The cash settlement “represents a recovery of approximately 6.9% of the absolute maximum possible damages for all claims,” the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said. noted. “This is a low-end deal but barely within the reasonable range.”
Investors accuse the software company, now known as NortonLifeLock Inc., of manipulating its financial reports to improve its performance after acquiring Blue Coat Systems Inc. and Lifelock Inc. Symantec denies any wrongdoing.
Judge William Alsup certified the Investor Class in 2020. The class consists of anyone who acquired publicly traded Symantec common stock from May 11, 2017 through August 2, 2018 and lost money as a result, with exclusions for those with close ties. to the company.
“Only eleven individual class members (not institutional investors) have opted out under the proposed settlement,” Alsup’s order said Thursday. “Not a single member of the group has submitted an objection.”
The claims release provisions in the settlement are “unnecessarily cumbersome and wordy,” Alsup said. But when “stripped of bloat,” the provisions properly limit the claims released to those that were actually asserted in the lawsuit or arise from the transactions challenged in the complaint and relate to claims that were not asserted.
Alsup also awarded Bernstein Class Counsel Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP $13.3 million, or 19% of the settlement fund, in attorneys’ fees. The firm will also receive just over $2 million in reimbursement for litigation costs.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represents Symantec.
The deal is SEB Inv. Management. AB v Symantec Corp.ND Cal., No. 3:18-cv-02902, Final Settlement Approval 2/10/22.
