BUSINESS BRIEFING / COURTS
Times Wire Reports
A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas as a defendant in a class-action lawsuit by shareholders over the backdating of stock options.
Judge Manuel L. Real ruled that the 2008 lawsuit was filed beyond the statute of limitations, more than five years after Nicholas resigned in 2003 as chief executive of the Irvine chip maker.
The plaintiffs allege that the company’s stock price dropped on news and financial analysts’ reports of problems with stock options in 2006.
Broadcom issued a $2.2-billion accounting restatement in January 2007 related to backdating.
