Datapulse, Ascapia agree not to talk about each other, under defamation settlement terms

DATAPULSE Technology has settled its defamation suit against hedge fund Ascapia Capital, with both parties agreeing not to make any further statements about each other.

The dispute over an open letter by Ascapia to minority shareholders - which Datapulse had said contained "baseless allegations" - was referred to mediation, the board said in an update on Tuesday night.

Ascapia has now acknowledged that some of the points raised in its Jan 25 letter "appear to have been clarified by subsequent events" and might not have been made if the fund had knowledge of future events, said the Datapulse board.

The board added that the remaining terms of the settlement are private and confidential.

Former disk-drive maker Datapulse was gripped earlier in the year by a tussle over the direction that the company would take after leaving the core media storage business. Minority shareholders later lost their bid to stymie the contentious diversification, in an extraordinary general meeting.

Ascapia told the media in March that it was weighing a possible partial takeover offer of the company, only to nix the idea a few days later, as some market watchers wagged their fingers at the apparent breach of an "absolute secrecy" rule in the takeover code.

Datapulse last closed flat at S$0.27 on Tuesday.