NEW YORK- LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Feb. 16, 2006–The law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP announces that a class action lawsuit was filed on February 15, 2006, on behalf of purchasers of the securities of The Cooper Companies, Inc. (“Cooper” or the “Company”) (NYSE: COO) between July 29, 2004 and November 21, 2005, inclusive (the “Class Period”), including persons who received Cooper shares in exchange for exchanging shares of Ocular Sciences in the January 2005 merger between Cooper and Ocular Sciences, Inc., seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).
The action, numbered SACV-06-169 CJC, is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division, against defendants Cooper, A. Thomas Bender (CEO), Robert S. Weiss (CFO) and John D. Fruth (Director). The Judge presiding over the action is the Honorable Cormac J. Carney. A copy of the complaint filed in this action is available from the Court, or can be viewed on Milberg Weiss’s website at: http://www.milbergweiss.com
If you bought the securities of Cooper between July 29, 2004 and November 21, 2005, inclusive, and/or received Cooper shares in exchange for your shares of Ocular Sciences, and sustained damages, you may, no later than April 17, 2006, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as “lead plaintiff.” Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.
The Complaint alleges that defendants’ Class Period statements, made in press releases and SEC filings, were materially false and misleading for the following reasons, among other reasons detailed in the complaint, because: (a) the Company improperly accounted for assets acquired in the Ocular Sciences merger, as reported in the Proxy Statement, by misclassifying intangible assets as tangible ones, which had the effect of lowering amortization expense; (b) the Company’s aggressive earnings guidance reflected the improper accounting for intangible assets and was inflated by (among other things) the amount of the understated amortization expense; (c) the merger synergies touted by defendants were unrealistic and were lacking in any reasonable basis; (d) Ocular Sciences had stuffed the channel with its Biomedics products; (e) the Company’s lack of a two-week silicone hydrogel product would prevent it from meeting its aggressive growth targets for 2005 and beyond, contrary to defendants’ repeated representations that the Company’s Proclear product was competing favorably against the silicone hydrogel products; (f) Cooper and Ocular in fact competed in the two-week lens market.
When the truth was disclosed at the end of the Class Period, on November 21, 2005 and November 22, 2005, the price of Cooper common stock collapsed, falling by $21 per share, or 29%, to close at $51.47 per share on November 22, 2005. During the Class Period, before the value of Cooper securities collapsed, insiders sold a total of 1,970,233 shares of common stock for proceeds of $141,492,613, at the mean price of $71.82 per share.
Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP (http://www.milbergweiss.com) is a firm with over 100 lawyers with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Boca Raton, Delaware and Washington, D.C. and is active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Milberg Weiss has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors, consumers, and others for nearly 40 years. Please contact the Milberg Weiss website for more information about the firm. If you wish to discuss this action with us, or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights and interests with regard to the case, please contact the following attorneys:
Steven G. Schulman
Peter E. Seidman
Andrei V. Rado
One Pennsylvania Plaza, 49th fl.
New York, NY, 10119-0165
Phone number: (800) 320-5081
Email: sfeerick@milbergweiss.com
Website: http://www.milbergweiss.com
