BALA CYNWYD, Pa., April 24, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- The following statement was issued today by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP:
A securities class action lawsuit pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (C-02-1517) claims that JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq:JDSU) misled shareholders about its business and financial condition.
Plaintiff seeks damages for violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of all investors who bought JDS Uniphase Corp. securities between July 27, 1999 through July 26, 2001 (the "Class Period").
Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP has prosecuted shareholder class actions for over fourteen years and has recovered more than $1 billion for investors. If you are a shareholder of JDS Uniphase Corp. and want to learn more about this lawsuit and about becoming a lead plaintiff, you may visit our Website at http://www.sbclasslaw.com/cgi/signup.cgi.
The complaint alleges that the California-based JDS Uniphase Corp., during the Class Period, was motivated to inflate the value of JDS Uniphase stock so that the Company could make acquisitions using stock and so the individual defendants, who are the top officers and directors of JDS Uniphase, could sell their shares. During the Class Period, defendants represented that demand was accelerating and the Company's only problem was its ability to manufacture enough products to meet demand. Defendants represented that they had outstanding visibility, including demand for the Company's products through the end of fiscal 2001 ("F01," ended on 6/30/01), and that JDS Uniphase had 80 engineers whose job it was to monitor customers and their inventory levels and as a result, JDS Uniphase would learn about any slowdown in demand early. The Company also misrepresented the success of its largest acquisitions, including Optical Coating Labs, Cronos Integrated Microsystems, E-Tek Dynamics and SDL Inc. As a result of these positive statements, JDS Uniphase stock traded as high as $146.32.
The Individual Defendants (all of whom were top officers and directors of the Company) and its controlling shareholder took advantage of the inflation, selling or disposing of 25.2 million shares of their JDS Uniphase stock for proceeds of $2.1 billion. Then, on 7/26/01, JDS Uniphase announced the restatement of its 3rdQ F01 results, the write-offs of $44 billion in goodwill associated with its acquisitions, inventory write-downs and that F01 EPS would be only $0.16 and that it would incur a loss of $0.15 in F02. On this news, JDS Uniphase shares dropped to as low as $7.90 -- or more than 94% lower than the Class Period high of $146.32.
To learn more about your rights and interests in this case and your ability to potentially recoup your losses, please contact Schiffrin & Barroway (Marc A. Topaz, Esq. or Stuart L. Berman, Esq.) directly at 888-299-7706 (toll free) or 610-822-2221, fax number 610-822-0002, e-mail at info@sbclasslaw.com or visit our Website at www.sbclasslaw.com.
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca