The securities class action news today is all about Tyco International, Ltd.
First, Reuters reports that the shareholder plaintiffs in the class action against Tyco in the D. of N.H. are alleging that “the conglomerate falsified financial reports and inflated pre-tax profits by more than $6 billion between December 1999 and June 2002.” That is considerably more than the $2 billion in accounting-related problems that Tyco has disclosed. Interestingly, it is being reported as a new allegation that appears in the plaintiffs’ opposition to Tyco’s motion to dismiss (contrary to the normal assumption that the motion to dismiss briefing is based only on the factual allegations in the complaint).
Second, the Associated Press reports that Merrill Lynch & Co. and a former analyst are being sued by Tyco’s shareholders in a separate class action alleging that the analyst “wrote and publicly issued research reports on Tyco claiming to be independent, when in fact he regularly sent drafts of his reports to Tyco’s investor relations department for review.”
The 10b-5 Daily 