Business Economics--Cases

Great Western Directories v. Southwestern Bell

• This antitrust case received the National Law Journal's "Silver Award" in 1996 for demonstrating that a plaintiff could prevail in an intent case. The case is also notable, and frequently cited, for the proposition that antitrust injury can occur even where the injured firm continues to thrive. In this case, twice upheld by the Fifth Circuit on Appeal and settled while on cert to the Supreme Court, Spectrum developed statistical models to define the relevant product market and to show pricing differentials in competitive and monopolized markets. We have performed similar antitrust analyses in matters involving other publishers and telephone utilities.

Crown Building Supplies, Inc. v. Peachtree Doors, Inc.

• Distributor Crown alleged breaches of an agreement by manufacturer Peachtree regarding credit and other terms of trade forced it out of business. By analyzing industry and company financial data, Spectrum was able to successfully demonstrate that the low sales volume and profitability of Crown were largely due to poor merchandising, insufficient capitalization and inadequate product offerings totally unrelated to the alleged breach.

Bluebonnet Savings Bank v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp

• In this "Winstar" case involving a Southwest Plan savings & loan institutions, Spectrum appraised the value of the equity of this $3 billion financial institution, assessed the impact of the government's actions, damages incurred by stockholders as a result of the FDIC's breach. Our appraisal made use of statistical methods in selecting comparable firms and calculating "but for" market to book value ratios. Phase I of this case settled for a nine figure amount and Phase II is currently before the U.S. Court of Claims.

Eckholt v. ABI

• This case was brought by ABI's former chief executive officer who was terminated by the seminar company due to inadequate operating performance and sought damages based on a "buy-out" clause in his employment contract. By analyzing the company's historical database of seminar planning and performance, Spectrum demonstrated that the firm's downward trend corresponded with the plaintiff's tenure and direction and traced many of the problems encountered by the company with specific programs initiated by the former CEO. In addition, Spectrum demonstrated that when obvious errors in the financial analysis and valuation done by plaintiff's damage expert were corrected, the value of the plaintiff's claim was less than the minimum buy-out specified in his employment contract.

Nevada Power Company v. Monsanto Company

• Nevada Power claimed a loss due to early replacement of transformers because of PCB contamination of dielectric fluid. We conclusively demonstrated, using a database of transformers in the field, that the savings in electric generating costs, which resulted from replacing the transformers more than offset any loss from early retirement, hence Nevada Power was not harmed, and that proper electric utility engineering analysis would have led to the replacement of the transformers notwithstanding any contamination.