City of New Orleans Employees' Retirement System Announces the Approval of a $69 Million Settlement From Xerox Corp. in ACS Shar
August 25 2010 - 3:54PM
Marketwired
City of New Orleans Employees' Retirement System ("NOERS"),
Court-appointed co-lead plaintiff in the action, today announced
that on August 24, 2010, the Court approved a $69 million payment
to settle all claims in a shareholder suit relating to Xerox
Corporation's ("Xerox") acquisition of Affiliated Computer
Services, Inc. ("ACS") (NYSE: ACS). This action was filed in
Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of ACS shareholders against
members of the Board of Directors of ACS ("the Board"), ACS, Xerox
and Boulder Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox.
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP represented NOERS,
and litigated this action with co-lead counsel for the class.
The complaint alleged that members of the Board breached their
fiduciary duties by allowing the Company's founder and Chairman,
Darwin Deason, to extract hundreds of millions of dollars through
the acquisition at the direct expense of ACS's public shareholders
for his high vote Class B shares. The complaint further alleged
that Xerox aided and abetted the Board's breaches of fiduciary
duties. On the eve of trial, the parties agreed to a settlement,
which requires approximately 18% of the $69 million deal to be
funded by Deason, who will personally pay $12.8 million to
shareholders.
Speaking on behalf of NOERS' Board of Trustees, Chairman Jerry
Davis commented on the shareholder victory, stating: "We're very
pleased with the result of our ongoing efforts on behalf of ACS
investors. In challenging the actions of both Deason and Xerox, we
demonstrated that public companies need to be held accountable when
transactions are unfairly structured to favor holders of high vote
shares at the expense of the other shareholders." Mr. Davis further
commented on the impact of the settlement stating: "This recovery
sends a clear message to corporate boards that shareholders will
not tolerate the payment of a premium to high vote stockholders at
the expense of other investors. The precedents resulting from this
case will help to discourage bad corporate governance practices,
which result in these types of transactions, in the future."
For more information about this action and the terms of the
settlement, please visit our website at www.blbglaw.com.
Contact: Mark Lebovitch, Esq. Bernstein Litowitz Berger &
Grossmann LLP 1285 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019 (212)
554-1400 markl@blbglaw.com Tony Gelderman, Esq. Bernstein Litowitz
Berger & Grossmann LLP 2727 Prytania Street, Suite 14 New
Orleans, LA 70130 (504) 899-2339 tony@blbglaw.com
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