May 16, 2004

The amount would be almost one sixth of the $650 million settlement (only $148 million of which is in cash, which Lucent's insurers put on the table early in the negotiations), working out to about 11 to 15 cents a share for shareholders allegedly injured by alleged securities fraud by Lucent. Another $5 million is set aside to administer the cost of the settlement, and Lucent shareholders surely paid hundreds of thousands of dollars defending the lawsuit, which threatened to put the company into bankruptcy. And you thought that Lucent's share price dropped from $74 to $3 because of the Internet bubble. (Tim O'Brien, New Jersey Law Journal, Dec. 24).

[cross-posted from Overlawyered, where it ran Dec. 24, 2003]