By:  Cydney Posner

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that News Corp. has settled its shareholder litigation by agreeing to submit its poison pill to a shareholder vote at its next annual meeting (and guaranteeing shareholders a right to vote on the matter for the next 20 years). As you may recall, News Corp. was sued by several of its institutional shareholders seeking to invalidate the company's extension of its poison pill. The shareholders claimed that, to secure the shareholders' votes in favor of the company's proposed reincorporation, the company had agreed not to extend the pill without a further shareholder vote. News Corp. claimed that, with the concurrence of the plaintiff shareholders, it had simply adopted a board policy to seek shareholder approval of an extension of the pill; that policy, as with any board policy, was revocable at any time and did not constitute an agreement with shareholders. News Corp.'s motion to dismiss the shareholders' complaint was largely denied. Prior to the settlement, the case had been scheduled for trial on April 24.

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