Matav Cable Systems Media Ltd. (Nasdaq: MATV), a leading Israeli provider of broadband cable TV services, today announced that following a press release issued by the company on September 27, 1999 with respect to a class action that was filed against Matav, it has reached a settlement agreement which was approved by the Israeli court on February 18, 2001, with respect to the class action.
The class action was first filed against the company on behalf of residents of certain municipalities in northern Israel regarding the relevant residents' claim that the company did not connect them to its CATV network. According to the agreement, the company shall pay a total sum of $820,000, of which $719,000 shall be allocated to the relevant municipalities, in which the relevant residents live, for the development of education, sports and culture in those municipalities.
The agreement will settle all of the disputes, upon which the class action was based. However, if within a period of 45 days from the date of the official publication in the media of the agreement, 1,500 or more relevant residents give notice that they do not wish to be a party to the agreement, the company will have the right to cancel the agreement and will then continue the legal proceedings of the class action in court.
Matav is one of Israel's three cable television providers, serving roughly 25 percent of the population in a government-mandated monopoly market. Matav's investments include 15% of Partner Communications Ltd., a GSM mobile phone company, 10% of Barak Ltd., Israel's second-largest provider of international long distance and Internet telephony, and 100 percent of Non-Stop, a new company preparing to offer broadband Internet services.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 22, 2001.