Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has granted preliminary approval of settlement of Sampson v. Robinson, et al., Case No. 1:07-CV-06890 (on appeal: Case No. 08-5475), a shareholder action pursued derivatively on behalf of Bristol-Myers Squibb. The action concerned allegations relating to the efforts to settle the Plavix patent litigation in 2006. The proposed settlement is subject to final Court approval. The Court has set a final approval hearing for December 8, 2009 at 2 pm in the courtroom of the Honourable Paul A. Crotty, United States District Judge.
As required by the Court's Preliminary Approval Order, Bristol-Myers Squibb is providing shareholders with detailed notice of the terms of the proposed settlement on its website. The notice also contains important information regarding the rights of shareholders with respect to this proposed settlement. We encourage shareholders to read the notice in its entirety. The notice can be found at www.bms.com.