Xilinx shareholder derivative lawsuits dismissed

By Ann Steffora Mutschler -- Electronic News, 1/10/2007

San Jose-based FPGA market leader Xilinx Inc. must be breathing a sigh of relief this week following its announcement Monday that the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California has dismissed the consolidated shareholder derivative lawsuits that were filed against members of the company's board of directors and certain company officers.

Xilinx was targeted along with many other companies and high-tech execs of an industry-wide stock option backdating investigation

The complaints alleged, among other things, mismanagement of corporate assets by the defendants for failing to halt the backdating of certain stock options.

On November 30, 2006 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally notified Xilinx that its investigation of the company’s stock option granting practices had been terminated and that no enforcement action had been recommended, Xilinx reminded.

An investigation of Xilinx’s historical stock option granting practices found no evidence of fraud in the company’s practices in granting of stock options, nor any evidence of manipulation of the timing or exercise price of stock option grants, the company noted.

The investigation further found no issues of management integrity in the issuance of stock options.

Wim Roelandts, Xilinx chairman, president and CEO said in a statement, “We are pleased with the positive outcome of the investigation into Xilinx’s stock option granting and are happy to have the shareholder litigation related to this subject now closed. We have been exonerated.”