Dole Executives Ordered to Pay $148 Million in Buyout Suit
August 27 2015 - 11:40AM
Dow Jones News
A Delaware judge ordered Dole Food Co.'s chief executive and a
former official to pay shareholders $148 million, ruling that CEO
David Murdock's 2013 buyout undervalued the fruit grower.
Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster found that Dole was worth
$16.24 a share when Mr. Murdock bought it for $13.50 a share two
years ago. He ordered Mr. Murdock and Michael Carter, the company's
former chief operating officer, to pay the difference to
investors.
Dole and Messrs. Murdock and Carter couldn't immediately be
reached for comment.
The plaintiffs, a group of former Dole shareholders, had sought
more than $25 a share.
Mr. Laster said the Dole executives drove down the stock price
by lowballing potential cost savings and canceling a previously
announced stock buyback in the spring of 2013. Mr. Murdock made his
proposal soon after.
"These actions primed the market for the freeze-out by driving
down Dole's stock price and undermining its validity as a measure
of value," Mr. Laster wrote in the decision, which followed a
nine-day trial in February. He added the damages award was
"conservative relative to what the evidence could support."
He found other Dole board members and Deutsche Bank AG, the
company's financial adviser, not liable for any damages.
Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 27, 2015 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT)
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