[JURIST] [JURIST] Leading Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, the Wall Street Journal is reporting [subscription req'd] Cablevision Systems Corp. [corporate website] has raised its bid for Adelphia Communications Inc. [corporate website] to $17.1 billion. The move may threaten the $18 billion competing offer from Time Warner Inc. [corporate website] and Comcast Corp [corporate website]. It is not clear how seriously Adelphia or the creditor's committee will take the offer. Also today, Time Warner's bid is reportedly being held up in bankruptcy court because of the break-up fee of $500 million that Adelphia would pay Time Warner if they fail to consummate a sale. Reuters has more.

In other news…

• Outsourcing solutions provider Bisys Group Inc. [corporate website] said it believes an SEC [official website] investigation into the company relates to the company's agreements with certain mutual funds under which it agreed to pay for expenses related to the marketing and distribution of the fund shares, as well as payments to advisers and other expenses. The company is conducting its own investigation and may have to delay its announcement of its third-quarter results if the investigation is not finished. Read the Bisys press release. AP has more.
• MSC Software Corp. [corporate website], the leading global provider of virtual product development products, announced [MSC Software press release] the SEC has started an investigation into the company related to a disclosed independent review directed by the company's audit committee. MSC.Software will cooperate with the probe.
• The Wall Street Journal is reporting [subscription req'd] Saks Inc. [corporate website] is making plans to sell its midprice chains in two geographic clusters of north and south. The move could lead to the sale of its Saks Fifth Avenue luxury division [retail website]. The sale could be hampered by an expanding internal and SEC investigation into the company's payment and accounting practices. Just last week Saks indicated that its internal investigation had been broadened from payments from vendors to include related financial and accounting issues. As a result of the investigation, Saks has not completed its financial statements [Saks press release] for fiscal 2004. AP has more.
• ABB Ltd. [corporate website], the Swiss-Swedish electrical engineering giant, said it has notified the US Justice Department [official website] and the SEC of $560,000 in suspect payments by former employees at its American software unit ABB network management. The suspected payments to intermediaries in Latin America and in the Middle East were discovered during an internal investigation following the dismissal of two managers from the company in 2004. AP has more.
• As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, a unanimous Supreme Court [official website] refused to make it easier for investors to sue companies and seek damages in certain securities fraud cases. In Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo [Duke Law School case backgrounder], 03-932 [Supreme Court docket], the Court overturned a Ninth Circuit decision that plaintiffs could simply prove the stock price was inflated due to misrepresentations. Read the opinion [PDF]. Reuters has more.

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