33 Claims Tossed In Vivendi Shareholder Suit

33 Claims Tossed In Vivendi Shareholder Suit - 3/18/2009

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HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

DISMISSAL NEWS:

33 Claims Tossed In Vivendi Shareholder Suit
Tina Peng

Securities Law 360. March 18, 2009
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EXCERPT: A federal judge has dismissed without prejudice the claims brought by 33 individual shareholders in a long-standing securities fraud class action against two former executives of Vivendi Universal SA, saying they failed to serve one of the defendants on time. Judge Richard J. Holwell of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday approved former Vivendi Chief Financial Officer Guillaume Hannezo's motion to dismiss 33 claims in the suit alleging that he, former CEO Jean-Marie Messier and their former employer made false and misleading statements that caused the company's securities to trade at artificially inflated prices. In March 2007, plaintiffs moved to certify a class of all persons, foreign and domestic, who purchased Vivendi common stock or American Depositary Shares during a two-year period. They said there had been about a billion common shares and more than 107 million ADS shares outstanding during that period. The court granted the motion in part, certifying a class of investors from the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, but excluding investors from Germany and Austria. Purchasers of Vivendi stock who had been excluded from the class brought individual actions against Vivendi that were consolidated with the class in January 2008, according to the memorandum opinion and order. But all of those plaintiffs missed a 120-day deadline to serve their complaints to Hannezo in accordance with the Hague Convention, the memo said. Many complaints were served in June and July 2008, and some were not served at all, it said. The plaintiffs could not show good cause for their failure to serve, the memo said: “The only real obstacle to service appears to have been the time-consuming task of translating the complaints into French.” Five additional complaints filed after a separate court deadline were stayed…

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