The Notice was sent to you in the belief that you may be a member of the Settlement Class. If you do not meet the Settlement Class definition, the Notice does not apply to you.

The purpose of the Notice is to inform you about the terms of the proposed Settlement and your rights in connection with a hearing to be held before the United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas (the “Court”), on February 6, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., to consider the fairness, reasonableness, and adequacy of the Settlement to the Settlement Class and related matters. The Notice also describes the steps necessary to seek to be potentially eligible to share in the distribution of the Net Settlement Fund in the event the Settlement is approved by the Court. The Court directed us to send you the Notice because, as a potential Settlement Class Member, you have a right to know about your options before the Court rules on the Settlement.

A brief background of this case is provided on pages 4-5 of the Notice and is also summarized on the case website. We do not have any more information regarding the background of this case beyond what is provided in the Notice and posted case documents.

The proposed Settlement, if approved by the Court, will apply to the following class (the “Settlement Class”): (i) all Persons or entities who acquired Windstream common stock in exchange for their shares of EarthLink in connection with the close of the Merger between EarthLink and Windstream on or about February 27, 2017, and were damaged thereby; (ii) all Persons or entities who held EarthLink common stock as of January 23, 2017, the record date for EarthLink stockholders in the Merger, and acquired Windstream common stock in exchange for their shares of EarthLink in connection with the close of the Merger on or about February 27, 2017, and were damaged thereby; and (iii) all Persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Windstream common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the Offering Documents, and were damaged thereby.

Please Note: Receipt of the Notice does not mean that you are a Settlement Class Member or that you will be entitled to receive a payment from the Settlement. If you are a Settlement Class Member and you wish to be eligible to participate in the distribution of the proceeds from the Settlement, you are required to submit the Proof of Claim which is available on the website and the required supporting documentation as set forth therein postmarked or submitted online on or before February 3, 2025.

We are unable to advise regarding claim eligibility prior to receiving and processing a Proof of Claim submission. We cannot be more specific than the information which has been included in the Notice and cannot interpret how the Notice or Plan of Allocation may apply to a specific claim prior to processing.

Please read the Notice and Settlement Class definition carefully and decide whether or not you wish to submit a Proof of Claim. If you are still not certain of eligibility and want for us to determine eligibility, you will need to submit a Proof of Claim along with supporting documentation for your transactions.

Email is not an acceptable submission method and claims submitted via email will not be reviewed for eligibility. You must submit a Proof of Claim online under the "File Claim" tab of this website or mail it to the Claims Administrator at the address below so that it is postmarked or submitted online no later than February 3, 2025:

Earthlink Merger Settlement
Claims Administrator
c/o Gilardi, a Verita Global company
P.O. Box 301171
Los Angeles, CA 90030-1171

Note that the online link may be disabled at any time after the filing deadline, and you will only be able to submit via mail to the address above.

Subject to Court approval, Lead Plaintiff, on behalf of the Settlement Class, has agreed to settle all Released Plaintiffs’ Claims (as defined in the Notice) against Defendants and other Released Defendant Parties (as defined in the Notice) in exchange for a settlement payment of $85 million in cash.

Your share of the Net Settlement Fund will depend on several things, including the total dollar amount of claims represented by the valid Proofs of Claim that Settlement Class Members send in, compared to the dollar amount of your claim, all as calculated under the Plan of Allocation set forth in the Notice.

To be eligible to receive a payment, you must submit a Proof of Claim and supporting documentation. A Proof of Claim may be downloaded from the Case Documents tab of this website. Read the instructions carefully, fill out the Proof of Claim, include all the documents the form asks for, sign it, and mail it to Earthlink Merger Settlement, Claims Administrator, c/o Gilardi, a Verita Global company, P.O. Box 301171, Los Angeles, CA 90030-1171 or submit it online under the "File Claim" tab of this website so that it is postmarked or received no later than February 3, 2025.

The Court ordered that the law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP represents the Settlement Class Members, including you. The lawyers are called Lead Counsel. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your expense. 

The Settlement Hearing will be held on February 6, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., before the Honorable James M. Moody, at the United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Courtroom 4A, Richard Sheppard Arnold United States Courthouse, 500 West Capitol Avenue, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201. You should be aware that the Court may change the date, time, and location of the Settlement Hearing without another notice being sent to Settlement Class Members. It is important that you monitor the Court’s docket or this website, before making any plans to attend the Settlement Hearing. Any updates regarding the Settlement Hearing, including any changes to the date and time of the hearing will be posted to this website. If you want to attend the hearing, you should check with Lead Counsel or this website, beforehand to be sure that the date and/or time has not changed. The Court reserves the right to approve the Settlement, the Plan of Allocation, the Fee and Expense Allocation, and/or any other matter related to the Settlement at or after the Settlement Hearing without further notice to the Settlement Class Members.

No. Lead Counsel will answer any questions the Court may have. But you are welcome to come at your own expense. If you are a Settlement Class Member and send an objection, you do not have to come to Court to talk about it. As long as you are a Settlement Class Member and timely submit your written objection, the Court will consider it. You may also pay your own lawyer to attend, but it is not necessary. Settlement Class Members do not need to appear at the hearing or take any other action to indicate their approval.

If you wish to object to the Settlement or any of its terms, the proposed Plan of Allocation, or Plaintiff’s Counsel’s Fee and Expense Application, you may ask the Court for permission to speak at the Settlement Hearing. To do so, you must include with your objection (see the instructions on Page 10 of the Notice in the section entitled, “When and Where Will the Court Decide Whether to Approve the Settlement?”) a statement saying that it is your "Notice of Intention to Appear." If you exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you are not entitled to submit an objection.

We do not hold stock records here. Gilardi, a Verita Global company, is a third-party administrator appointed by the Court to notify potential claimants. We are provided with names and addresses of potential claimants in order to notify individuals of settlements but do not have access for your investment records. We recommend you contact the institution where you held your shares and request proof or supporting documentation for your claim.

A claim should be submitted for each separate legal entity (e.g., a Proof of Claim of joint owners should not include separate transactions of just one of the joint owners, and an individual with transactions made solely in the individual’s name).

Conversely, a single Proof of Claim should be submitted on behalf of one legal entity including all transactions made by that entity on one Proof of Claim, no matter how many separate accounts that entity has (e.g., a corporation with multiple brokerage accounts should include all transactions made in all accounts on one Proof of Claim).

When filing on behalf of a deceased beneficial owner or their estate, you can submit a claim in the name of the individual, or, if an estate exists, you can submit on behalf of the estate. Note that any settlement proceeds will be made payable to the estate if that is how you submit that claim. The same rule applies for IRA's and other account types.

The claim submission should include a copy of the death certificate as well as proof of authority to file. As you are submitting a claim form as a representative on behalf of someone else (e.g. as an executor, administrator, trustee or other representative), you must document your authority to file on their (or their estate’s) behalf. Proof of authority can include a copy of the Last Will and Testament, Letters Testamentary, evidence of probate, proof of authority as executor or beneficiary and/or any other testamentary provisions of the deceased person. Do not send originals as any documents submitted with your claim will not be returned.

Depending on whether you submit on behalf of the individual on behalf of the estate, please provide the appropriate TIN or SSN. Then sign the claim form.

The claim must be submitted for the benefit of the actual beneficial owner/purchaser of the shares or their estate. Do not submit the claim in the name of the deceased person’s family or other heirs. We must issue the check to the actual beneficial owner/purchaser of the shares. We cannot issue any applicable check in the name of the deceased person’s family, beneficiaries or other heirs.

You are required to submit genuine and sufficient documentation for all of the requested transactions in and holdings of EarthLink and Windstream common stock set forth in the Proof of Claim. Documentation may consist of copies of brokerage confirmation slips, monthly brokerage account statements, or an authorized statement from your broker containing the transactional and holding information found in a broker confirmation slip or account statement.

If you believe that any of the Windstream common stock that you purchased or otherwise acquired after the Merger is traceable to the Windstream common stock that was issued pursuant to the Offering Documents, provide documentation showing that the specific shares you purchased or otherwise acquired were issued pursuant to the Offering Documents.

The parties and the Claims Administrator do not independently have information about your investments in EarthLink and Windstream common stock.

The Claims Administrator does not have the authority to grant extensions beyond the deadline. You are welcome to submit a Proof of Claim at this time understanding that it will be considered late. If you desire, you may also include a brief letter explaining why your claim is late.

We will process all late claims received, and as much as possible, include that information with our recommendations to Counsel. We generally recommend that late claims which are otherwise valid and eligible be considered for distribution, but it will be up to the Court and/or Counsel to determine whether or not late claims will receive consideration in this matter.

Processing time on our cases can take an average of 9 to 12 months from the filing deadline. Once processing is complete, we must then receive authorization before we can distribute the funds.

Please understand that this is an estimated timeframe for processing based on our experience which does not guarantee that all case processing will be completed within 9 to 12 months. Processing time varies from case to case and some cases may take more or less based on the specifics of that case settlement.

If your claim has been received and we have any questions or need additional information or documentation to assist in the processing of your claim, we will contact you by using one or more of the contact methods (phone, e-mail, mail) which you listed on your claim form submission.

We will not have the final claim payout amount available until we have processed all of the claims, calculated the total loss of claims filed and received approval from the Court and/or Counsel.

We appreciate your patience as accurate claims processing takes time.

If you do nothing, you will not receive any money from this Settlement. In addition, unless you exclude yourself, you will not be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Defendants and the other Released Defendant Parties about the Released Plaintiffs' Claims in this case.