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
In a recent decision from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a federal Judge pushed back against the common but abusive practice of “mootness fee” payoffs in public M&A deals. In the...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery fundamentally altered the M&A litigation landscape when it expressed its skepticism of disclosure-only settlements in the case of In re Trulia, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, 129 A.3d 884 (Del....more
Takeaway: Strike suits against corporate mergers are often resolved in worthless “disclosure-only” settlements. Derided as a “peppercorn and a fee,” a disclosure-only settlement provides no monetary relief to the...more
On February 8, 2018, Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich of the New York Supreme Court denied a motion for final approval of a disclosure-only settlement in a class action suit brought by shareholders of Martin Marietta...more
The North Carolina Business Court recently approved a “disclosure settlement” of a merger challenge, suggesting that in North Carolina such settlements may remain a viable means of resolving merger lawsuits – at least where...more
The Delaware Courts took a significant step in 2016 to reduce the filing in Delaware of lawsuits aimed at procuring disclosure only settlements (meaning settlements that involve only the provision of additional information...more
The Court of Chancery’s highly-publicized decision in In re Trulia, Inc. Stockholders Litigation, 129 A.3d 884 (Del. Ch. 2016) (Bouchard, C.) (discussed here) took aim at the problem of disclosure-only settlements and...more
As previously discussed in Insights: The Delaware Edition, throughout the second half of 2015, the Delaware Court of Chancery began to question its long-standing practice of approving deal litigation settlements involving...more
In recent years, lawsuits challenging mergers and acquisitions have become almost ubiquitous. Virtually all of these cases settled for disclosure-only settlements in which the target’s stockholders received no money. Of...more
Disclosure only settlements are in deep trouble in Delaware based on the Court of Chancery's recent decision in In re Trulia Inc. Stockholder Litigation. That decision is said to have sounded a "death knell" in Delaware for...more
On January 22, 2016, Delaware Chancellor Andre C. Bouchard rejected a proposed “disclosure-only” settlement in In re Trulia Stockholder Litigation. The decision confirms the Chancery Court’s growing skepticism for...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery dealt another blow to disclosure-only settlements of merger litigation and refused to approve a proposed class-action settlement arising from Zillow, Inc.'s acquisition of Trulia, Inc. ...more