BlackBerry and its executives have been hit with a shareholder class action lawsuit accusing the them of inflating the stock price by misleading investors on the prospects of its BlackBerry 10 smartphones, reports Reuters.

Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion Ltd, misled investors last year by saying that the company was "progressing on its financial and operational commitments," and that previews of its BlackBerry 10 platform were well received by developers, according to shareholder Marvin Pearlstein in a lawsuit lodged in Manhattan federal court.

Pearlstein is looking to represent thousands of shareholders who purchased BlackBerry stock between September 27, 2012 and and September 20, 2013 when it revealed a loss of $930-$960 million in unsold BlackBerry 10 devices.

"In reality, the BlackBerry 10 was not well-received by the market, and the company was forced to ... lay off approximately 4,500 employees, totaling approximately 40 percent of its total workforce," the complaint alleges.

On September 23, 2013, BlackBerry announced that it had signed a letter of intent to be acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited for $9/share or about $4.7 billion.