer treatment. JPMorgan target analysts predict that Enhertu will be the first to reach PS10 billion in peak sales in 2030, three times that of Symbicort.

R&D expenditure was at an all-time high of PS2.7 billion in Q3, increasing 15% versus the year before, on trials of datopotamab deruxtecan, a lung cancer candidate, with a 40% progression-free survival rate in phase 3 trials.

This success would contribute PS5 billion to the bottom line by the end of the decade. Additionally, AstraZeneca increased its cardiovascular portfolio, which is headed by Farxiga, by 25% through PS1.8 billion, following the rising indication of heart failure and chronic kidney disease.

U.S.-China trade tensions are dangerous to the supply chain, yet AstraZeneca has a 40% emerging market revenue compared to the global pharma average of 25%, making it a diversification play. This is the headquarters of the company and serves as the base of a U.K. ecosystem which has raised PS10 billion in investments in biotech, since Brexit, according to government statistics.

Implications for Investors and the Broader Healthcare Sector

The stock market crash on Thursday shook the FTSE 100 health care sub-index, which fell 0.4% as GSK and Haleon also fell on the same generic threats. However, mining shares such as Rio Tinto increased 2.7% on copper price backlash to offset the scorecard as the index rose 9,800 by the year-end, according to UBS forecasts.

The progressive dividend policy is still tempting to income seekers, as AstraZeneca has over PS4.5 billion of free cash flow to support this policy, and the payout ratio is below 50. The beta of the stock is 0.6, which implies that the stock is less volatile, which is good to incorporate in defensive portfolios during a recession. Some of the risks are failure to attain trial, as this may affect the 15% growth of the EPS in 2026, and pricing pressure caused by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

With the Bank of England weighing the option of further rate easing, which is offering a 75% probability that a cut will occur by December (markets are betting on it), AstraZeneca has a debt-light balance sheet (net debt to EBITDA of 1.2) that will not affect its debt costs. In the future (2026), it is expected that the revenue will be PS52 billion, an increase of 12% with half the mix being oncology.

With a year of biotech discoveries and regulatory challenges, AstraZeneca represents the U.K. pharma success. Patent cliffs are looming, but a PS25 billion pipeline war chest and global footprint are guaranteed to keep on outperforming. To investors, this pullback can give way to the rallying in the market tomorrow, as it has always been the case: in healthcare, innovation is better than expiration.