Lehman Brothers (LEH) has issued a formal apology in a note to clients for copying parts of a Sanford Berstein report on virtualization technology. The report in question was written in March 2008 by Tim Luke and bore an uncanny resemblance in parts to two notes written earlier by Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi. Mr. Luke is, um, no longer with Lehman. WSJ:

Lehman said that some analysis and work toward the end of the report closely resembled two reports by Bernstein. These include several pages of text and graphics. The staffer responsible for lifting the data is no longer at Lehman, according to a person familiar with the matter.

"Once this matter came to our attention we thoroughly investigated the situation and took the appropriate corrective actions," a Lehman spokeswoman said. Neither Messrs. Luke nor Sacconaghi responded to calls for comment.

"We greatly appreciate Lehman's letter, which both informed clients and apologized to Bernstein, that Lehman had published research containing materials authored by Bernstein without Bernstein's permission or attribution," a Bernstein spokesman said.

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