PUBLISHINGSettlement Reachedon Beardstown BookWalt Disney Co. agreed...

PUBLISHING

Settlement Reached

on Beardstown Book

Walt Disney Co. agreed to give credits toward book purchases to settle a lawsuit brought by consumers who said the company made fraudulent claims on the covers of “Beardstown Ladies’ Common-Sense Investment Guide.”

Disney’s Hyperion publishing unit agreed to give buyers of the Beardstown Ladies’ book, videotape or audiotape a $25 credit toward another Hyperion book. Buyers of the paperback editions get a $15 credit, according to terms of the tentative settlement approved earlier this month.

The Beardstown Ladies’ Investment Club, a group of 16 mostly elderly women in Beardstown, Ill., gained fame in the 1990s for reportedly earning average returns that outperformed mutual funds and professional money managers.

The suit was filed on behalf of more than 800,000 people nationwide in 1998, after an independent audit found that the Beardstown Ladies misstated their investment performance. The book claimed the club earned 23.4% a year on investments from 1984 to 1993, though a reporter for Chicago magazine later found the annualized return was 9.1%.

The group later admitted the 23.4% figure was inaccurate, saying it resulted from a computer-input error.

Bloomberg News