Montreal: Cinar Corp. has entered into two separate settlement agreements with officers and former stockholders of Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company and HighReach Learning, both of the U.S.

Cinar will pay out more than US$13.2 million, with US$7 million already paid to Stephen T. Carson, Patricia L. Carson and Janet B. Dellosa, who sold all of the outstanding common stock of Carson-Dellosa to Cinar in 1997 for approximately US$38.1 million (US$22 million in cash and 930,570 limited voting shares.) The former plaintiffs have agreed to surrender their shares in Cinar and have accepted new five-year terms of employment.

A similar agreement, valued at US$6.6 million, of which US$4 million has been paid out, was reached with Phillip G. Kelley, Kathy H. Kelley, Michael G. Mayberry and Sharon H. Mayberry, who sold all of their outstanding common stock of HighReach in 1998 for approximately US$25 million (US$18 million in cash and 422,000 limited voting shares of Cinar).

Following the company’s April 29 AGM, the first in three years, Cinar announced Robert Despres, the controlling-vote trustee named by former company co-CEOs Micheline Charest and Ron Weinberg, had been elected chairman of the board. President and CEO Barrie Usher, who will stay with Cinar until a replacement is found, is also elected to the board along with Marcel Aubut; Fernand Belisle, a former VP of the CRTC; Pierre Desjardins; Douglas M. Holtby; Lisa de Wilde, the former president and CEO of Astral Television Networks; Normand Beauchamp; Gordon Craig, chairman and CEO of NetStar Communications; and David L. Simon.

The board also confirmed the appointments of Steve Carson as president of Cinar Education, of George Rossi as senior VP/CFO on an interim basis, and of Mark Chernin as VP, business and legal affairs.

-www.cinar.com

Leo Rice-Barker