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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Simba who wrote (82521)	7/24/2000 2:37:00 AM
From: Simba	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

MSFT legal woes causing significant losses to state pension funds: U.S. states sue Microsoft, while holding millions in stock SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2000 5:42 PM - Canadian Press BOSTON, Jul 23, 2000 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- When a U.S. federal judge ruled that Microsoft had broken antitrust laws, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly had reason to smile: His state had, after all, been one of the first to sue the software giant. But the news was grim for Massachusetts Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, who oversees the state pension fund. As Microsoft Corp. stock plunged in the aftermath of the judge's ruling, the value of the fund plunged nearly $150 million US. Across the country, 19 states are costing themselves billions of dollars - at least on paper. When one part of the government takes Microsoft to court, another tries to invest wisely on behalf of retired state-government employees. The lawsuit by the states and the Justice Department led Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to order a breakup of Microsoft, a decision expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The case has raised uncertainty about Microsoft's future and caused its stock price to plummet, roiling pension fund portfolios from Sacramento to Boston. Massachusetts' $32-billion pension fund held $313.8 million in Microsoft stock as of June 30, according to the state's Pension Reserve Investment Management Board. That makes Microsoft the fourth-largest stock holding in the fund, behind only General Electric Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel Corp. Other states with larger investments have even more to lose than Massachusetts, as the future of Microsoft - whose stock price has fallen 38 per cent since the beginning of the year - remains unclear. California's Public Employees Retirement System - the second-largest pension fund in the U.S., behind only the federal government - held $1.9 billion in Microsoft stock as last week, said spokesman Brad Pacheco. Florida's pension fund owns $1.1 billion in Microsoft stock, while New York held a hefty $1.8 billion in Microsoft shares as of March 31. All three states are suing Microsoft. In fact, most, if not all, of the 19 states who are party to the lawsuit have pension funds with Microsoft stock. The federal government, whose pension funds were worth $490.4 billion at the end of 1999, invests its retirement funds in treasury securities, not in private stocks, so its pension fund is unaffected by Microsoft's instability, said Sharon Wells, a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the funds. Scott Henderson, executive director of Massachusetts' state pension fund, said fund managers focus on maximizing returns to the funds and leave the political decisions to the state legislature. "It's a bit of a slippery slope once you get into moral values and social policy," Henderson said. The Massachusetts legislature on three occasions voted to withdraw pension fund investments for political reasons: from businesses operating in South Africa and Northern Ireland in the early 1990s, and from tobacco companies in 1997. O'Brien, the state treasurer, said Massachusetts' pension fund holds stock in nearly every publicly traded company. "In any one period, any of these companies could be getting sued," she said. The online source for news sports entertainment finance and business news in Canada Copyright (C) 2000 The Canadian Press (CP), All rights reserved KEYWORD: BOSTON SUBJECT CODE: Business