Litigation developments: fundamental shareholder rights.
Episode 10: The Marketability Discount Revisited: Interview with Greg Barber
In Ramcell, Inc. v. Alltel Corp., C.A. No. 2019-0601-PAF (Del. Ch. July 1, 2022), the Court of Chancery reviewed a 2019 short-form merger between Alltel Corporation (Alltel) and Jackson Cellular Telephone Co. (Jackson), that...more
In re GGP, Inc. Stockholder Litig., C.A. No. 2018-0267 (Del. July 19, 2022) - Here, the defendants organized a merger so that a large majority of the total value of the merger would be granted as a pre-closing dividend to...more
For the purposes of a statutory appraisal under Delaware law, a corporation’s fair value is determined “on the date of the merger” ― in other words, at closing, not signing. However, deal terms, including price, are typically...more
Manti Holdings, LLC, et al. v. Authentix Acquisition Co., Inc., No. 354, 2020 (Del. Sept. 13, 2021) - This decision arose out of the acquisition of Authentix Acquisition Company, Inc. and a subsequent appraisal proceeding...more
Jarden, LLC v. ACE Am. Ins. Co., C.A. No. N20C-03-112 AML CCLD (Del. Super. July 30, 2021) - Director and corporate liability insurance coverage is determined by the specific language of the insurance policies. Last year,...more
In a string of seminal decisions from 2017 through 2019 (DFC Global, Dell and Aruba), the Delaware Supreme Court re-shaped appraisal jurisprudence, in each case by overturning the Court of Chancery for failing to give...more
Brigade Leveraged Capital Structures Fund Ltd. v. Stillwater Mining Co., C.A. No. 427, 2019 (Del. Oct. 12, 2020) - This case illustrates that, notwithstanding a flawed process for the sale of a company, the deal price may...more
Fir Tree Value Master Fund, L.P. v. Jarden Corp., No. 454, 2019 (Del. July 9, 2020) - Adding to its appraisal jurisprudence, the Supreme Court of Delaware recently affirmed the use of the unaffected trading price of a...more
N.C. Business Court Addresses the Scope of a Judicial Appraisal Proceeding- In Reynolds American Inc. v. Third Motion Equities Master Fund Ltd. et al., 2019 NCBC 35 (N.C. Super. Ct. June 4, 2019), the Business Court...more
Our previous posts have stressed the critical importance of buy-sell agreements for both majority owners and minority investors in private companies. For majority owners, securing a buy-sell agreement avoids the potential of...more
The decision makes clear that deal price is an appropriate indicator of fair value even where there is only one bidder. In Verition Partners Master Fund, Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc., the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a...more
On April 16, 2019, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a significant appraisal decision from the Court of Chancery in Verition Partners v. Aruba Networks, Inc., holding that the Chancery Court abused its discretion in using...more
On April 16, 2019, the Delaware Supreme Court, in a per curiam decision, held that Aruba Networks, Inc.’s (“Aruba”) fair value in an appraisal action was $19.10 per share, reversing the Court of Chancery’s valuation of $17.13...more
Verition Partners Master Fund, Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc., No. 368, 2018 (Del. Apr. 17, 2019). In a closely-followed appeal from the Court of Chancery’s appraisal decision in the Aruba Networks case, the Delaware Supreme...more
When it comes to business valuation principles in contested appraisal proceedings, I’d say the 50 states have far more in common than separates them. Certainly this is true in cases applying the fair market value standard...more
Stockholders, in connection with certain transactions (for instance, stockholders of a non-surviving corporation in a merger), are often entitled to seek a judicial determination as to the “fair value” of their shares. These...more
...So you, or your client, have found yourself in an appraisal proceeding. The question then becomes: What are the legal rules, principles, and standards that apply in the valuation proceeding itself? That is the subject of...more
Last month, seasoned business appraiser Andy Ross of Getty Marcus CPA, P.C., and I made a presentation at the Nassau County Bar Association about appraisal proceedings in business divorce cases. With the subject of business...more
The Tennessee Supreme Court overruled three decades of precedent in Athlon Sports Communications, Inc. v. Duggan, giving trial courts broad discretion in the method used to determine the “fair value” of shares in “dissenters’...more
The development of Delaware appraisal law has continued with the Delaware Supreme Court’s highly anticipated December 2017 appraisal opinion in Dell, Inc. v. Magnetar Global Event Driven Master Fund Ltd. In Dell, the court...more
Delaware litigation seeking statutory appraisal of a target company’s value for purposes of determining the fair value of dissenting stockholders’ shares has virtually become the norm following a merger transaction. Such...more
Since its adoption in 2013, parties have been using a two-step merger structure facilitated by §251(h) of Delaware’s General Corporation Law (the DGCL) as a means of avoiding the requirement of calling a special meeting of...more
In a trio of recent appraisal decisions, Delaware courts declined to use the deal price as the best evidence of fair value, instead using discounted cash flow analyses (“DCF”) and the unaffected market price to determine fair...more
On February 15, 2018, in the statutory appraisal proceeding of Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery decided that the “most persuasive evidence” of Aruba Networks’ fair...more
In a recent appraisal decision, Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc. (Aruba Networks), the Delaware Court of Chancery awarded 30% less to the shareholders than they would have received had they not...more