DeCrane Shareholder Suit Settlement OKd

DeCrane Aircraft Holdings Inc. won a judge’s approval of a settlement that ends a former shareholder’s lawsuit over Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc.’s $182-million purchase of the aerospace electronics maker. DLJ, the New York-based investment bank and securities firm, acquired El Segundo-based DeCrane for $23 per share in a tender offer in August 1998. DeCrane shareholder Taam Associates Inc. filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court in 1998, arguing that DeCrane’s board should have shopped around more for a better price before accepting DLJ’s bid. Taam officials later dropped their suit when DLJ and DeCrane officials agreed to disclose more about the acquisition before the deadline for the shareholders to decide whether to tender their shares to DLJ. The disclosures were “information the reasonably prudent shareholder would have wanted to know and be able to analyze on their own,” Chancery Court Judge Myron Steele said before approving the settlement. DLJ shares fell $3.63 to close at $48.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.