In North American Fire Ultimate Holdings, LP v. Alan Doorly, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that the restrictive covenants included in an incentive unit grant agreement were unenforceable when the units received by the...more
5/23/2025
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Breach of Contract ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Consideration ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Employee Incentive Plans ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Forfeiture ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms
On March 25, 2025, sweeping changes to the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL) took effect (the amendments). The amendments introduce new “safe harbor” provisions designed to cleanse conflict transactions involving...more
3/27/2025
/ Amended Legislation ,
Board of Directors ,
Books & Records ,
Controlling Stockholders ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Officers ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Safe Harbors ,
Shareholders
A side letter in the venture capital sector is an agreement between an investor and the company it is investing in that entitles the investor to certain contractual rights, which supplement and are in addition to other rights...more
1/22/2025
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Business Entities ,
Contract Terms ,
Contractual Safeguards ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Equity ,
Financing ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Merger Agreements ,
Private Equity ,
Shareholders ,
Side Letters ,
Venture Capital
In Gunderson v. The Trade Desk, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a charter provision requiring supermajority stockholder approval to amend or repeal The Trade Desk, Inc.’s (Trade Desk) charter was not triggered...more
In Shareholder Representative Services LLC v. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery addressed an earnout dispute, holding that a buyer violated its contract with the seller by failing to use...more
In Kellner v. AIM ImmunoTech Inc., the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the Delaware Court of Chancery’s closely watched ruling, which invalidated several provisions in the bylaws of AIM ImmunoTech...more
In Seavitt v. N-able, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery held that certain governance rights granted to a corporation’s significant stockholders were statutorily invalid. This included a provision purporting to allow those...more
The amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) are effective yesterday, August 1, and will apply retroactively to agreements and contracts that a Delaware corporation entered into, or that a Delaware...more
In a recent order, the Delaware Court of Chancery “reluctantly” confirmed an arbitrator’s award arising from a post-closing purchase price adjustment dispute between a seller of a chain of grocery stores and a private equity...more
6/5/2024
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Awards ,
Arbitrators ,
Business Disputes ,
Buyers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Debt ,
Private Equity ,
Purchase Price Adjustment ,
Sellers
In In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, the Delaware Supreme Court held that the dual procedural protections announced in the seminal case of Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp. (MFW) are required in order to shift the...more
In West Palm Beach Firefighters’ Pension Fund v. Moelis & Company, the Delaware Court of Chancery invalidated a set of approval rights contained in a stockholder agreement as facially in conflict with Section 141(a) of the...more
In Sjunde AP-Fonden v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery refused to dismiss claims against Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the company) and its board of directors (the board) that the board had violated,...more
In a landmark decision, the Delaware Court of Chancery addressed, for the first time, the precise duties that a controlling stockholder owes, and the standard of review that will apply, when a controlling stockholder takes...more
1/26/2024
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Business Disputes ,
Business Litigation ,
Business Plans ,
Controlling Stockholders ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Interference Claims ,
Liquidation ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholder Rights ,
Voting Rights
In Texas Pacific Land Corp. v. Horizon Kinetics, LLC, et al., the Delaware Court of Chancery enforced a “no drafting history clause” that restricted the court’s ability to consider “the events of drafting or preparation” to...more
Recently, in Colon v. Bumble, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that certain provisions in the charter of Bumble, Inc. (Bumble), which contemplated that each share of stock carried either one vote or 10 votes depending upon...more
In Crispo v. Musk, the Delaware Court of Chancery considered the enforceability of a so-called “Con Ed” provision contained in a merger agreement governing the well-publicized and troubled acquisition of Twitter, Inc....more
A board of directors of a Delaware company may delegate its authority to grant equity awards if certain requirements enumerated in the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) are met. Effective August 1, 2023, updates were...more
Effective August 1, amendments (the 2023 amendments) to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) further update the framework under which a company's board of directors may delegate its authority to grant equity incentive...more
The latest proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) will simplify the process for ratifying defective corporate acts; eliminate or reduce the stockholder vote required to authorize some types of...more
This year’s proposed amendments to the Delaware Revised Uniform Partnership Act (Partnership Act), the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act (LLC Act), and the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act (LP Act)...more
This June, the Ninth Circuit sitting en banc reheard argument in Lee v. Fisher — a case in which a three-judge panel of the court affirmed the enforceability of an exclusive forum provision contained in a Delaware...more
In New Enterprise Associates 14, L.P. v. Rich, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a covenant not to sue for breach of fiduciary duty, which was contained in a stockholder's agreement and modeled after the NVCA model...more
In what is becoming an emerging trend for the Delaware Court of Chancery, the court recently held in Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc. v. Eastman that a sale of business noncompete with a worldwide scope was unenforceable....more
In a closely watched case, the Delaware Court of Chancery recently held in a bench ruling in Electrical Workers Pension Fund, Local 103, I.B.E.W. v. Fox Corporation that Fox Corporation’s (Fox) nonvoting stock was not...more
In Hyde Park Venture Partners Fund III, L.P. v. FairXchange, LLC, the Delaware Court of Chancery provided a valuable reminder to corporations and their directors and officers that a corporation cannot assert a privilege, such...more