CBS 18
Settlement of Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California, et al. v. CBS Corporation, et al., No. 1:18-cv-07796-VEC
The parties have reached a settlement of this action, pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The settlement provides for the payment of $14,750,000 for the benefit of eligible Settlement Class Members. Lead Plaintiff Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California alleged that Defendants violated §§10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by concealing from CBS Corporation (“CBS” or the “Company”) investors the risk to CBS from the revelation of allegations of sexual misconduct by the Company’s former longtime leader, Leslie Moonves. Lead Plaintiff also alleged that as a result of Mr. Moonves’s false statements and omissions about Defendants’ exposure to #MeToo liability at an industry event at the beginning of the Settlement Class Period (between November 29, 2017 and July 27, 2018, inclusive), the price of the Company’s common stock traded at artificially inflated prices. Lead Plaintiff further alleged that when Defendants’ previously undisclosed #MeToo exposure became public through a series of disclosures at the end of the Settlement Class Period, the Company’s stock price significantly declined, resulting in substantial harm to Settlement Class Members.
The Settlement Class consists of all Persons who purchased or otherwise acquired CBS common stock during the Settlement Class Period. Excluded from the Settlement Class are: (a) Defendants; (b) Former Defendants; (c) any person who served as an officer or director of CBS during the Settlement Class Period; (d) the Immediate Family Members of Leslie Moonves, the Former Defendants, and the excluded officers and directors; (e) any firm, trust, corporation, or other entity in which any excluded person or entity has, or had during the Settlement Class Period, a controlling interest; (f) the legal representatives, parents, subsidiaries, agents, affiliates, heirs, successors-in-interest, predecessors, or assigns of any such excluded person or entity, in their capacities as such; and (g) any Person who would otherwise be a Settlement Class Member but who validly and timely requested exclusion in accordance with the requirements set by the Court. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any CBS employee retirement, savings, or benefit plan shall not be deemed an affiliate of any Defendant or Former Defendant, except that any Claim submitted on behalf of any CBS employee retirement, savings, or benefit plan shall be pro-rated to exclude the proportion owned by Defendants or Former Defendants and other specifically excluded persons or entities.
The settlement was approved by the Court on November 7, 2022.
If you have any questions about the settlement or the litigation, please contact the Shareholder Relations Department at 1-800-449-4900.
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