HP, Quanta Reach Asset Turnover Deal

HP and Quanta Storage reached a confidential agreement Thursday, June 18, resolving their contentious dispute over a US$439 million antitrust judgment Quanta refused to pay for months, in defiance of multiple court orders, a day before a contempt hearing in Houston federal court.

The settlement on undisclosed terms came about two weeks after the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, noting that Quanta had “risked bet-the-company litigation and lost” stated HP could keep millions in cash, factories, and patents that a Houston federal judge ordered it to turn over multiple times in April.

The case started in late 2013 when what was then known as Hewlett-Packard filed suit against seven manufacturers of optical disk drives for conspiring to artificially inflate the prices of those drives.

A jury trial determined in October of 2019 that Quanta Storage overcharged HP US$176.3 million for the optical drives it sold HP from 2003 to 2009, according to a June 5, 2020, court document obtained by CRN. Quanta Storage appealed, but lost the appeal, and HP was awarded triple damages less some payments it received in settlement, setting the way for the final amount to go to HP of US$438,650,000. 

HP in early 2020 attempted to collect the money, asking for a sheriff or constable to take possession of Quanta Storage’s property and sell it to pay HP.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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