According to the Company’s FORM 10-Q For the Quarterly Period Ended June 30, 2006, on September 1, 2005, the Court preliminarily approved the proposed settlement, directed that notice of the terms of the proposed settlement be provided to class members, and scheduled a fairness hearing. On April 24, 2006, the Court held a fairness hearing in connection with the motion for final approval of the proposed settlement at which objections to the proposed settlement were heard. The Court did not issue a ruling at the fairness hearing. The settlement remains subject to a number of conditions, including final approval of the Court.

As summarized by the same SEC filing, the Company is a defendant in certain purported class action lawsuits filed byindividual shareholders in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against certain of its former officers and directors, and various of the underwriters in the Company’s initial public offering ("IPO") and secondary offering. On or about October 8, 2002, the Court entered an Order dismissing the claims asserted against certain individual defendants in the consolidated actions without any payment from these individuals or the Company. On or about February 19, 2003, the Court entered an Order dismissing with prejudice the claims asserted against the Company under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. As a result, the only claims that remain against the Company are those arising under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The parties have negotiated and executed a definitive settlement agreement. The proposed settlement provides that the class members in the class action cases brought against the participating issuer defendants will be guaranteed a recovery of $1 billion by insurers of the participating issuer defendants. If recoveries totaling $1 billion or more are obtained by the class members from the underwriter defendants, however, the monetary obligations to the class members under the proposed settlement will be satisfied. In addition, the Company and any other participating issuer defendants will be required to assign to the class members certain claims that they may have against the underwriters of their IPO's. The proposed settlement contemplates that any amounts necessary to fund the settlement or settlement-related expenses would come from participating issuers' directors and officers liability insurance policy proceeds as opposed to funds of the participating issuer defendants themselves. A participating issuer defendant could be required to contribute to the costs of the settlement if that issuer's insurance coverage were insufficient to pay that issuer's allocable share of the settlement costs. If ultimately approved by the Court, the proposed settlement would result in the dismissal, with prejudice, of all claims in the litigation against the Company and all of the other issuer defendants who have elected to participate in the proposed settlement, together with the current or former officers and directors of participating issuers who were named as individual defendants. The proposed settlement does not provide for the resolution of any claims against the underwriter defendants, and the litigation as against those defendants is continuing. Consummation of the proposed settlement remains conditioned upon obtaining approval by the Court.

The complaint charges defendants with violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for issuing a Registration Statement and Prospectus (the "Prospectus") that contained materially false and misleading information and failed to disclose material information. The complaint alleges that the Prospectus was false and misleading because it failed to disclose (i) the Underwriter Defendants' agreement with certain investors to provide them with significant amounts of restricted Liquid Audio shares in the IPO in exchange for exorbitant and undisclosed commissions; and (ii) the agreement between the Underwriter Defendants and certain of its customers whereby the Underwriter Defendants would allocate shares in the IPO to those customers in exchange for the customers' agreement to purchase Liquid Audio shares in the after-market at pre-determined prices.