By Jonathan Stempel
April 23 (Reuters) – Danaher reached a $172.5 million settlement with shareholders who accused the diagnostics and life-sciences company of defrauding them by overstating demand for its equipment as the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic passed.
A preliminary settlement was filed on Wednesday with the federal court in Washington, D.C., and requires a judge’s approval.
• Lawyers for the shareholders called the all-cash accord the largest securities class action settlement in that court since a 1996 law governing such cases took effect.
• The largest prior settlement was a $153 million accord in 2013 involving the mortgage finance company Fannie Mae and its auditor KPMG.
• Shareholders said Danaher made false and misleading statements in 2022 and 2023 about its “bioprocessing” business, which sold equipment for manufacturing biopharmaceutical vaccines and therapeutics, including assurances there would be enduring demand.
• Danaher’s stock price fell on multiple occasions as the truth became public, and the company reduced sales forecasts, the shareholders said.
• The Washington, D.C.-based company denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. A spokesperson said on Thursday that the settlement “will allow us to avoid burdensome litigation and stay focused on our mission of helping solve the world’s most critical health challenges.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nia Williams)
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