Moore Wallace (NYSE:MWI)
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Moore Wallace Announces Suspension of CFO
James R. Sulat Named Interim Chief Financial Officer
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario and NEW YORK, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Moore
Wallace Incorporated (TSX: MWI) announced today that Mark Hiltwein, its
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has been suspended with
pay. This suspension results from actions Mr. Hiltwein took late last week in
providing a misdated document to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in connection with
an investigation they were conducting. That investigation focused on allegations
in an anonymous letter received by the Company in late December 2003 alleging
misuse of acquisition-related restructuring charges, together with vague
assertions of other accounting actions.
At the direction of the Audit Committee of the Company's Board of Directors,
PricewaterhouseCoopers immediately began an independent review of the
allegations of misconduct in the letter. PricewaterhouseCoopers had largely
completed their work and found noevidence to support these allegations.
As described below, based on information available to the Company to date, it
does not appear that this matter will have any financial statement impact.
Mr. Hiltwein, 40, has been replaced as Chief Financial Officer on an interim
basis by James R. Sulat, Senior Executive Vice President of Moore Wallace. Mr.
Sulat, 53, who joined Moore Wallace in April of 2003, brings extensive
experience in corporate governance to the role of chief financial officer.
Prior to joining Moore Wallace, Mr. Sulat served as Chief Financial Officer of
Chiron Corporation. Prior to joining Chiron, Mr. Sulat served as Chief
Financial Officer of Stanford Health Services. He was educated at Yale College
and Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He currently serves as
Chairman of the Audit Committee of each of Vans, Inc. and Maxygen, Inc.
As described above, PricewaterhouseCoopers had largely completed their work and
found no evidence to support the allegations of misconduct in the anonymous
letter. Although the Company and the Company's outside auditors were satisfied
with the level of documentation supporting the restructuring charges,
PricewaterhouseCoopers asked the Company's accounting staff, including Mr.
Hiltwein, for any additional materials they had supporting these restructuring
charges. On Thursday of last week Mr. Hiltwein directed another member of the
accounting staff to send to PricewaterhouseCoopers a memorandum about the
Company's restructuring processes and plans. This memorandum's dateline was
"May 2003" but was created by Mr. Hiltwein last week and appears to be
documentation of the kind PricewaterhouseCoopers was requesting.
PricewaterhouseCoopers detected that the document had been created later than
the dateline of the memorandum. The other member of the accounting staff has
also been suspended with pay pending completion of the investigation of the
misdated document.
Although the absence of clearly organized summary restructuring plan documents
at corporate headquarters was the subject of a recommendation by
PricewaterhouseCoopers for improvement and the Audit Committee had directed Mr.
Hiltwein to seek to improve this area of corporate record keeping prospectively,
it did not appear to be a major shortcoming. The Company does not believe that
the non-existence of the memorandum created by Mr. Hiltwein would have any
effect on the Company's accounting for its restructuring charges. The Company
has spoken to Mr. Hiltwein and hehas stated that the dating of this document
was a mistake and poor judgment on his part but that it was not the product of
any intention to deceive PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Audit Committee or anyone
else.
When it was received, the anonymous letter was immediately forwarded to the
Audit Committee for any action it deemed appropriate and also forwarded to the
U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and
the New York Stock Exchange. The Company also has kept its combination partner,
RR Donnelley, informed regarding the allegations and their investigation. The
Company had agreed to provide documents requested by the SEC in response to the
anonymous letter. The Company will, in all matters, cooperate fully with any
regulatory agency that wishes to investigate any matters within the agency's
jurisdiction.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is taking additional actions to confirm their earlier
conclusions. The Company will report the full findings of the
PricewaterhouseCoopers investigation in an expeditious manner.
Mark A. Angelson, Chief Executive Officer of the Company said, "We are extremely
fortunate to have Jim Sulat as a member of our corporate family. He is a proven
leader and trusted counsellor with an excellent reputation."
Mr. Angelson continued, "Mark Hiltwein's suspension should not be viewed as a
conclusion that he acted with an intention to deceive. Mr. Hiltwein has a
widely held reputation for personal integrity, and he has provided long,
excellentservice to the Company. However, Mr. Hiltwein's conduct was
unacceptable and in the circumstances the Board of Directors has concluded to
relieve him of his responsibilities pending completion of a full investigation
by our audit committee and its independent advisors."
About Moore Wallace
Moore Wallace is a leading single-source provider of print management and
outsourced communications, delivering to its customers one of the widest arrays
of products and services at one of the lowest total costs.
The Company operates in three complementary business segments: Forms and Labels,
Outsourcing and Commercial Print. The Forms and Labels business designs,
manufactures and sells paper-based and electronic business forms and labels and
provides electronic print management solutions. The Outsourcing business
provides high-quality, high-volume variably imaged print and mail, electronic
statement and database management services. The Commercial Print business
produces high-quality, multi-color personalized business communications and
provides direct marketing services, including project, database and list
management services. For more information, visit the Company's web site at
http://www.moorewallace.com/.
Use of Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information, this news release contains "forward- looking
statements" as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Readers are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are based on
current expectations anddo not include the potential impact of any business
risks, opportunities or developments, market conditions or exchange rate
fluctuations that may occur after the date of this press release.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results
and involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results or developments to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. Readers are strongly encouraged to read the full
cautionarystatements described in the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), including the section entitled "Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations"
contained therein. The Company's SECfilings are available at
http://www.sec.gov/, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2002, and the Company's Canadian regulatory
filings are available at http://www.sedar.com/. The Company disclaims any
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. The Audit
Committee of Moore Wallace's Board of Directors has reviewed this press
release.
Additional Information
On November 8, 2003, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company ("RR Donnelley") and Moore
Wallace Incorporated ("Moore Wallace") entered into a definitive agreement to
combine the two companies. This communication is not a solicitation of a proxy
from any securityholder of Moore Wallace or RR Donnelley. Moore Wallace and RR
Donnelley have filed a Joint Management Information Circular and Proxy Statement
regarding the proposed transaction with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), and Moore Wallace has filed the Joint Management Information
Circular and Proxy Statement with the Canadian securities regulatory
authorities.
WE URGE INVESTORS IN RR DONNELLEY AND MOORE WALLACE TO CAREFULLY READ THE JOINT
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION CIRCULAR AND PROXY STATEMENT BECAUSE IT CONTAINS
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT RR DONNELLEY, MOORE WALLACE AND THE PROPOSED
TRANSACTION.
Investors and securityholders may obtain the Joint Management Information
Circular and Proxy Statement and any other relevant documents filed by RR
Donnelley and Moore Wallace free of charge at the SEC's website,
http://www.sec.gov/, and at the website of the Canadian System for Electronic
Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) maintained by the Canadian Securities
Administrators at http://www.sedar.com/. In addition, investors and
securityholders may obtain freecopies of the Joint Management Information
Circular and Proxy Statement filed with the SEC by RR Donnelley by contacting RR
Donnelley Investor Relations, 77 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601,Tel. (312)
326-8926. Investors and securityholders may obtain free copies of the Joint
Management Information Circular and Proxy Statement filed with the SEC and SEDAR
by Moore Wallace by contacting Moore Wallace Investor Relations, One Canterbury
Green, Stamford, CT 06901,Tel. (203) 406-3298.
RR Donnelley, Moore Wallace and their executive officers and directors may be
deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from RR Donnelley
stockholders and Moore Wallace securityholders in favor of the proposed
transaction. Information regarding the security ownership and other interests of
RR Donnelley's and Moore Wallace's executive officers and directors is included
in the Joint Management Information Circular and Proxy Statement.
Factors relating to the completion of the RR Donnelley transaction and the
integration of the businesses that could cause material differences in the
expected results of the combined company include, without limitation, the
following: the development and execution of comprehensive plans for asset
rationalization, the ability to eliminate duplicative overhead without excessive
cost or adversely affecting the business, the potential loss of customers and
employees as a result of the transaction, the ability to achieve procurement
savings by leveraging total spending across the organization, the success of the
organization in leveraging its comprehensive product offering to the combined
customer base as well as the ability of the organization to complete the
integration of the combined companies without losing focus onthe business. In
addition, the ability of the combined company to achieve the expected revenues,
accretion and synergy savings will also be affected by the effects of
competition (in particular the response to the transaction in the marketplace),
the effects of paper and other raw materials and fuel price fluctuations and
shortages of supply, the rate of migration from paper-based forms to digital
formats, the impact of currency fluctuations in the countries in which RR
Donnelley and Moore Wallace operate, general economic and other factors beyond
the combined company's control, and other risks and uncertainties described from
time to time in RR Donnelley's and Moore Wallace's periodic filings with United
States and Canadian securities regulatory authorities, as applicable.
Website: http://www.moorewallace.com
DATASOURCE: Moore Wallace Incorporated
CONTACT: Investors, Julie K. Gottlieb of Moore Wallace Incorporated,
+1-203-406-3825, ; or Media, Kenny Juarez of
The Abernathy MacGregor Group, +1-212-371-5999, , for Moore
Wallace