AremisSoft Drops Suit vs. TheStreet.com
By George Mannes
Senior Writer
8/14/01 3:13 PM ET
AremisSoft (AREM:Nasdaq - news - commentary) Tuesday withdrew a lawsuit accusing TheStreet.com Inc. (TSCM:Nasdaq - news - commentary), the publisher of this Web site, of manipulating the software maker's stock price as part of an illegal conspiracy.
In a federal lawsuit filed in early July, AremisSoft had accused TheStreet.com and other parties of conspiring to defame AremisSoft and its officers in an effort to damage its business reputation and reduce its stock price.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, had also named as defendants West Highland Capital, J. David Scially, Michael Wilkens, Wells Fargo Van Kasper, Martin Svanda, Apex Capital and Rocker Partners. (Rocker Partners owned a 7% stake in TheStreet.com as of June 30.)
The complaint came in the wake of a series of articles by TheStreet.com columnist Herb Greenberg questioning the quality of AremisSoft's revenues, in particular a contract with Bulgaria's National Health Insurance Fund. Two weeks ago, following a halt in the trading of AremisSoft's stock, the company announced that two of its top executives had resigned, that its revenues would fall short of analysts' expectations, and that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating its Bulgarian contract.
In response to the lawsuit's withdrawal, TheStreet.com CEO Tom Clarke said, "We believe that AremisSoft originally filed this suit in order to try to keep us from reporting the truth. We are delighted that the truth was told, and today's action only bears that out."
An AremisSoft spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
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