LIVONIA, Mich., Aug. 6 Valassis the leading company in marketing services and Connective Media announced today that on Friday, July 27, 2001, a federal court jury returned a verdict against Dennis D. Garberg & Associates, Inc. d/b/a The Sunflower Group. The jury awarded Valassis $16,638,567, which included damages for past and future lost profits. The lawsuit, brought by Valassis against Sunflower in February of 1999, asserted that Sunflower wrongfully obtained proprietary information from Valassis' newspaper delivered sampling business. The jury found Sunflower liable for misappropriating Valassis' trade secrets and inducing an individual to breach his duty of loyalty to Valassis. "During the two-week trial, the evidence confirmed that Sunflower had misappropriated our proprietary information,'' said Lynn Liddle, Vice President of Valassis. "We believed that this was a serious matter from the outset. After hearing all the facts, the jury obviously agreed.'' The case was heard in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, before the honorable Victoria A. Roberts. Counsel for Valassis will request that the Judge enter a judgement on the verdict, which, with pre-judgement interest, will total nearly $20 million.