Lowrance Electronics shareholder suit is near in Tulsa court

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 3, 2006 by Kirby Lee Davis

Attorneys involved in the shareholder lawsuit against Lowrance Electronics hope to complete discovery and settlement negotiations by the end of April.

Meeting the March 31 deadline set by U.S. District Judge Terence Kern, the joint filing said depositions for the class-action settlement have been scheduled for mid-April, with completion of both the discovery process and a settlement agreement by the end of the month.

Attorneys for plaintiff Troy Siebels of Medford, Mass., have already begun preparing the first draft of the settlement. Under that agreement, the filing said the attorneys have agreed to remand the case back to state court, if Kern approves.

If a definitive settlement agreement is not reached, however, then the parties anticipated that the plaintiff will file, and the defendants will oppose, a motion to remand, the filing said.

Siebels filed his Feb. 2 lawsuit against Lowrance and several of its officers and directors in Tulsa County court, only to see the defendants move it to Kern's desk due to the federal court's jurisdiction over securities issues.

Siebels had claimed Lowrance failed to obtain the best possible price for the company in its $215 million takeover by Simrad Yachting, which Simrad completed March 13. The lawsuit also challenged the role of JPMorgan in the negotiations and said a $7.5 million termination fee was illegal.

On Feb. 28, as Kern established a schedule for filings in the case, Lowrance announced settlement negotiations that would release it, Simrad, Navico and their advisors from all claims. Lowrance made additional SEC disclosures addressing those complaints and agreed to not oppose a $325,000 fee application by Siebels' attorneys - the firms Federman and Sherwood of Oklahoma City and Schiffrin and Barroway of Radnor, Penn.