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 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
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 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
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 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
Below is our Corporate / M&A decisions update covering decisions in the fourth quarter of 2021. This update is designed to highlight selected important M&A, corporate, and commercial court decisions on a quarterly basis....more
2/3/2022
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Contract ,
Bylaws ,
Caremark claim ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Governance ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Demand Futility ,
Derivative Suit ,
Indemnification ,
Pensions ,
Shareholder Litigation
In re Kraft Heinz Company Derivative Litigation addresses demand futility in a case involving an insider stock sale. 3G Capital, Inc., a 24.2 percent shareholder in Kraft Heinz, sold 7 percent of its stake in August 2018...more
In Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund v. Malone Inc., C.A. No. 2020-0880-SG (Del. Ch. Nov. 18, 2021), the Delaware Court of Chancery awarded a US$9.35 million mootness fee on the ground that a preliminary injunction...more
In Rosenbaum v. CytoDyn Inc., C.A. No. 2021-0728-JRS (Del. Ch. Oct. 13, 2021), the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to apply the Blasius enhanced scrutiny standard to an incumbent board’s rejection of shareholders’...more
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
11/23/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Caremark claim ,
Controlling Stockholders ,
Corporate Governance ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Merger Agreements ,
Mergers ,
Section 220 Request ,
Shareholder Litigation
In In re The Boeing Company, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that Boeing stockholders that sued the company over losses relating to safety problems with Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane had adequately pleaded that a majority of...more
In Brookfield Asset Management Inc. v. Rosson, the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously overturned its 2006 decision in Gentile v. Rossette, thereby eliminating the dual nature “Gentile carve-out” that allowed for both direct...more
In United Food & Com. Workers Union v. Zuckerberg, No. 404, 2020 (Del. Sup. Sep. 23, 2021), the Delaware Supreme Court adopted a new, three-part test for determining when a shareholder is required to make a pre-suit demand on...more
11/9/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Demand Futility ,
Derivative Suit ,
Duty of Care ,
Exculpatory Clauses ,
Facebook ,
Mark Zuckerberg ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In a 200+ page decision, the Court of Chancery in In re Pattern Energy Group Inc. Stockholders Litigation, (C.A. No. 2020-0357-MTZ (Del. Ch. May 6, 2021)) declined to dismiss putative shareholder class claims for breach of...more
We’ve asked lawyers from our offices in Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S. to talk about when directors and officers get caught up in M&A litigation....more
11/14/2018
/ Board of Directors ,
Business Judgment Rule ,
Bylaws ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Corporate Officers ,
D&O Insurance ,
Directors ,
Indemnification ,
Mergers ,
Personal Liability ,
Representations and Warranties ,
Risk Mitigation
We’ve asked lawyers from our offices in Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S. to give us an overview of what to expect in M&A litigation....more
11/8/2018
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Contract ,
Carve Out Provisions ,
Corporate Officers ,
Derivative Suit ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Liability ,
Material Misstatements ,
Omissions ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders