NEW YORK -- Feb. 13, 1996 -- Ladenburg, Thalmann
Group Inc. announced today that its merchant banking subsidiary,
Ladenburg Thalmann Capital Corp., has completed its previously
announced agreement to invest $10 million in href="chap11.thinking.html">Thinking Machines
Corporation, a developer and marketer of parallel software for
high-
end and networked computing systems.
Thinking Machines announced today that it has emerged from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The investment provided by
Ladenburg Thalmann will help fund Thinking Machines advanced product
development and marketing.
Founded in 1983, Thinking Machines is a pioneer in parallel
technology for supercomputers and has created some of the world s
most powerful computers. The Company posted a profit for its most
recent fiscal year ending December 31, 1995.
Ladenburg, Thalmann Group Inc., is the parent of Ladenburg,
Thalmann & Co. Inc., a registered broker-dealer and investment
bank, and is owned by New Valley Corporation (OTC: NVLY).
CONTACT: George Sard/Anna Cordasco/Paul Caminiti
Sard Verbinnen & Co
212/687-8080
WORCESTER, Mass., Feb. 13, 1996 - href="chap11.cambridge.html">Cambridge Biotech
Corporation announced today that it has entered into a settlement
agreement with the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit filed
against the company and several of its former officers. The parties
have submitted the settlement agreement for approval by the United
States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
"Settling the class action lawsuit moves us an important step
forward in our reorganization process," said Alison Taunton-Rigby,
Ph.D., President CEO of Cambridge Biotech. "As part of the
reorganization effort, we plan to sell our diagnostic business and
focus on our core biopharmaceutical operations. We have active
discussions ongoing with a number of companies concerning the sales
of our diagnostic operations, and when those discussions are
completed, we plan to file our reorganization plan. We are
enthusiastic about our future as a new biopharmaceutical company
developing vaccines, adjuvants and immunotherapy products." Dr.
Taunton-Rigby noted that the success or timing of company efforts to
sell the diagnostic business cannot be predicted.
Cambridge Biotech's biopharmaceutical business develops and
commercializes therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines for infectious
diseases and immunotherapeutics for cancer. The company's product
development programs include partnered efforts to develop new
vaccines containing QS-21 and other novel Stimulon(TM) adjuvants as
well as proprietary efforts to develop human vaccines for
streptococcal pneumonia, malaria, and tick-borne diseases. For the
animal health market, the company is developing vaccines for canine
Lyme disease and bovine mastitis.
Under the agreement, the settlement class will receive
approximately 25% of the equity of a new biopharmaceutical company,
which will be formed under the Cambridge Biotech Corporation Chapter
11 reorganization plan, and $1,050,000 in cash from an insurance
policy covering the individual defendants. In general, the
settlement class includes purchasers who bought the company's common
stock between February 28, 1992 and May 9, 1994. The settlement
agreement also provides for reimbursement under the same insurance
policy of up to $100,000 for legal fees and expenses of individual
officers and directors to the extent permitted by law.
The class action lawsuit, which began in November 1993, alleged
that the company and certain individuals had violated Section 10(b)
of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 by
disseminating materially false and misleading information to the
public causing them to purchase the company's stock at artificially
inflated prices between February 28, 1992 through May 9, 1994. The
company denied the plaintiffs' allegations of wrongdoing. On July
7, 1994, the company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the
United States Bankruptcy Code.
The settlement agreement is subject to approval by the District
Court and confirmation by the Bankruptcy Court for the District of
Massachusetts, Western Division, of a plan of reorganization to be
submitted by the company.
Cambridge Biotech Corporation, which filed for protection under
Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on July 7, 1994, is a
therapeutics and diagnostics company focusing on infectious diseases
and cancer. The company is developing and commercializing
therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases and
immunotherapeutics for cancer. The company's therapeutics business
includes the Stimulon(TM) family of adjuvants, the most advanced of
which, QS-21, is in clinical development through corporate and
academic partners, and proprietary vaccines. The proprietary
vaccines include a feline leukemia vaccine currently on the market,
and vaccines in development in the areas of tick-borne diseases,
streptococcal pneumonia, malaria, bovine mastitis and canine Lyme
disease. Cambridge Biotech's diagnostic business is primarily
focused on retroviral, Lyme and enteric diseases.
CONTACT: Alison Taunton-Rigby, President & Chief Executive Officer
of Cambridge Biotech Corp., 508-797-5777 or Robert Gottlieb, Senior
Vice President of Feinstein Partners, 617-577-8110