The Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the bankrupt @Home Corp. against Cox Communications and Comcast. @Home accused the two of improper sales of @Home stock to AT&T; @Home sought to recover $600 million in the suit.
@Home alleged the sales benefited from insider information. Under federal securities law, any profits realized by company insiders due to short-term trades in the company’s shares can be recovered by the company.
@Home charged that Comcast recorded a profit of $296.3 million from its trades and Cox recorded a gain of $307.4 million.
Cox argued in its brief for the court that the transactions, which involved so-called “hybrid” derivatives, took place over a period of more than a year and therefore fell outside the six-month window specified in law.