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To: SiouxPal who wrote (10374)	8/29/2002 11:01:56 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Peregrine restates $250 mln in revs NEW YORK, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Software maker Peregrine Systems Inc. <PRGNE.O>, in the process of investigating accounting irregularities, said on Thursday it believes it will restate results from 11 quarters and reduce reported revenue by about $250 million. The San Diego company also said its stock, which trades under $1, will be delisted on Aug. 30 due to its failure to file periodic reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In a statement, Peregrine said a previously announced independent investigation of its results from 2000, 2001 and the first three quarters of 2002 showed the company should have booked its accounts receivable factoring arrangements as loans, rather than sales of receivables. In past periods, the loan balances had been as high as $180 million. Peregrine said it expects to record a $100 million noncash charge for the restatement periods. Although the investigation is complete, the company said the restatement process is not, and that the amounts of restatements for fiscal 2000, 2001 and the first nine months of 2002 are subject to change. The company said it will give results of the investigation to the SEC, which is probing Peregrine's results. Additionally, Peregrine said it restructured about $103 million in accounts receivable financing agreements through a forbearance agreement with three U.S. lenders. Under the deal, a "significant portion" of Peregrine's obligations will be repaid over four years, at an interest rate of 6 percent, while the remaining amounts due those financial institutions will be paid according to their original terms. The $103 million obligation will be secured by collectible receivables, with the remainder secured by company assets, junior to certain other borrowings. 08/29/02 21:14 ET

To: SiouxPal who wrote (10374)	8/30/2002 1:32:45 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Play Ball!! Baseball players and owners reach tentative agreement By Ronald Blum ASSOCIATED PRESS August 30, 2002 NEW YORK – After a round of all-night negotiations, baseball players and owners reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract that averted a walkout threatened for later Friday. "There is no strike," said Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine, the National League player representative. Commissioner Bud Selig and union head Donald Fehr attended a morning bargaining session that wrapped up the agreement. It was the first time in nine rounds of labor talks since 1972 that baseball avoided a work stoppage. No agreement had been signed, but the sides planned to announce the new pact at a 1 p.m. EDT news conference. As part of a settlement, owners agreed not to eliminate teams through the 2006 season, a management official said on condition he not be identified. Owners attempted to fold the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins after last season. The deal was reached with little time to spare – about 3½ hours before Friday's first game, between St. Louis and Chicago at Wrigley Field. As the hours dwindled, lawyers had shuttled between the commissioner's office and union headquarters, crunching numbers and exchanging revised proposals. "It was close. I was about to make my flight arrangements to go home," Cubs outfielder Roosevelt Brown said as he arrived at the ballpark. Two lawyers from each side bargained until 2 a.m. before the sides broke for caucuses. Players gave owners a proposal during a 20-minute meeting that began at 4 a.m., and owners responded with a counteroffer about 6:30 a.m. The union returned with a response at 9:15 a.m. The final meeting, which completed talks that began in January, lasted almost three hours. As soon as it ended, teams started heading to ballparks. "The reason we set a strike date was to get something done, and we did," said John McDonald, the Cleveland Indians' player representative. McDonald got the word from Tony Bernazard, a special assistant to the players' union. "He said, 'We're playing tonight'," McDonald said. "That's all I wanted to hear. That's all any baseball player wanted to hear. Everyone should be thrilled." With the deal, owners gained their most significant concessions in 26 years from a union that became one of the most powerful in the nation. The players' association has lifted the average salary of its members from $51,501 in 1976 – the last year before free agency – to $2.38 million this season. As part of the agreement, high-revenue teams will have to share a far larger percentage of their locally generated money, and a luxury tax will be levied on high-payroll teams to discourage spending. The amount of money transferred from the wealthy teams to the poorer ones will rise from $169 million to $258 million, using 2001 revenue figures for analysis. The threshold for the luxury tax will start at about $117 million in 2003, rising to about $137 million in 2006. For the first time, players agreed to undergo mandatory testing for steroids, which will start next year on a survey basis. The minimum salary will rise next year from $200,000 to $300,000. Since the last strike in 1994-95, a 232-day stoppage that forced cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904, the New York Yankees have won four world championships. For that very reason, commissioner Bud Selig and many team owners said they needed changes to restore competitive balance. The mid-market teams figure to be the biggest winners in the deal, receiving much more of their competitors' money. The biggest losers are the Yankees, who generate the most money in baseball. The Yankees and other high-revenue teams will have to pay tens of millions of dollars to subsidize other franchises, and they may have to raise ticket prices to cover the increased revenue sharing. "It's going to affect a lot of teams with high payrolls, there's no question about that," Yankees pitcher Steve Karsay said. A walkout threatened the final 31 days and 438 games of the regular season, and fans were angry at players and owners for their repeated quarrels over a business that generates $3.5 billion annually. Fans tossed about a half-dozen foul balls back onto the field during Anaheim's 6-1 win over Tampa Bay, the last game played Thursday night. Many of the 18,820 fans chanted "Don't Strike, Don't Strike" during the seventh-inning stretch, and when the game ended, some of them threw debris on the field.

To: SiouxPal who wrote (10374)	8/30/2002 4:46:38 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Law Firm Andrews & Kurth Announces Filing of Amended Complaint by Vlasic Creditors WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 30, 2002--The law firm of Andrews & Kurth filed an Amended Complaint in U.S. District Court Thursday against Campbell Soup Company on behalf of the bankruptcy estate of Vlasic Foods International Inc. (VFI). The Amended Complaint alleges that the Campbell made misrepresentations in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other entities involved with the 1998 spin-off transaction which ultimately resulted in VFI's bankruptcy. John A. Lee, lead counsel for the VFI creditors, had this to say about the amended filing, "This filing is the result of more than six months of comprehensive investigation into the circumstances that led to VFI's bankruptcy and liquidation, including interviews with dozens of former VFI and Campbell employees. Our investigation established that Campbell's real motivation in the spin-off was to unload problem businesses it wanted to get rid of and transfer as many of its debts to VFI as it could get away with by manipulating the financial results and projections of the VFI businesses. Campbell knew well before the spin-off closed that VFI was careening toward a default and would likely end up in a liquidation but refused to put the brakes on its $600 million payday. We expect the Court will find these allegations are true and that Campbell will be held 100 percent responsible for VFI's liquidation." Campbell spun off VFI in March of 1998 with more than $500 million of bank debt, in addition to more than $100 million of other assumed Campbell liabilities, to decrease its own debt load incurred from its share repurchase program. Evidence uncovered by A&K lawyers indicates that the $500 million figure is almost two times the amount of debt that these businesses should have had on their books at the time or could have afforded to pay. The amended complaint also states that Campbell knew in January 1998 that VFI, then still a part of the Campbell companies, would significantly miss its target quarterly earnings numbers unless it loaded over 500,000 cases of Swanson and 100,000 cases of Vlasic products. The complaint alleges that Campbell instructed VFI to load the cases knowing that the $500 million bank loan was dependent on VFI making its numbers at the end of the coming fiscal quarter. The architect of the spin-off was Basil Anderson, Campbell's former Chief Financial Officer. The Board of Directors for VFI prior to the spin-off was comprised of Campbell employees, including many of Mr. Anderson's direct reports. It is alleged that these Campbell employees could not have been making decisions in the best interest of the future of VFI's creditors and shareholders when they structured the transaction. The Amended Complaint alleges Campbell knew in January of 1998 that if VFI loaded its second quarter numbers in order to meet the projections that Campbell had given to the financial institutions, VFI could not then make its third and fourth quarter numbers. Compounding this assertion, the pleading alleges that this information was never conveyed to the banks and was never disclosed in the Form 10 that Campbell filed with the SEC on March 10, 1998. Further, Campbell never disclosed to the banks or to the SEC in the Form 10 that many of the businesses were carried on Campbell's books, and subsequently transferred to VFI, at values far in excess of their fair market value. The complaint continues to allege that in order to make the spin-off tax-free to Campbell and its shareholders, Campbell concocted an excessive tax basis in the spin-off companies by assigning fair market values to the businesses that were hundreds of millions of dollars greater than the levels at which both Campbell and its investment banker valued these businesses. The pleading also alleges that Campbell misrepresented financial data and values of the spun-off businesses in its dealings with the IRS which resulted in a private letter ruling that the more than $500 million in proceeds Campbell received from the spin-off would be tax-free to Campbell and its shareholders. The Complaint alleges that what sealed VFI's fate was Campbell's forcing one-sided supply and co-pack agreements on VFI in the weeks before the spin-off, well after the projections were given to the banks and after the Form 10 was filed with the SEC. It is noted that Campbell hired several major law firms to protect its interests in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Canada but did not provide VFI independent legal counsel or financial advisors to protect its interests. Finally, it is alleged that Campbell purposely induced many of its long-term career employees to go with VFI so that Campbell could effect a cost-free layoff. When VFI filed for bankruptcy less than three years after the spin-off, many of these employees lost their medical benefits, retirement savings and their children's education funds. Many of these former employees are now listed as unpaid creditors of the bankrupt VFI estate, and their claims are part of this lawsuit. Andrews & Kurth L.L.P. was founded in Houston in 1902 and has 360 lawyers in offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, London, New York, The Woodlands and Washington, D.C. The firm's practice areas include appellate, bankruptcy, business transactions, energy, environmental, corporate and securities, labor and employment, litigation, intellectual property, public law, project finance, real estate, structured finance, asset securitization, technology and tax law for U.S. and international clients. Additional Points of Information: -- This filing can be found at www.vfbllc.com -- A class-action suit against Campbell based on some of the same deceptive practices alleged in this Complaint is now pending in Federal District Court in New Jersey, Case No. 01-0272 -- The original Complaint was filed in February 2002. www.akllp.com CONTACT: Andrews & Kurth L.L.P., Houston Donna Anderson, APR, 713/220-3875 donnaanderson@akllp.com SOURCE: Andrews & Kurth L.L.P. Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet with Hyperlinks to your home page. URL: businesswire.com 08/30/2002 16:24 EASTERN