A $190 Million Misclick for T. Rowe Price (fortune.com)

An anonymous reader writes: This week a court ordered restitution for any investors who'd opposed the 2013 buyout of Dell Inc., approximately $3.87 per share, plus interest. The investment firm T. Rowe Price was a vocal opponent of the deal, and had over 30 million shares scattered throughout its mutual funds. But an automated system at T. Rowe Price used its default setting -- which indicated support for the buyout -- an error which is now estimated to have cost the firm close to $190 million.
Dell won't receive the money "because, in essence, they checked the wrong box," reports Fortune. And the Baltimore Sun adds that the firm now faces the prospect of class action lawsuit from angry investors.

Comments

No misclick was involved

[Anonymous Coward]

If it is a preselected option in an automated system used by default, it's not a misclick - rather a badly setup config.

Re:Why would they?

[silentbozo]

AC is correct, the summary should have said that T. Rowe Price is going to miss out because they did not oppose the buyout when it came time to vote.

Re:Why is this Dell's problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA, the summary is wrong and makes no sense. Dell lost the lawsuit to shareholders who voted against the deal for undervaluing shares. TRP is not eligible for the winnings from that lawsuit because their computer made the mistake of voting for it. TRP may be liable to its investors because they are losing out on $190 million due to the computer glitch because without it the company was supposed to vote against the deal and be eligible for the lawsuit money.

That's a terrible summary

[mhkohne]

Proper summary:
The SLP buyout of Dell has been found to be underpriced, and SLP will have to make restitution to those who opposed it.
TRP doesn't get any of that money because they screwed up and didn't register as opposed to the buyout.

I've no idea if it's reasonable that SLP has to pay out to those who opposed the buyout.
It's perfectly reasonable that TRP gets nada, since they screwed up their end of things.