Hello again. Glad to see you back (I did wonder what happened to your
original question!).
Here's the information I *think* you're looking for. If I've
misunderstood what you need in any way, just post a Request for
Clarification and let me know how I can further assist you.
All public companies active in the U.S. must report periodically to
the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the SEC makes these
reports available on their web site. As I mentioned earlier, one of
the items discussed in the reports is a section on "Legal Proceedings"
that include any significant lawsuits or other legal matters the
company is party to (it's the company's own judgement as to which
legal matters are "significant" or not, so they don't necessarily list
everything that's going on).
To find the latest reports for a company, follow these steps:
1. Go to the SEC's EDGAR database search page at:
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
2. Enter the company's name (a partial name is fine) in the box
marked "Company Name" and click the "Find Companies" button. [As an
example, I entered "Oracle"]
3. There may be more than one company that appears on the next page.
Select the one that seems to be the one you want and click on the
number preceeding the name. For instance, my search on "Oracle"
turned up:
0000727632 ORACLE CORP
0000777676 ORACLE CORP /DE/ CA
SIC: 7372 - Services-Prepackaged Software
formerly: ORACLE SYSTEMS CORP (until 1995-02-13)
0001006938 NORTHLAND SECURITIES, INC. MN
formerly: ORACLE INVESTMENTS INC /BD (until 2002-02-22)
The second "Oracle" turned out to be the right one, but it wasn't
clear until I had clicked on its number -- 0000777676.
4. The next page will be a listing of all reports filed to the SEC in
date order, most recent first. Scan down the list to find the most
recent 10K filing, which is the company's annual report. For Oracle,
this was the 24th item down the list.
5. Click on the 10K hyperlink -- (I find the "text" button often
brings up jibberish, so I prefer to use the "html" option -- you may
want to experiment here, though).
6. The html link will bring up a series of additional links -- the
first being the content of the annual report itself. Click on this
(the other links may also be of interest -- they include the
accountant's reports).
7. Scan down to the table of contents and find (usually in the front
part of the report) the section on "Legal Proceedings". This will
*usually* describe major, recent court actions. Oracle, though, did
things a little differently; their section reads as follows:
"The material set forth in Note 15 of Notes to Consolidated Financial
Statements in Item 14 of this Form 10-K is incorporated herein by
reference."
Yeah, right....thanks a lot. So...back to the Table of Contents to
find Item 14, and then Note 15, which reads:
15. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Shareholder class actions were filed in the United States District
Court for the Northern District of California against us and our Chief
Executive Officer on and after March 9, 2001. On June 20, 2001, the
Court consolidated the class actions into a single action and
appointed a lead plaintiff and class counsel. A consolidated amended
complaint adding the Chief Financial Officer and an Executive Vice
President as defendants was filed on August 3, 2001. The consolidated
amended complaint was brought on behalf of purchasers of our stock
during the period from December 15, 2000 through March 1, 2001.
Plaintiffs alleged that the defendants made false and misleading
statements about our actual and expected financial performance and the
performance of certain of our applications products, while certain
individual defendants were selling Oracle stock, in violation of
Federal securities laws. Plaintiffs further alleged that some of the
individual defendants sold Oracle stock while in possession of
material non-public information. On March 22, 2002, the Court granted
our motion to dismiss the consolidated action without prejudice and
the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on April 10, 2002. A hearing
on our motion to dismiss the amended consolidated complaint is
scheduled for July 9, 2002. No class has been certified. We believe
that we have meritorious defenses against this action and will
continue to vigorously defend it.
Shareholder derivative lawsuits were filed in the Court of Chancery in
the State of Delaware in and for New Castle County on and after March
12, 2001. A revised amended consolidated complaint was filed in the
Delaware action on October 9, 2001. Similar shareholder derivative
lawsuits were filed in the Superior Court of the State of California,
County of San Mateo and County of Santa Clara. A consolidated amended
complaint was filed on January 28, 2002. On March 15, 2002, a similar
derivative suit was filed in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of California. The derivative suits were brought by
some of our stockholders, allegedly on our behalf, against some or all
of our current and former directors. The derivative plaintiffs allege
that these directors breached their fiduciary duties to us by making
or causing to be made alleged misstatements about our revenue, growth
and the performance of certain of our applications products while
certain officers and directors sold Oracle stock and by allowing us to
be sued in the shareholder class actions. The derivative plaintiffs
seek compensatory and other damages, disgorgement of profits and other
relief. The Board of Directors established a Special Litigation
Committee to investigate the allegations in the Delaware derivative
suit and the committee was subsequently asked to investigate the
allegations in the California state and federal derivative
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I've also repeated below the appropriate section from Accenture as
well, just so you have them together in the same place.
----------
As a reminder, these reports are only available for public companies.
Privately held firms do not have to report to the SEC.
I hope this is what you need. If anything is not clear, just post a
Request for Clarification (don't hit the "Cancel Question" button!)
and let me know how I can be of further assistance.
----------
From the Accenture 10K report:
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are involved in a number of judicial and arbitration proceedings
concerning matters arising in the ordinary course of our business. We
do not expect that any of these matters, individually or in the
aggregate, will have a material impact on our results of operations or
financial condition.
In 1998, the bankruptcy trustee of FoxMeyer Corporation filed a
lawsuit against us in the District Court of Harris County (Houston),
Texas. The lawsuit, which has been disclosed previously in Accenture
Ltd’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, arose out
of our work for FoxMeyer to assist in the implementation of an
enterprise resource planning software package, SAP R/3, developed by
SAP AG, and other related projects during the period from 1993 to
1996. On June 27, 2002, the bankruptcy trustee and Accenture entered
into a settlement of the litigation, and on July 15, 2002, the
bankruptcy court approved the settlement. The trial judge dismissed
the lawsuit with prejudice on August 8, 2002.
As described under “Legal Proceedings” in Accenture Ltd’s Form 10-Q
for the quarter ended May 31, 2002, we had previously signed
agreements with the lead plaintiffs in the Houston class actions on
behalf of shareholders and employees of Enron and with the plaintiff
in a lawsuit involving Sunbeam Corporation extending any statute of
limitations or similar deadlines by which we had to be added as a
party to such lawsuits. These lawsuits all involved allegations
concerning the auditing and other services provided by separate and
independent Arthur Andersen firms, and we entered into these tolling
agreements so that we would have time to inform the plaintiffs that
adding us as a defendant in such actions would be misdirected and
without merit. Subsequently, certain Arthur Andersen firms and/or
Andersen Worldwide entered into agreements to settle all claims and
disputes in these lawsuits. Although we were not a party to these
agreements, we have confirmed that, under the terms of the proposed
settlement with the Enron class plaintiffs, Accenture will be released
from all claims that were brought, or might have been brought, by
these plaintiff groups once the settlement is finally approved by the
court. The Enron settlements are subject to normal contingencies,
including the negotiation of a definitive agreement and final approval
by the federal court in Houston. Under the terms of the settlement
with the plaintiff in the lawsuit involving Sunbeam Corporation,
Accenture has been released from all claims that were brought or might
have been brought by the plaintiff; no court approval is required for
this settlement.
We maintain the types and amounts of insurance customary in the
industries and countries in which we operate, including coverage for
professional liability, general liability and management liability. We
consider our insurance coverage to be adequate both as to the risks
and amounts for the businesses we conduct. |
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