Post by account_disabled on Mar 6, 2024 9:04:27 GMT 5.5
SeaWorld Entertainment announced Tuesday that it agreed to pay $65 million to settle a long-running lawsuit alleging that the company misled investors when it did not early disclose the negative effect the anti-captivity documentary "Blackfish" was having on park attendance.
The settlement comes just a Chile Mobile Number List week before a jury trial was to begin in the case, which originated in 2014 and was later certified as a class action lawsuit. In a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SeaWorld said the settlement does not "constitute an admission, concession or determination of any defect, liability or wrongdoing by the Company or any defendant."
The proposed $65 million payment, SeaWorld says, is still subject to approval in federal court.
Last year, SeaWorld had sought to have the class action case dismissed, but in November U.S. District Judge Michael Anello in San Diego ruled against SeaWorld and concluded that a trial should move forward, stating that
A rational jury could conclude that there has been a primary violation of federal securities law.
SeaWorld said it will fund the entire deal with $45.5 million in insurance proceeds, plus $19.5 million in company cash. To put the deal in perspective, the $65 million is more than half of the nearly $114 million in net revenue SeaWorld made during the first nine months of 2019. The company is not expected to release financial results for the full year until end of this month.
In addition to targeting the Orlando-based company, the lawsuit named as defendants former CEO Jim Atchison, former CFO James Heaney, current CFO Marc Swanson and the Blackstone Group, which bought SeaWorld in 2009 and later sold its stake in the company. company. in 2017
Lawyers representing the class of SeaWorld investors said Tuesday that their decision to settle was based, in part, on the potential risks of winning little or nothing at the end of a jury trial.
Jeff Angelovich, one of the lead attorneys in the case, said:
We were ready to try this case... That being said, there are a million things that could happen, and you have to win a unanimous jury verdict, and we had the burden of proof on everything, so we could have walked out of there with nothing. We balance all that with this settlement offer, which guarantees the recovery of a substantial sum.
Investors in the long-running litigation claimed that by the time SeaWorld executives finally acknowledged on August 13, 2014 that the 2013 film "Blackfish" and the media exposure surrounding it had diminished attendance, shareholders lost almost 33 percent of the value of its SeaWorld stock in a single day.
The settlement comes just a Chile Mobile Number List week before a jury trial was to begin in the case, which originated in 2014 and was later certified as a class action lawsuit. In a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SeaWorld said the settlement does not "constitute an admission, concession or determination of any defect, liability or wrongdoing by the Company or any defendant."
The proposed $65 million payment, SeaWorld says, is still subject to approval in federal court.
Last year, SeaWorld had sought to have the class action case dismissed, but in November U.S. District Judge Michael Anello in San Diego ruled against SeaWorld and concluded that a trial should move forward, stating that
A rational jury could conclude that there has been a primary violation of federal securities law.
SeaWorld said it will fund the entire deal with $45.5 million in insurance proceeds, plus $19.5 million in company cash. To put the deal in perspective, the $65 million is more than half of the nearly $114 million in net revenue SeaWorld made during the first nine months of 2019. The company is not expected to release financial results for the full year until end of this month.
In addition to targeting the Orlando-based company, the lawsuit named as defendants former CEO Jim Atchison, former CFO James Heaney, current CFO Marc Swanson and the Blackstone Group, which bought SeaWorld in 2009 and later sold its stake in the company. company. in 2017
Lawyers representing the class of SeaWorld investors said Tuesday that their decision to settle was based, in part, on the potential risks of winning little or nothing at the end of a jury trial.
Jeff Angelovich, one of the lead attorneys in the case, said:
We were ready to try this case... That being said, there are a million things that could happen, and you have to win a unanimous jury verdict, and we had the burden of proof on everything, so we could have walked out of there with nothing. We balance all that with this settlement offer, which guarantees the recovery of a substantial sum.
Investors in the long-running litigation claimed that by the time SeaWorld executives finally acknowledged on August 13, 2014 that the 2013 film "Blackfish" and the media exposure surrounding it had diminished attendance, shareholders lost almost 33 percent of the value of its SeaWorld stock in a single day.