In Re Motorola Securities Litigation

505 F. Supp. 2d 501, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9530, 2007 WL 487738
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedFebruary 8, 2007
Docket03 C 287
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 505 F. Supp. 2d 501 (In Re Motorola Securities Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Motorola Securities Litigation, 505 F. Supp. 2d 501, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9530, 2007 WL 487738 (N.D. Ill. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

PALLMEYER, District Judge.

This consolidated securities fraud class action, brought by Lead Plaintiff The State of New Jersey, Department of the Treasury, • Division of Investment (“New Jersey”) against Motorola, Inc. (“Motorola”) and three of its- senior executives (collectively, “Defendants”), arises from the relationship between Motorola and Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon Hizmetleri A.S. (“Telsim”), a Turkish cellular telephone service provider. Lead Plaintiff alleges that Defendants misrepresented or failed to disclose material facts relating to a series of transactions in which Motorola sold billions of dollars worth of cellular handsets and infrastructure equipment to Tel-sim, but provided Telsim with 100% of the financing for the purchases and for working capital. Lead Plaintiff alleges that these misrepresentations violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1984 (the “SEA”), 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) and 78t(a), and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5. Defendants have filed two motions for summary judgment, one arguing that the action is barred by the statute of limitations, and the other contending that Lead Plaintiff cannot, as a matter of law, establish that Defendants’ eventual disclosures of Telsim-related information caused the share price declines of Motorola common stock for which Lead Plaintiff seeks damages. For the reasons explained below, Defendants’ motion for summary judgment (statute of limitations) is denied, and their motion for summary judgment (loss causation) is granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND 1

I. Motorola and Telsim

Motorola designs, manufactures, sells, installs, and services communications and *505 other electronics equipment, including •wireless handsets and wireless infrastructure equipment used in operating wireless networks. (PI.’s 56.1 Addnl. ¶ 1.) A Delaware corporation, Motorola maintains its principal executive offices in Schaumburg, Illinois, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (Def.’s 56.1(SOL) ¶ 5.) Defendant Christopher B. Galvin was, during the class period, Chief Executive Officer of Motorola and Chairman of its Board of Directors. (Id. ¶ 6.) Defendant Carl F. Koenemann was Motorola’s Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. (Id. ¶ 7.) Defendant Robert L. Growney was Chief Operating Officer, and also served as a director and as Vice Chairman of Motorola from 1997 through 2001. (Id. ¶ 8.) Lead Plaintiff has alleged that it purchased publicly-traded Motorola securities between February 3, 2000 and May 14, 2001 (the “Class Period”). (Id. ¶ 4.)

Motorola provides its cellular infrastructure equipment and handsets to cellular operators throughout the world. (Id. ¶ 22.) Until 2001, one such customer was Telsim, a Turkish telecommunications company formed in 1993 to develop a wireless communications network in that country. (Id. ¶ 19; Defi’s 56.1(LC) ¶ 9.) Telsim was Turkey’s second-largest provider of cellular telephone service from 1997 to 2001; during this time, Turkey’s largest cellular service provider, Turkcell, obtained its wireless equipment exclusively *506 from Ericsson, a competitor of Motorola’s. 2 (Def.’s 56.1(LC) ¶¶ 9,11.) Telsim was controlled by members of the Uzan family, including Kemal Uzan and his sons; Kemal Uzan’s son Hakan Uzan was the primary contact liaison between Telsim and Motorola. (Id. ¶ 10; Pl.’s 56.1 Addnl. ¶2.) The Uzans had a “very bad public reputation for basic honesty and integrity.” 3 (Def.’s 56.1(LC) ¶ 16 (quoting Rebuttal Expert Report of Professor Charles A. Warner (“Werner Rebuttal”), Ex. 5 to Schwartz Decl., at 7).) News stories appearing between 1985 and 2001 reported that the Uzans had a history of questionable business practices and relationships. (Werner Rebuttal, at 7.) Financial media reported that the Uzans had improperly transferred funds and committed other financial irregularities in connection with an electric company they controlled, culminating in authorities raiding the company’s headquarters and seizing its books. (Id. at 7-8; Def.’s 56.1(LC) ¶ 16.) The Uzans and the companies they controlled had also been accused of libel and with blackmailing a dairy company. (Werner Rebuttal, at 8; Def.’s 56.1(LC) ¶ 16.) Other “severely adverse information about the Uzans ... was *507 readily available” during the Class Period. (Def.’s 56.1(LC) ¶ 16 (quoting Werner Rebuttal, at 8).)

It is unclear when Motorola began its relationship with Telsim. The existence of that relationship became public knowledge in any event on December 3, 1996, when Motorola issued a press release announcing a $90 million contract for the sale of cellular infrastructure equipment to Tel-sim. 4 (Id. ¶ 12; Expert Report of Professor Charles A. Werner (“Werner Report”), Ex. 1 to Schwartz Deck, at 4.) Larger transactions followed. Beginning in April 1998, Motorola and Telsim entered into a series of “vendor financing” agreements in which Motorola sold cellular products to Telsim but did not seek immediate cash payment; rather, through its subsidiary Motorola Credit Corporation (“MCC”), Motorola provided financing for the purchases as well as for “working capital.” 5 (Def.’s 56.1(SOL) ¶¶ 23-25; Def.’s 56.1(LC) ¶ 13; Pb’s 56.1 Addnl. ¶2.) Specifically, in vendor financing agreements dated April 24, 1998, 6 Motorola loaned Tel-sim $200 million to finance the purchase of a $500 million telecommunications license from the Turkish government, and provided $360 million in vendor financing for sales to Telsim of handsets and infrastructure equipment. (Pl.’s 56.1 Addnl. ¶ 3.) At this time, Telsim had outstanding to Motorola $52.5 million in promissory notes incurred in connection with (unidentified) earlier purchases. (Id.) In August 1998, Motorola, subject to Telsim’s guarantee of payment, provided $60 million in license financing and $9 million in equipment financing to L.L.L. KaR-Tel (“KaR-Tel”), a Kazakhstan wireless telecommunications company 70% owned by the Uzan family. (PL’s 56.1 Addnl. ¶ 4.)

By December 1998, Motorola had deter-niined that it had reached its limit with regard to vendor financing for Telsim. 7 *508 (Id. ¶ 5.) Accordingly, Motorola sought Telsim’s cooperation in obtaining financing from third parties to enable Telsim to continue to purchase handsets and infrastructure equipment from Motorola. (Id.) Although the parties dispute Telsim’s level of cooperation in these efforts, 8

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Bluebook (online)
505 F. Supp. 2d 501, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9530, 2007 WL 487738, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-motorola-securities-litigation-ilnd-2007.