Read Business Torts updates, news, and legal commentary from leading lawyers and law firms:
Spitzer: Lanny Breuer at DOJ Was a "Disaster"
Unique Privacy Concerns for Mobile Apps
Common Employment Law Mistakes for Small, Start-Up and Growing Companies
Supreme Court Raises the Bar for Class Certification in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend
Safeguards against Data Security Breaches (Part One)
Weekly Brief: 78% of Law Schools Ignore ABA Rule
Weekly Brief: DOJ Memo Details Justification For Killing US Citizens
Can Feds Force Companies to Disclose Political Spending?
Three Key Data Retention Questions
Newtown Shootings Could Give Rise to More Litigation, Says Pinsky
What to Expect from the Supreme Court During Obama’s Second Term
The Weekly Brief: Abu Hamza On Trial, Wells Fargo Sued, Bingham Cuts Costs
Barofsky: Govt. Complicity Provides Libor Defense
Breaking Down the NFL Concussion Class Action and the Players’ “Warrior Mentality”—Eliot Wagonheim
Whalen: Go Back To The Future To Fight Fraud With Equity Receivers
Lawyer: 20 More Law School Class Actions Coming
In In re MFW Shareholders Litigation, on May 29 the Delaware Court of Chancery granted summary judgment in favor of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. in a class action suit brought by former stockholders of M&F Worldwide...more
The May 29th announcement that China-based Shuanghui International Holdings had agreed to acquire Virginia-based Smithfield Foods came with a lot of news value. First, the $4.7 billion price tag for Smithfield is large by any...more
A recent decision of the Delaware Court of Chancery, In re MFW Shareholder Litigation, held that the business judgment rule standard of review applies in cases where a going-private transaction has been conditioned on both...more
Over the past several years, shareholder litigation challenging mergers and acquisitions has become a virtual certainty in any sizeable deal. A recent decision from a state court in Pittsburgh illustrates how Pennsylvania law...more
Addressing an unsettled area of Delaware law, the Delaware Court of Chancery (the “Chancery Court”) revisited the appropriate standard of review for a going-private merger with a controlling stockholder....more
In this opinion, the Court of Chancery denied the motion of stockholders of Plains Exploration & Production Company (“Plains”) to enjoin preliminarily the proposed merger (the “Merger”) between Plains and Freeport-McMoRan...more
In this opinion, the Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss a derivative action brought by a stockholder of Fuqi International, Inc. because the plaintiff pled facts that raised a reasonable doubt that the Fuqi board...more
While M&A transactions give rise to many different types of litigation, including disputes between the merger parties and statutory appraisal actions, the most common type of litigation stemming from public company mergers is...more
On April 4, 2013, in the Allergan decision, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Court of Chancery’s ruling last year that the dismissal of a shareholder derivative action in California did not preclude other stockholders...more
In this issue: *News from the Courts - Refinement re “Don’t Ask, Don’t Waive” Standstill Agreements - Proposed Delaware “Medium-Form Merger” To Create an Alternative to Top-Up Options - Court Rejects...more
In this letter opinion, the Court of Chancery awarded attorneys’ fees and costs to plaintiffs’ counsel of $500,000 after analyzing plaintiffs’ unopposed fee request under the relevant Sugarland factors, and determining that...more
In this memorandum opinion, Vice Chancellor Glasscock addressed claims, in a motion to expedite, that directors breached their fiduciary duties by conducting an improper process and making inadequate disclosures in connection...more
As we enter the 2013 proxy season, companies should be aware of a new flavor of shareholder litigation. Some of the same firms that routinely attack M&A transactions have set their sights on a new target: attacking...more
The issue made the headlines during the 2012 Quebec provincial elections. Each of the three major parties in the running claimed that they would make it harder for foreign companies to acquire Quebec-based ones. The Parti...more
In the latest development in an SEC lawsuit filed Friday, February 15, U.S. District Judge Rakoff extended a freeze on a Swiss Goldman Sachs account linked to possible insider trading in H.J. Heinz Company call options. The...more
In this letter opinion, the Court of Chancery granted a motion to intervene by certain shareholders (the “Proposed Intervenors”) of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (“Freeport”) and approved the Proposed Intervenors’...more
In this memorandum opinion, the Court of Chancery granted defendants’ motion to dismiss with respect to plaintiffs’ breach of fiduciary duty and aiding and abetting claims relating to a going private transaction. The Court’s...more
In In Re Celera Corporation Shareholder Litigation, No. 212, 2012 (Del. Dec. 27, 2012), the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the lower Court of Chancery and ruled that a large holder of Celera Corporation (“Celera”) shares...more
In this memorandum opinion, the Court of Chancery denied defendants’ motions to dismiss with respect to Plaintiffs’ bad faith claims. The Court’s decision was based on its finding that the complaint stated a “reasonably...more
On December 17, 2012, in In re Ancestry.com Inc. S’holder Litig., C.A. No. 7988-VS (Del. Ch. Dec. 17, 2012), the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a bench ruling addressing a recent decision enjoining enforcement of a “Don’t...more
We reported in the recent Ropes Recap quarterly M&A newsletter about a bench ruling by Delaware Vice Chancellor Laster calling into question the enforceability of M&A standstill agreements that prohibit bidders from...more
In the final days of 2012, the Delaware Supreme Court resolved an appeal arising out of class action litigation concerning the sale of Celera Corporation to Quest Diagnostics, Inc. The litigation was settled by agreement of...more
In this en banc decision, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s certification of a class representative in a breach of fiduciary duty action, even though the class representative sold its stock in the...more
A California Superior Court in the County of Santa Clara recently sustained demurrers without leave to amend in two parallel cases, each of which involved post-merger challenges by former shareholders of a California...more
Judicial decisions in Ontario and, more recently, Delaware have transformed restrictions on use of shared information commonly found in confidentiality agreements into de facto standstill provisions. Each of the Ontario...more
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