Courtesy of Benzinga.
News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA), plaintiffs Amalgamated Bank, as Trustee for the LongView LargeCap 500 Index Fund and the LongView LargeCap 500 Index VEBA Fund, Central Laborers Pension Fund and City of New Orleans Employees’ Retirement System, and lead plaintiffs’ counsel in the pending derivative litigation in Delaware, Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossmann LLP, and Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A., today announced a settlement in principle between the Company, the defendants in the action, and the plaintiffs. The agreement, which is subject to Court approval, will resolve a number of related complaints that were filed against the directors of News Corporation by stockholders in 2011-2012 and consolidated into one legal action. The settlement is outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) which has been filed with the Court and is available for review at www.newscorpderivativesettlement.com/pdf/mou.pdf.
Under the terms of the MoU, News Corporation will recover $139 million in insurance proceeds, and build on significant steps the Company has taken at the direction of its Board over the last year to strengthen its global compliance structure and corporate governance. News Corporation acknowledges the meaningful role the plaintiffs and their counsel played in the Company’s continuing efforts to enhance the important compliance and governance structures and policies that the Board and management of News Corporation have adopted over the last year and are adopting as part of the settlement. Also as a condition of the settlement, these enhancements will be adopted by both companies that emerge from the separation of News Corporation into two distinct, publicly listed companies, and will remain in place until at least December 31, 2016.
