Friday, July 07, 2006

Yet Another Press Release Permutation

It appears that someone forgot to send the vigorous defense memo to Parlux Fragrances, Inc.

According to a press release issued by the Fort Lauderdale-based fragrance maker and distributor, the company was recently served with both a shareholder's class action complaint and a derivative complaint, both filed in the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida. The derivative complaint was filed by the NECA-IBEW Pension Fund.

Both the derivative and class cases relate to a proposal, detailed in Parlux's June 14, 2006 Form 8-K, ) from the company's CEO, Ilia Lekach, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Parlux. As noted here, this is not the first time that Lekach has attempted to take the company private.

Parlux's release goes on to state that:
Parlux and the other named defendants have engaged experienced Florida securities counsel and intend to respond to the Class Action and the Derivative Action in a timely manner, but Parlux believes that the Class Action and the Derivative Action are without merit.
Be that as it may, enquiring minds want to know if the defendants will mount a vigorous defense?

As an aside, it is with some sadness that I note, according to Wikipedia, the National Enquirer has dropped that famous catchphrase.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060703/
nym035.html?.v=56 (copy and paste)

Another one lacking the "vigorous defense" bit is this one, by Merge Technologies Inc. earlier this week. In response to the derivative suit precursor that is the complaint letter to the Board as sent by Schiffrin & Barroway LLP "purportedly on behalf of a stockholder" (which the company had received in April this year!), the press release notes that "[t]he Company's Board of Directors is considering its response to [the letter]"... How vigorous and forget about timely.