BALA CYNWYD, Pa., Aug. 30, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- The following statement was issued today by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP:
Notice is hereby given that a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on behalf of all securities purchasers of Ferro Corp. (NYSE:FOE) ("Ferro" or the "Company") from October 28, 2003 through July 22, 2004, inclusive (the "Class Period").
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP (Marc A. Topaz, Esq. or Darren J. Check, Esq.) toll free at 1-888-299-7706 or 1-610-667-7706, or via e-mail at info@sbclasslaw.com.
The complaint charges Ferro, Hector R. Ortino, and Thomas M. Gannon with violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. According to the complaint, defendants issued a series of material misrepresentations to the market between October 28, 2003 and July 22, 2004, about the Company's financial condition thereby artificially inflating the price of Ferro's shares. More specifically, the Complaint alleges that the Company failed to disclose and misrepresented the following material adverse facts which were known to defendants or recklessly disregarded by them: (1) that the Company's financial results were materially overstated; (2) that the Company's Polymer Additives business unit overstated the business unit's performance because of its inability to raise selling prices to keep pace with raw material costs; (3) that the Company's Polymer Additives business unit also understated its operating costs by failing to report the increasing losses that were plaguing the Company thereby affecting the reliability of the Company's forecasting process; (4) that the Company lacked adequate internal controls; and (5) that as result of the above, the Company's financial statements were not in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") and were materially overstated at all relevant times.
On July 23, 2004, defendants revealed that the Company was slashing earnings expectations for the second quarter of fiscal 2004 by more than 70% based upon an internal review, purportedly conducted in conjunction with Ferro's closing its books for the quarter, which unearthed a multi-million dollar overstatement of earnings resulting from certain unspecified accounting manipulations. News of this shocked the market. Shares of Ferro plunged $4.00 per share, or 16.21 percent, to close at $20.68 per share on unusually high trading volume.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of class members and is represented by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, which prosecutes class actions in both state and federal courts throughout the country. Schiffrin & Barroway is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered in excess of a billion dollars on behalf of institutional and high net worth individual investors. For more information about Schiffrin & Barroway, or to sign up to participate in this action online, please visit http://www.sbclasslaw.com.
If you are a member of the class described above, you may, not later than September 27, 2004 move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff of the class, if you so choose. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain Schiffrin & Barroway, or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.