Pomerantz Secures Record-Setting $172.5 Million Settlement for Danaher Investors

On June 1, 2026, Pomerantz secured preliminary court approval of a $172.5 million settlement on behalf of investors in Danaher Corporation (“Danaher”) in a nationwide class action against Danaher and several of its senior-most executives. Partner Justin D. D’Aloia leads the securities class action, pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The action alleges violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

Danaher is a global conglomerate that owns and operates a portfolio of businesses, many of which thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon before 2020, Danaher reorganized its businesses to more heavily concentrate on science and technology, including (i) a group of businesses that sold diagnostic tests, known as Danaher’s “diagnostic” segment; and (ii) a group of businesses that made the equipment used by pharmaceutical companies to manufacture biotherapeutics, known as Danaher’s “bioprocessing” segment. In 2020 and 2021, Danaher’s diagnostic tests and its bioprocessing equipment were widely used in the effort to combat COVID-19. Specifically, Danaher’s diagnostics segment included Cepheid, a leader in molecular testing, and its life sciences segment included several companies that provided products and services, including sophisticated lab-grade equipment, used by customers to develop COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. As a result, Danaher experienced explosive revenue growth during this period. Danaher’s annual revenue snowballed from $18 billion in 2019 to $29 billion in 2021, and its stock price rose from $121 in March 2020 to $329 in December 2021.

By the start of 2022, Danaher’s bioprocessing business had become a $7.5 billion franchise. However, it was apparent to Danaher as well as the broader financial community that COVID-19, which helped propel the company to new heights, would soon become endemic. Danaher’s investors were keen to understand the health of Danaher’s business without the amplification provided by the COVID-19 pandemic, including, in particular, its bioprocessing segment, and, accordingly, repeatedly inquired about its continued growth and operations.

However, the defendants consistently hid that Danaher’s bioprocessing business faced a confluence of systemic pressures that compromised its ability to sustain the rapid growth it enjoyed during the height of the pandemic. As alleged in the complaint that Pomerantz filed on behalf of aggrieved investors, there was indeed a sharp and sustained decline for new COVID-related programs as the market became saturated. In addition, large customers began stockpiling equipment for future use—effectively deterring future orders—and small customers that relied on external funding to buy bioprocessing equipment found it harder to access capital as interest rates rose. Rather than warn investors about the looming sales cliff, the defendants expressly denied that any such issues existed, asserted that there was strong, ongoing demand for COVID-related equipment, explained that the business’s far larger suite of goods and services for non-COVID projects provided a runway for continued growth, and issued ambitious forecasts to project an image of enduring growth. In fact, Pomerantz identified a confidential witness who sat in on an internal call immediately after a public call with investors in April 2022, during which the CEO admitted that he “made up” new projections on the public call to appease investors because he didn’t like the ones he had received from Danaher’s senior leaders. Investors did not learn about the rot behind the scenes until it was too late. Throughout the relevant period, Danaher made piecemeal revisions to its forecast due to operating conditions that existed—and were known—many months earlier. In response to each, the company’s stock price declined. This continued for nearly two years.

In August 2025, the court largely denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the investors’ claims. Although the court granted their motion as to certain forward- looking statements protected by the “safe harbor” provision in the federal securities laws, it denied their motion with respect to numerous statements of present fact from nearly every disclosure that the defendants challenged in the plaintiffs’ first amended complaint. In addition, the court took the rare step of sustaining the forecasts made on the investor call in April 2022 based, in large part, on the testimony from the confidential witness who overheard the CEO’s egregious admission immediately after that call.

Following the court’s decision to sustain nearly all the claims in the case, the parties engaged in discovery, during which Pomerantz also worked towards an early, mediated resolution. After approximately a half-year of hard-fought discovery, but before incurring the significant costs of continued merits litigation, the parties agreed to participate in a joint mediation to explore the possibility of a negotiated resolution. Before attending the mediation, Pomerantz prepared and filed a comprehensive motion for class certification and supporting papers, including an expert report from a highly regarded financial economist. After a single day of negotiations, the parties agreed to a $172.5 million settlement. The settlement represents the single largest recovery in a securities fraud case—class action or otherwise—in the D.C. Circuit since the enactment of the PSLRA in 1995. It is a highly favorable result for the class and avoids the costs and uncertainty of continued litigation.