On March 15, 2002, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the decision of the district court which dismissed the suit without leave to amend. According to a LexisNexis overview, the "appeals court concluded that the complaint did not allege contemporaneous facts in sufficient detail and in a manner that would create a strong inference that the alleged adverse facts were known at the time of the challenged statements."

The original complaint charges that Vantive and certain of its officers and directors violated the federal securities laws by making numerous false and misleading statements about the Company's financial condition, artificially manipulating the price of the stock. When the truth was uncovered, the stock price fell dramatically. The complaint further alleges that, before the truth about defendants' illegal manipulations was revealed, Company insiders sold approximately 1.3 million of their own shares, reaping over $36 million in illegal, insider trading profits.