CA settles shareholder suit over past accounting

IDG News Service - Computer Associates International Inc. plans to settle all outstanding litigation related to claims about its past accounting, the company announced yesterday.
The deal covers shareholder and Employee Retirement Income Security Act class-action suits and related litigation, according to the company. As part of the settlement, CA will issue as many as 5.7 million shares of its common stock to shareholders represented in the three class-action suits.
Anticipating the settlement, the company will take a charge in the current quarter of $144 million before taxes, with an after-tax impact estimated at about $97 million, or $0.17 per diluted share based on generally accepted accounting principles, according to a CA statement. The final cost will be based on the price of CA shares at the time of distribution.
The charge is based on CA's stock price of $25 on Friday. If the stock price is below $23.43 per share when the settlement is distributed, as many as 2.2 million shares of the settlement would be payable in cash, for a maximum of $51.5 million in cash.
CA said it is confident in its position but decided that reaching a settlement would be better than continuing the expense and distraction of the long legal battle, which began five years ago.
The deal has been approved by the independent directors on CA's board and will be submitted for approval to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The settlement is separate from the ongoing investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney's office for the eastern district of New York, according to CA. CA continues to cooperate with those investigations, the statement said.