Re: 11/29/01 - [SXT] Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sensient Technologies sues over libel on Web
Sensient Technologies sues over libel on Web
By KATHLEEN GALLAGHER
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Nov. 28, 2001
Sensient Technologies Inc. has filed a lawsuit alleging an unidentified Internet user posted messages in a chat room that libeled and defamed the company and tried to improperly interfere with its business.
Sensient said in a message posted Tuesday in the Yahoo! chat room that it filed the suit through the Newark, N.J., law firm of Epstein Becker & Green. There were no court filings regarding the matter in federal or circuit court in Milwaukee.
The lawyer who filed the suit did not return a reporter's phone calls, and company representatives declined to answer a reporter's questions about it.
"Defamatory comments on the Internet diminish shareholder value, and the company cannot overlook that," said Steve Cordier, Sensient's vice president of administration.
"Since this is a pending legal matter, we won't have any direct comments on the issue."
The move was at least the third time in three years that Sensient has sued people over comments made in the Yahoo! chat room dedicated to discussions about its stock.
Sensient, formerly known as Universal Foods, filed the suit against the person who uses the screen name "debin23."
Debin23 has been a regular in the chat room, posting messages criticizing Sensient because top managers are leaving, its stock price is at the same level it was 10 years ago, and CEO Kenneth P. Manning's attempts to reposition the company aren't working. Debin23 also has criticized Sensient's board of directors for not working to promote shareholders' interests.
Several of those criticisms also have been made by some of the analysts who follow Sensient.
"I think it's about time the board thinks about ways of creating shareholder value rather than being content the management team is reading chat boards," said Jeffrey G. Kanter, a food industry analyst who follows Sensient for Prudential Securities in New York City.
Kanter is one of four analysts who cover the company. He and the others have been putting pressure on Sensient, particularly since October when the company missed the analysts' earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive time.
Sensient filed a lawsuit in October in Circuit Court in Milwaukee against another Internet user who goes by the screen name of "gategard" and sent messages to the Yahoo! message board from a branch of the Milwaukee Public Library.
The suit alleged "gategard" posted a message in October 1999 falsely implying the company's management is unethical and unprofessional, the company engaged in price fixing, and that it is the "target or subject of a grand jury investigation."
Sensient is working to identify "gategard" and is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, court documents said.
Sensient filed a similar lawsuit in July 1998 in Milwaukee against Yahoo! and a local woman it did not identify, alleging that Yahoo! failed to monitor messages and the woman defamed the company.
That suit is still pending in Milwaukee.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 29, 2001
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