A law firm representing a group of pension funds suing Mercury Interactive over its stock option backdating said it had achieved a record settlement of $117.5 million.
The firm, Labaton Subachow, said the settlement was six times the previous record of $18 million in a stock options backdating case, which happened with chip designer Rambus.
"We are satisfied that the parties have come to a fair settlement and are confident that the award will provide fair recompense to the investors who lost money as a result of Mercury's improper practices," said Joel H. Bernstein, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in a statement. Labaton has been involved as a lead or co-lead in 29 percent of options backdating cases against companies such as Broadcom, Home Depot, American Tower and Monster Worldwide.
Hewlett-Packard acquired software developer Mercury Interactive in November for $4.5 billion. HP confirmed the settlement but provided few details. The company noted that the judge presiding over the consolidated case still needs to approve the settlement before it becomes final.
