Duke Energy agrees to $146M payout to settle suits over Progress merger

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) proposes to spend $146 million to settle the class-action shareholder lawsuits that arose over the controversial closing of Duke’s $32 billion purchase of Progress Energy in 2012.

A badly divided board of directors forced CEO Bill Johnson to step down less than 24 hours after he had been appointed to head the merged companies. The move led to investigations by regulators and several suits by investors who claimed Duke intentionally misled them by saying Johnson, who had been…