NEW YORK, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Westwood One (NYSE: WON) today
responded to the April 9, 2008 press release issued by Pompano Helicopters,
Inc. that falsely characterized its lawsuit against Westwood One pending in
the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Pompano Helicopters formerly provided aircraft services to Westwood One's
subsidiary, Metro Networks, pursuant to several contracts that were terminated
in 2000 and 2001. In October 2007, Pompano Helicopters filed a Complaint
against Westwood One. The Complaint's principal claim is that, in May 2000,
Westwood One supposedly interfered with a possible sale of Pompano
Helicopters' assets to a third party. Westwood One responded to the Complaint
with a motion to dismiss, arguing that the allegations of the Complaint were
barred by the four- and two-year statutes of limitations applicable to Pompano
Helicopters' claims. Judge William J. Zloch issued his decision on that
motion on April 3, 2008, dismissing three counts of the Complaint as time-
barred, including the claim pertaining to the supposed sale of Pompano
Helicopters' assets. The Court invited a future motion for summary judgment
to determine whether the remaining counts are also barred by the statute of
limitations, after discovery has clarified when the conduct at issue in those
counts occurred. A copy of Judge Zloch's opinion can be found on the Westwood
One company website by clicking the following link:
http://www.westwoodone.com/pg/jsp/aboutus/pressreleases.jsp.
Pompano Helicopters' press release falsely states that its lawsuit seeks
"$362 million" in damages. In fact, for the now-dismissed asset-sale count,
the Complaint sought less than $6 million in damages. The remaining counts
of the Complaint have no claims for actual damages, aside from an allegation
that they seek, in the aggregate, "in excess of" $60,000 in compensatory
damages. Moreover, Judge Zloch did not find that Pompano Helicopters had
"provided sufficient cause for the lawsuit to be brought to trial." Instead,
Judge Zloch dismissed three counts of the Complaint and invited a future
summary judgment motion to address the remaining counts.
The case has not yet entered discovery. Westwood One believes that the
remaining claims in the Complaint are without merit and it intends to defend
the litigation vigorously. Westwood One is also evaluating its legal options
with respect to the false statements in the Pompano Helicopters' release.
About Westwood One
Westwood One (NYSE: WON) is a platform-agnostic content company providing
over 150 news, sports, music, talk, entertainment programs, features and live
events to numerous media partners. Through its subsidiaries, Metro
Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services, Westwood One provides local content to the
radio and TV industries and to the Web. This content includes news, sports,
weather, traffic, video news services and other information. SmartRoute
Systems manages traffic information centers for state and local departments of
transportation, and markets traffic and travel content to wireless, Internet,
in-vehicle navigation systems and voice portal customers. Westwood One serves
more than 5,000 radio stations. For more information please visit
www.westwoodone.com.
SOURCE Westwood One