To make it go away.  It happens all the time--generally when something is settled, it has a &quot;no admission of guilt&quot; statement attached somewhere.  Both sides agree not to talk about it, and that ends that.  It&#x27;s useful in a case where it&#x27;d be difficult to prove conclusively one way or another, and it could hurt a company to have the publicity.  It&#x27;s probably cheaper for a company to pay $10m and make it go away than to fight a year-long legal battle, even if they eventually win, since there are bound to be stories linking them to something bad.