In December 2006, the appellate court overturned the certification of classes in six test cases that were selected by the underwriter defendants and plaintiffs in the coordinated proceedings. Because class certification was a condition of the settlement, it was unlikely that the settlement would receive final Court approval. On June 28, 2007, the Court entered an order terminating the proposed settlement based upon a stipulation among the parties to the settlement.
According to the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2005, in June 2003, DoubleClick’s Board of Directors conditionally approved a proposed partial settlement with the plaintiffs in this matter. In June 2004, an agreement of settlement was submitted to the court for preliminary approval. The court granted the preliminary approval motion on February 15, 2005, subject to certain modifications. If the parties are able to agree upon the required modifications, and such modifications are acceptable to the court, notice will be given to all class members of the settlement, a “fairness” hearing will be held and if the court determines that the settlement is fair to the class members, the settlement will be approved.
As summarized by the same SEC filing, in April 2002, a consolidated amended class action complaint alleging violation of the federal securities laws in connection with DoubleClick’s follow-on offerings was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York naming as defendants DoubleClick, some of its officers and directors and certain underwriters of DoubleClick’s follow-on offerings. Approximately 300 other issuers and their underwriters have had similar suits filed against them, all of which are included in a single coordinated proceeding in the Southern District of New York. In October 2002, the action was dismissed against the named officers and directors without prejudice. However, claims against DoubleClick remain. In July 2002, DoubleClick and the other issuers in the consolidated cases filed motions to dismiss the amended complaint for failure to state a claim, which was denied as to DoubleClick in February 2003.
The original complaint against DoubleClick, Inc. alleges violations of Sections 11, 12(a)(2) and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933. The complaint alleges that the Registration Statement filed with the SEC on or about February 19, 1998, and the Prospectus filed on or about February 20, 1998 for the issuance and initial public offering of 3.5 million shares of DoubleClick common stock contained material misrepresentations and/or omissions.