Dole Food Company, Inc. ("Dole") is an American - Irish agricultural multinational corporation that is the largest producer of fruit and vegetables in the world.

According to the law firm press release, the Complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Defendants Dole and its senior executive officers conducted a fraudulent scheme to acquire the publicly held shares of Dole and convert the Company to a privately held enterprise owned by Dole's Chairman of the Board and CEO. To implement their scheme, Dole and its executive officers made a series of materially false and misleading negative statements about the Company's operations and finances, and omitted to disclose material information, with the intention of deceiving the investing public and artificially lowering the price of Dole's stock so that Defendant could buy the Company at an artificially depressed price.

On April 14, 2016, the Court issued an Order appointing Lead Plaintiffs and Lead Counsel. Lead Plaintiffs filed an amended and consolidated Complaint on June 23.

On March 9, 2017, the parties entered into a Stipulation of Settlement. This Settlement was preliminarily approved on March 16. On July 18, 2017, the Court granted final approval of the Settlement and entered judgment in this case. On August 24, 2018, the Court issued an Order approving the Settlement's distribution plan.