News & Analysis as of

Fiduciary Duty Merger Agreements

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Delaware Chancery Court Finds a ~27% Founding Stockholder Is Not a Controller

On July 2, 2024, the Delaware Chancery Court in Sciannella v. AstraZeneca dismissed stockholder claims in connection with the $3 billion merger of Viela Bio and Horizon Therapeutics in 2021. The merger was approved by Viela’s...more

Morris James LLP

Court of Chancery Dismisses Aiding And Abetting Fraud Claim Against Corporate Officers And Directors On Grounds That A Corporation...

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Urvan v. AMMO, Inc., Consol. C.A. No. 2023-0470 PRW (Del. Ch. Feb. 27, 2024, corrected Mar. 14, 2024) - It is an axiom of Delaware law that a corporation acts through its human agents. This principle informs the causes of...more

Jones Day

Court of Chancery Grants Rare Motion to Dismiss Suit Governed by Entire Fairness Standard

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The electric vehicle company Canoo went public in a de-SPAC transaction in December 2020. After its stock price fell, a stockholder in the SPAC who chose not to redeem his stock sued the SPAC board and its controller for...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Court of Appeals Bolsters the Internal Affairs Doctrine, Takes a Stroll Through Scottish Fiduciary Law

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

It’s not every day that New York’s highest court considers a question impacting the business divorce cases that we typically litigate.  And even when an interesting business divorce issue does make its way up to Albany, it’s...more

Goodwin

Delaware Supreme Court Holds That Boards Must Satisfy the MFW Framework in Controller Transactions to Obtain Business Judgment...

Goodwin on

In 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court held in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. (“MFW”) that a court will apply the entire fairness standard of review to freeze-out merger transactions between a controlled corporation and its...more

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

M&A in Brief: Q1 2024

In a letter ruling, the Delaware Chancery Court held that where neither the target nor the acquiror was a Delaware entity, the transaction documents between the parties could not confer jurisdiction in the Chancery Court...more

The Wagner Law Group

Merger and Acquisition Considerations for Employee Benefit Plans

The Wagner Law Group on

In the context of mergers and acquisitions, an acquisition target’s qualified retirement plans, health plans, executive compensation arrangements, and benefit programs (referred to collectively as “benefit programs”) can all...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Take the Business Divorce Pop Quiz!

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

It’s been many years since our last pop quiz for all you business divorce aficionados. Time for another. See how many you get right before you read the answers...more

Hogan Lovells

In re Mindbody Inc., Stockholder Litigation: Court finds unfair sale process

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In re Mindbody Inc., Stockholder Litigation, C.A. No. 2019-0442-KSJM (Del. Ch. Mar. 15, 2023), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a CEO breached his fiduciary duties by taking steps the court found tilted a merger sale...more

Dechert LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Finds Tesla’s Acquisition of SolarCity “Entirely Fair”

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The Delaware Court of Chancery issued its decision in In re Tesla Motors, Inc., on April 27, 2022, rejecting claims that Tesla, Inc. CEO Elon Musk breached his fiduciary duties to Tesla’s stockholders as a director and an...more

Dechert LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Issues First Decision Addressing Directors’ Fiduciary Duties in a De-SPAC Merger

Dechert LLP on

The Delaware Court of Chancery addressed for the first time fundamental precepts of Delaware law in the context of a special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) on January 3, 2021. In In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Delaware Chancery Court Signals Heightened Scrutiny of SPAC Boards and Sponsors

The Delaware Chancery Court has issued a decision with major implications for sponsors and directors of Delaware incorporated special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).  In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation is a...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Dismisses Implied Covenant Claim For Former Stockholders’ Alleged Improper Demands That Company Take Actions To Achieve...

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Pacira Biosciences, Inc. v. Fortis Advisors LLC, C.A. No. 2020-0694-PAF (Del. Ch. Oct. 25, 2021) - There generally cannot be a claim under the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing for conduct that is addressed...more

Hogan Lovells

Q3 2021 Quarterly Corporate / M&A decisions updates

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Below is our Corporate / M&A decisions update covering decisions in the third quarter of 2021. This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate, and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis. The...more

Hogan Lovells

Flannery v. Genomic Health: Mixed consideration deal with 58% stock evades Revlon enhanced scrutiny - Quarterly Corporate / M&A...

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In Flannery v. Genomic Health, Inc., et al. (C.A. No. 2020-0492-JRS (Del. Ch. Aug. 16, 2021)), the Delaware Chancery Court made three key holdings regarding a merger involving mixed consideration of 58 percent stock and 42...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

Court Finds Indemnification Provisions in Merger Agreement Binding on Non-Signatories

In Houseman et al v. Sagerman et al the Plaintiffs challenged the enforceability of the indemnification provisions in a merger agreement amongst other things.  The Merger Agreement provided for an indemnification escrow....more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Presidio Shines Light on Key Delaware Deal Litigation Trends and Topics

In Firefighters’ Pension System of the City of Kansas City, Missouri Trust v. Presidio, Inc., Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed claims against directors of Presidio, Inc. (Presidio) and...more

Polsinelli

The Polsinelli Pulse: Mitigating Litigation Risk at the Deal Table and Beyond - Vol. 3

Polsinelli on

Mergers & Acquisitions And Paycheck Protection Program: Proceed With Caution - In Spring 2020, Congress adopted the CARES Act, which authorized $350 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). With an additional...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Structured and Leveraged Buyout May Breach Fiduciary Obligations

Most mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcy practitioners are well aware of the ever-increasing use of leveraged buy-out ("LBO") by publicly traded companies and private equity groups alike in highly structured liquidation...more

Hogan Lovells

Quarterly Corporate / M&A Decisions Update: Q4 2020

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Below is our Quarterly Corporate / M&A Decisions Update for decisions in Q4 2020. This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate, and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis. Brief summaries of...more

Troutman Pepper

Fraud on the Board II: Conflicted CEO Tilts Company Sale in PE Firm’s Favor

Troutman Pepper on

In In re Mindbody, Inc. Stockholders Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to dismiss breach of fiduciary duty claims against the chief executive officer of MINDBODY, Inc. (the Company) arising out of the...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Dismisses Stockholder Claims that a Minority Owner was a Controlling Stockholder or that a Majority of the Board was...

Morris James LLP on

In re: Essendant, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, C.A. No. 2018-0789-JRS (Del. Ch. Dec. 30, 2019). When as here a Delaware corporation’s charter contains an exculpation provision under Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

Delaware Supreme Court Examines Director Liability for Acquisitions

In McElrath v. Kalanick et al, the Delaware Supreme Court examined the liability of directors of Uber for an acquisition.  The case arose out of Uber’s acquisition of Ottomotto LLC.  Otto was founded by Anthony Levandowski, a...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Modifies Advancement Award, Finds Amended Claim Challenging Only Post-Separation Conduct No Longer Triggered Advancement...

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Carr v. Global Payment Inc., C.A. No. 2018-0565-SG (Del. Ch. Dec. 11, 2019). Under Delaware law, an order requiring a company to advance attorneys’ fees and expenses may be modified if the claims that triggered the...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Advance! Amend! Retreat!

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The title of this post describes not an army maneuver, but the outcome of a recent lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court for advancement of litigation expenses in which...more

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