To make it go away. It happens all the time--generally when something is settled, it has a "no admission of guilt" statement attached somewhere. Both sides ag

To make it go away. It happens all the time--generally when something is settled, it has a "no admission of guilt" statement attached somewhere. Both sides agree not to talk about it, and that ends that. It's useful in a case where it'd be difficult to prove conclusively one way or another, and it could hurt a company to have the publicity. It'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.