Investors in a class action against media analytics company comScore Inc. asked a New York federal judge on January 12th to approve a $110 million settlement.
The class action alleged intentional miscalculations the company’s accounting department made that caused artificial stock value inflation and led to heavy losses. Under the settlement if approved, comScore will pay the class $27 million in cash, as well as stocks valued at $82.7 million. There are potentially thousands of shareholders who saw their share prices fall more than 33 percent after the company announced it needed to recalculate three years of incorrect financial statements.
The securities class action was initially filed in March 2016, after comScore disclosed that its audit committee had been contacted about “potential accounting matters” and would therefore be launching an investigation.
Two related actions in Oregon state court, in which Stoll Berne represents investors, which alleged that Rentrak Corp. executives breached fiduciary duties when Rentrak merged with comScore in 2016 merger, have already been settled for $19 million. Because of a high degree of crossover between the Oregon classes and the New York case, the lawyers for the case in New York agreed to dismiss claims against the Rentrak defendants.
The case is Sommer v. comScore Inc., et al., number 1:16-cv-01820 in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.
