Four-and-a-half years ago, when a jury socked Vivendi SA with an estimated $9.3 billion securities fraud verdict, it was easy to second-guess the company’s bold decision to let the class action go to trial. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank helped Vivendi dodge a vast portion of the verdict—and now the company’s lawyers are busy trying to bury what’s left of the spoils.
In a series of letters filed in the case over the past several weeks, Vivendi counsel James Quinn of Weil, Gotshal & Manges argues that sophisticated investors shouldn’t share in what remains of the verdict because they didn’t rely on the misstatements identified by the jury. If Vivendi can succeed in blocking those investors’ claims, Quinn predicts, the company’s remaining liability may be measured in the mere millions. (You can read the letters here, here and here.)
