Legal News

A Monster Deal: Plaintiffs, Company Settle Options Claims for $47.5 Million

By Ashby Jones

A Monster deal has been reached — and no, we’re not referring to Manny Ramirez getting traded to the Dodgers. As fun as it might be to write about Manny heading out to La-La Land (and playing for Joe Torre!), we’d much rather write about the stock-options backdating settlement involving Monster Worldwide, announced today as well.

The details: Monster revealed it has reached a proposed $47.5 million settlement with a class of shareholders who had sued it over losses sustained as a result of alleged stock-options backdating. Monster also announced it has settled a derivative suit concerning backdating, with the company receiving $10 million from various individuals. For those wondering why the company is getting money, well, click here and here for earlier posts on backdating derivative suits. Here’s the press release on the deal from plaintiffs’ firm Labaton Sucharow.

Of course, $47.5 million is a good chunk of change, but the settlement doesn’t approach the $895 million deal reached between plaintiffs and UnitedHealth earlier this month. Click here for a handy list of all the backdating dismissals, settlements and the like, from D&O Diary’s Kevin LaCroix.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 31, 2008 (boomark / email).