ISRAEL - NICE Systems to pay $4m to investors

Yitzhak Danon 11.03.2002 16:48 NICE-Systems (Nasdaq: NICE) will pay $4.08 million to investors who bought its shares between February 16, 2000 and February 8, 2001. The payment is under an agreement given the force of a court ruling by the Tel Aviv District Court. Two class action suits were filed against NICE on behalf of investors who bought the company shares in this period.

The claim asserted during the period in question NICE published misleading information about its sales revenue around the world. The misleading information caused an artificial rise in the share price, which did not reflect the share's true market price.

On February 8, 2001, NICE shook the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) by adjusting its financial statements. The company announced it had revised its last quarterly report published in December 2000 and adjusted and revised downward its 1999 financial statements and the financial reports for the first three quarters of 2000.

The claimants asserted that non-existent revenues were reported to the investors for four quarters, i.e. the company admitted it had reported inflated and unrealistic sales for an extended period. As a result of the announcement, the company share tumbled 15.2% in the last 40 minutes of trade on the TASE on that day. The company share fell 28.7% on Nasdaq the same day. The fall in the share price caused members of the public holding NICE shares to suffer financial damage in the relevant period. http://new.globes.co.il/serveEN/globes/docView.asp?did=569657&fid=947

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002