“JELD-WEN firmly maintains that it has not violated any antitrust laws and that it has not damaged Steves,” stated Gary S. Michel, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Rather than resolving a simple contractual dispute between two parties, the District Court has now delivered an erroneous ruling that improperly interferes with our company and the broader commercial marketplace.”
Consistent with the preliminary ruling previously announced on October
6, 2018, the final judgment orders the Company to divest its facility in
As noted by a number of legal experts following the case, the District
Court’s ruling, if it is allowed to stand, fundamentally undermines the
future of M&A activity in
The District Court’s judgment also contravenes fundamental legal
principles by enforcing an equitable remedy (divestiture) where it
acknowledges that monetary relief is already available. In the event the
divestiture order is overturned on appeal, the judgment requires
JELD-WEN to pay approximately
Finally, the District Court entered judgment against Steves in the
amount of
Mr. Michel also stated, “While today’s ruling is disappointing, it will
not alter our focus as we will continue to provide industry-leading
products and services to our customers during the appeal process.
Additionally, we will continue to support the growth and development of
our dedicated employees at the
The Company continues to believe that requiring a divestiture of the
The Company also believes that the findings of violations of the antitrust laws and resulting damages award are legally and factually incorrect and the result of significant flawed rulings during the trial process. These rulings improperly limited the Company’s defenses in the trial by excluding key evidence and other relevant matters from the jury’s consideration. Evidence that the Company was prevented from presenting to the jury included the favorable results of the two previous DOJ antitrust enforcement reviews, the significant profitability growth and expansion of Steves’ own business since the 2012 acquisition, and other benefits to the market resulting from the combination of JELD-WEN and CMI. JELD-WEN also believes that the District Court improperly bifurcated the trial involving Steves’ contract claims from the trial involving JELD-WEN’s claims regarding Steves’ misappropriation of trade secrets, allowing Steves to present contradictory evidence in the two different trials.
The Company is unable to estimate the ultimate timing of, transaction
terms, or estimated potential proceeds from any divestiture of the
For the fiscal year ended 2017, the
About JELD-WEN
JELD-WEN, founded in 1960, is one of the world’s largest door and window
manufacturers, operating manufacturing facilities in 20 countries
located primarily in
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” regarding the potential outcome and impact of litigation (including but not limited to the probability and impact of any divestiture resulting from the Steves litigation and the success of our appeals in that matter), and our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, prospects, assumptions, or other future events. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by our use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “might”, “plan”, “potential”, “predict”, “seek”, or “should”, or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Where, in any forward-looking statement, we express an expectation or belief as to future results or events, such expectation or belief is based on the current plans, expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections of our management. Although we believe that these statements are based on reasonable expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections, they are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those indicated in such statements.
Our actual results could differ materially from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the factors discussed in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, both filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The forward-looking statements included in this release are made as of the date hereof, and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking statements to reflect events, new information or circumstances occurring
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Source: JELD-WEN Holding, Inc.