Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2007 blog

Forum for Shareholders of CA, Inc.

Pending Status

Forum activities relating to CA, Inc. are temporarily suspended pending release of a court-appointed Examiner's report on management compliance with a Deferred Prosecution Agreement.

CA Forum Home Page

CA Research Reference

A copy of the complaint reported in the article below, which alleges that current CA board members D'Amato and Ranieri "prevailed upon the management team to allow them to 'settle' the case" (Complaint ¶69) on terms that allowed Milberg Weiss and the other plaintiff representatives to take 25% of a $140 million payment "in exchange for an agreement to release all individual defendants [including themselves as well as subsequently convicted executives] from any personal liability" (Complaint ¶72), can be downloaded from the following link:

November 26, 2007 Corrected Summons and Corrected Complaint, Sam Wyly, et al, v. Milberg Weiss LLP, et al, Index No. 07/603883, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York (44 pages, 1,694 KB, in PDF format)

Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2007 blog

LAW BLOG

WSJ.com on law and business and the business of law.

November 27, 2007, 9:06 am

Sam Wyly Sues Milberg Weiss Over CA Class Action

Posted by Peter Lattman

Sam Wyly, the colorful Texas billionaire, has sued Milberg Weiss and three other plaintiffs’ firms over their handling of a 2003 settlement of shareholders class-action lawsuit against Computer Associates.

Wyly’s beef? He claims that Milberg and the others left billions on the table by prematurely settling a case so they could bank some $40 million in attorneys fees. The suit was filed in state court in Manhattan and alleges legal malpractice, fraud, unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary duty. Here’s the story from Newsday.

Newsday reports that Wyly’s lawsuit centers on two shareholder lawsuits filed against CA — one in 1998 following a sharp drop in CA’s share price, and another in 2002 following news of an accounting probe at the company. The plaintiffs law firms effectively dropped the 2002 claims, according to the story. Wyly’s lawyer, William Brewer, told Newsday that the firms’ decision to effectively drop the claims in the 2002 suit “one of the most egregious cases of [legal] malpractice I’ve seen in 23 years.”

In addition to Milberg Weiss, the suit names as defendants Stull, Stull & Brody; Schiffrin Barroway; and Coughlin Stoia. Newsday reached neither the firms nor CA for comment.

Wyly became a major CA shareholder when it acquired his company, Sterling Software, for $4 billion in 2000. He’s a major contributor to conservative causes, and was a top supporter of George W. Bush in 2004 and helped fund the “swift boat” ads that helped defeat John Kerry. (Law Blog Reading Recommendation: Law Blog colleague Robert Frank recently reported on Wyly’s surprise purchase of Explore Booksellers, a quaint bookstory and cafe in Aspen, Colo.)

Comments (23)

The Forum is open to all Computer Associates ("CA") shareholders, whether institutional or individual, and to any fiduciaries or professionals concerned with their investment decisions. Its purpose is to provide shareholders with access to information and a free exchange of views on issues relating to their evaluations of alternatives, as described in the Forum Summary.

There is no charge for participation. As stated in the Conditions of Participation, participants are expected to make independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the privacy rights of other participants. It is a Forum rule that participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit permission.

Inquiries and requests to be included in the Forum's distribution list may be addressed to ca@shareholderforum.com.

The material presented on this web site is published by Gary Lutin, as chairman of the Shareholder Forum.