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Mergers Shareholder Litigation

Morris James LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Reverses MFW Dismissal Due to Inadequate Disclosures Regarding Special Committee’s Advisors’ Material...

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City of Sarasota Firefighters’ Pension Fund v. Inovalon Holdings Inc., No. 305, 2023 (Del. May 1, 2024). The Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Khan v. M & F Worldwide Corp. (“MFW”) established a cleansing process for a...more

Cooley LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Finally Dismisses a de-SPAC Complaint

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Since Vice Chancellor Lori Will’s seminal decision in In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation in January 2022, the Delaware Court of Chancery has seen a wave of lawsuits accusing special purpose acquisition companies...more

A&O Shearman

District Of Arizona Grants Motion To Dismiss Shareholder Derivative Suit Against Residential Property Dealer In Connection With...

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On August 14, 2024, Judge Michael T. Liburdi of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona granted with leave to amend a motion to dismiss a shareholder derivative suit brought in the name of the company, a...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Addresses Acquirer’s Request For Joint Tortfeasor Settlement Credit

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In re Columbia Pipeline Grp. Inc. Merger Litig., Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0484-JTL (Del. Ch. May 15, 2024) - In this post-trial decision, the Court addressed an acquirer’s responsibility for damages suffered by a stockholder...more

Morris James LLP

Controlling Stockholder Transactions That Do Not Involve a Freeze-Out Merger May Satisfy MFW to Obtain Business Judgment Review

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In Kahn v. M&F Worldwide, 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014) (MFW), the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that a controlling stockholder transaction involving a freeze-out merger, which is structured to include approval by a well-functioning...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Holds That Corwin Cleansing Applies To Claims Related To Reduction Of Acquisition Price

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On June 21, 2024, Vice Chancellor Nathan A. Cook of the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss a putative stockholder class action asserting breach of fiduciary duty claims against the officers and directors...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Clarifies Standards Applicable To Advance Notice Bylaws

On July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court of Delaware, en banc, issued an important decision in Kellner v. AIM Immunotech Inc.,1 which arose from a challenge in the Delaware Court of Chancery involving advance notice bylaws that...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

Latham & Watkins LLP

Corporates and Dealmakers Must Prepare For Increased UK Class Action Claims

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While class actions are well established in the US, they are increasingly common in the UK, driven by market volatility, availability of litigation funding, legal reforms, regulatory settlements, and growing scrutiny of...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Clarity for M&A Practitioners: Proposed DGCL Amendments Bridge the Gap between Recent Delaware Chancery Court Decisions and Market...

The proposed amendments would address recent case law decisions in Activision, Moelis and Crispo that uprooted well-established market practice with respect to the enforceability of certain provisions of stockholder...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Seventh Circuit Decision Outlines Framework To Allow Courts To Evaluate Individual Mootness Fees in Merger Challenge Lawsuits

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Jorge Alcarez, et al. v. Akorn Inc., et al. mapped out one means by which a court may evaluate mootness fees paid to individual shareholders after the voluntary dismissal...more

Hogan Lovells

2024 Securities, Shareholder, and M&A Litigation Outlook

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2023 was a busy year, with both the Delaware courts and others, including the U.S. Supreme Court, weighing in on shareholder and M&A litigation issues. The Delaware Court of Chancery issued several notable decisions on issues...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Requires Compliance With DGCL Provisions Governing Board Negotiation And Board And Stockholder Approval Requirements For...

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On February 29, 2024, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick granted in part and denied in part defendants’ motion to dismiss claims seeking to invalidate the acquisition of a gaming company (“Target”) by a large technology...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

Morris James LLP

Chancery Evaluates Supplemental Disclosures to Determine the Corporate Benefit and Awards Plaintiffs a Proportional Fee

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Allen v. Harvey, C.A. No. 2022-0248-MTZ (Del. Ch. Oct. 30, 2023) - Delaware cases provide guidance on the standard for evaluating the “corporate benefit” from supplemental disclosures in advance of a stockholder vote – and...more

Morris James LLP

2023 Delaware Corporate and Commercial Case Law Year in Review

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This top ten list summarizes significant decisions of the Delaware Supreme Court and the Delaware Court of Chancery over the past calendar year. Our criteria for selection are that the decision either meaningfully changed...more

Smith Anderson

Fourth Circuit Rejects Shareholders’ Security Fraud Claims Based on Optimistic Projections for Merged Company

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In a recent decision,  the Fourth Circuit considered a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders of a biopharma company, INC Research Holdings, Inc. (now Syneos Health Inc.). The shareholders had voted to approve a merger...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Declines to Defer to the Deal Price in Appraisal Proceeding Involving a Controller Squeeze-Out Subject to MFW Protections

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HBK Master Fund L.P. v. Pivotal Software Inc., C.A. No. 2020-0165-KSJM (Del. Ch. Aug. 14, 2023) - The Delaware Court of Chancery engages in an independent valuation process when determining the fair value of petitioners'...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

‘Busted Deals’ and Damages: Court of Chancery Clarifies Who Can Recover ‘Lost-Premium’ Damages

In October 2023, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Court of Chancery addressed an issue of first impression in Crispo v. Musk, C.A. No 2022-0666-KSJM, holding that “a provision purporting to define a target...more

Hogan Lovells

Q2 2023 Quarterly Corporate / M&A decisions updates

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This quarter we are covering some key court decisions regarding securities and corporate governance issues. The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed a majority of lower court decisions to require traceability in defining the term...more

A&O Shearman

Addressing The Enforceability Of Con Ed Provisions In Merger Agreements, Delaware Court Of Chancery Rejects Petition For...

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On October 31, 2023, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued final judgment denying a petition for a mootness fee award to a stockholder—who had previously asserted claims for breach of...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Provides Additional Analysis of Primedia Claims in MFW Context

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City of Dearborn Police and Fire Revised Retirement System (Chapter 23) et al. v. Brookfield Asset Management Inc., C.A. No. 2022-0097-KSJM (Del. Ch. June 21, 2023) - In a short letter decision, Chancellor McCormick...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Clarifies Standard Applicable To Mootness Fee Awards For Supplemental Disclosures

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On July 6, 2023, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a written opinion explaining a prior bench ruling on a mootness fee awarded to plaintiff’s counsel in connection with a putative...more

Dechert LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Awards Upwards of US$400 Million in Damages for Aiding and Abetting Claim Against Acquiror

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The Delaware Court of Chancery penned the latest chapter, on June 30, 2023, in a long-running dispute concerning TC Energy Corporation’s (“TransCanada”) July 2016 acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group (“Columbia”), holding...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Clarifies Heightened Standard for Recovery of Attorneys’ Fees in Disclosure-Based Deal Litigation

In Anderson v. Magellan Health, Inc., No. 2021-0202, — A.3d —-, 2023 WL 4364524 (Del. Ch. July 6, 2023) (McCormick, C.), the Delaware Court of Chancery addressed the circumstances under which the Court will award a...more

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