£318m Settlement For BSkyB

It has been reported that a total of £318m will be paid to BskyB as part of a final settlement of the long-running legal case against Electronic Data Systems, a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard.
In an announcement today, Sky said that it had reached a settlement with EDS regarding a contract issued over 10 years ago to build a customer relationship management system.
EDS was hired (later to be taken over by Hewlett-Packard) as part of the expansion process, only the contract ended in March 2002 after what was described in court as a "woeful" performance. Mr Justice Ramsey made his original ruling in favour of Sky.
Originally seeking £709m in compensation from the data provider, Sky will now be awarded £318m over the £48m contract.
EDS have agreed to pay the damages, costs and interest, including an interim payment of £270m made in February.
It was reported in court that the project took six years to complete and if the contractor had been honest about its abilities, Sky would have selected a different company.
After the January high court ruling, a spokesman for Hewlett-Packard said that the legal dispute was a "legacy issue" inherited by the company when it took over EDS in 2008.
(BMcN/GK)