According to the firm's 10-K dated 3/23/2001, on May 26, 1999, the firm entered into a memorandum of understanding regarding the settlement of pending private securities and related litigation against it, including a federal class action, a derivative action, and a state class action. In November 1999, the settlement was approved by the applicable Federal and state courts.

The settlement resolves all material litigation arising out of the restatement of its financial statements that was publicly announced in November 1997. In accordance with the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the firm paid approximately $3.2 million in cash during the second quarter of 1999 and an additional amount of approximately $13.8 million of insurance proceeds was contributed directly by certain of our insurance carriers on behalf of certain of our current and former officers and directors. The firm will also issue a minimum of nine million shares of our common stock, which will have a guaranteed value of $91 million for a maximum term of one year from the date of final approval of the settlement by the courts. The firm's former independent auditors, Ernst & Young LLP, have paid $34 million in cash. The total amount of the settlement will be $142 million. As of December 31, 2000, the firm had issued 2.9 million of the minimum amount of 9 million shares issuable pursuant to the memorandum of understanding.

The original complaint alleges that defendants Informix, its Chief Executive Officer and its Chief Technology Officer violated the federal securities laws by issuing to the investing public false and misleading statements regarding Informix current operations and future prospects. The complaint alleges that, as a result of these misrepresentations, Informix's common stock price was artificially inflated during the Class Period. The complaint further alleges that defendants participated in a scheme to artificially inflate Informix's common stock price, for among other reasons, to allow Informix’s Chief Technology Officer to sell 87,500 shares of his personal Informix common stock holdings, reaping proceeds of over $1.635 million.

Specifically, the complaint alleges that starting on Dec. 2, 1997 and continuing through April 1, 1997, defendants issued public statements about Informix's business that omitted to state certain material adverse facts about its current operations and its business prospects for the first quarter of fiscal year 1997 (period ended 3/31/97). Specifically, starting on Dec. 2 and 3, 1996 when Informix announced the commercial availability of its new software product the Universal Server, defendants represented that the Universal Server would drive existing product sales and that Informix had a clear technological lead over its competitors. Defendants failed to disclose in those December 1996 statements that sales of existing products were declining sharply due to, among other reasons, Informix's management focus on the release of the Universal Server, that the Universal Server technology was currently of limited value to customers and that Informix's sales of existing products were being adversely affected by a reorganization of its sales force and the massive hiring of new sales representatives. Despite such adverse facts, Informix informed the investing public that the Company would achieve revenues in excess of $200 million and earnings of between $0.11-$0.16 per share in the first quarter of fiscal year 1997. The compliant alleges that, as a result of Informix's announcement on April 1, 1997, that revenues would be sharply lower and Informix would report a substantial loss in the first quarter, its common stock price fell in a single day by over $6 per share on huge trading volume.