Merrill Settles Research Suits

By Walter Hamilton
February 18, 2006
L.A. Times

Merrill Lynch & Co. said Friday that it would pay $164 million to settle 23 class-action lawsuits alleging that investors suffered massive losses by following its dishonest stock recommendations, including those from its former star technology analyst, Henry Blodget.

The settlement represents a fraction of the money investors lost when the Internet bubble burst in 2000 and the stocks collapsed, and it will barely dent Merrill's bottom line. The Wall Street powerhouse reported $5.2 billion in profit last year. But prospects that investors would get any restitution had been in jeopardy since a federal judge in New York dismissed 11 of the cases in 2003.

"Perhaps this is not as much money as I would have liked to have gotten," said Herbert Milstein, the lead investor attorney on 20 cases. "But under the circumstances, it's a very good settlement"...