The $600 million lawsuit filed by AIM Investment Management Inc. against
upstart Brandes Investment Partners Co., and several of its executives, was settled Friday afternoon.

AIM slapped Brandes with the lawsuit after it discovered that a former AIM employee took a database and some other strategic material with them when they left to join Brandes. It was Brandes that discovered
the theft and reported it to AIM.

AIM filed suit in mid-August seeking a large monetary judgment, including punitive damages, but also seeking a series of injunctions that Brandes claimed would ruin the business. A hearing would have been scheduled to consider those injunction applications on October 17 .