M&A and shareholder litigation is off to a busy start in 2023, with Delaware courts issuing several interesting opinions. The Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Delaware Court of Chancery decision, finding that the “maximum...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery, in Teamsters Local 677 Health Services & Insurance Plan v. Martell, C.A. No. 2021-1075-NAC (Del. Ch. January 31, 2023), granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss under Corwin. The court found...more
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
In Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, L.P. v. Bandera Master Fund, LP, 288 A.3d 1083 (Del. 2022), the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Delaware Court of Chancery decision that had awarded nearly US$690 million to plaintiffs....more
In this past year, we saw an uptick in in-person court proceedings as the effects of the pandemic subsided, a decrease in pandemic-related litigation, and a return to many of the core issues facing Delaware companies...more
4/25/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Caremark claim ,
Cybersecurity ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Derivative Suit ,
Freeze-Out Mergers ,
Mergers ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
Below is our Corporate / M&A decisions update covering decisions in the fourth quarter of 2022. This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate, and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis....more
In Re Stream TV Networks, No. 2020-0766-JTL (Oct. 3, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery exercised its broad equitable powers to provide a unprecedented remedy. Stream TV Networks (Stream) had transferred its assets to its...more
In Lebanon County Employees’ Retirement Fund v. Collis, C.A. No. 2021-1118-JTL (Del. Ch. Dec. 15, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss as untimely a derivative action against a pharmaceutical...more
In Joseph Lawrence Ligos v. Isramco, Inc., et al., C.A. No. 2020-0435-SG (Del. Ch. Nov. 30, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss a shareholder class action complaint alleging that the members of...more
In XRI Investment Holdings LLC v. Holifield, C.A. No. 2021-0619-JTL, the Court of Chancery found that defendant Holifield violated a No Transfer Provision in the limited liability company agreement of XRI Investment Holdings...more
In Construction Industry Laborers Pension Fund v. Bingle, (C.A. No. 2021-0940-SG (Del. Ch. Sept. 6, 2022)) (SolarWinds), the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss a derivative suit against the directors of...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery, in In re Carvana Co., No. 2020-0415-KSJM (Del. Ch. June 30, 2022), applied the recently adopted Zuckerberg test for demand futility and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. The court found...more
In City of Detroit Police & Fire Ret. Sys. on Behalf of NiSource, Inc. v. Hamrock, No. CV 2021-0370-KSJM, the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss duty of oversight claims against an energy company’s...more
In Manti Holdings, LLC v. Carlyle Group Inc., C.A. No. 2020-0657-SG (Del. Ch. June 3, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that minority investor claims could proceed against a private equity firm, Carlyle, and related...more
In Cellular Telephone Partnership Litigation, C.A. No. 6885-CVL, the Chancery Court held that AT&T breached its duty of loyalty to its minority partners when it enacted a Freeze-Out transaction that dissolved a cellular...more
In Stream TV Networks, Inc. v. SeeCubic, Inc., the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Delaware Court of Chancery’s finding that the board of Stream TV Networks, Inc. (Stream) could sell all of Stream’s assets without a...more
In In re Rehabilitation of Scottish Re (U.S.), Inc., C.A. No. 2019-0175-JTL (Del. Ch. Apr.18, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled, as a matter of first impression, that in a delinquency proceeding for an insurance...more
Tesla Motors Stockholder Litigation arises out of Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity, a market leader in manufacturing and installing solar energy generation systems. On two occasions in 2015 and 2016, Elon Musk suggested to...more
8/23/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Board of Directors ,
Business Judgment Rule ,
Corporate Governance ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Derivative Suit ,
Elon Musk ,
Entire Fairness Standard ,
Mergers ,
Popular ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Tesla
In Lee v. Fisher, 34 F.4th 777 (9th Cir. 2022), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a shareholder derivative suit against The Gap Inc. (Gap), alleging violations of Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of...more
Below is our Corporate / M&A decisions update covering decisions in the first quarter of 2022. This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate, and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis....more
In In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation, C.A. No. 2021-0300-LWW, the Delaware Court of Chancery denied motions to dismiss a shareholder complaint filed against a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), its...more
In Brown v. Matterport, Inc., et al., C.A. No. 2021-0595-LWW (Del. Ch. Jan. 10, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that transfer restrictions restricting trade of stock “outstanding immediately” after a de-SPAC merger...more
In Level 4 Yoga, LLC v. CorePower Yoga, LLC, C.A. No. 2020-0249 (Del. Ch. March 1, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery granted Level 4, the owner of franchised yoga studios, an order of specific performance and compelled...more
In In re Forum Mobile, Inc., C.A. No. 2020-0346-JTL (Del. Ch. Feb. 3, 2022), the Delaware Chancery Court held that Section 226(a)(3) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) does not authorize the court to appoint a...more
In Arwood v. AW Site Services LLC, C.A. No. 2019-0904-JRS (Del. Ch. March 9, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that “Delaware is a ‘pro-sandbagging jurisdiction,’” meaning that, absent a provision to the contrary, an...more