News & Analysis as of

Fiduciary Duty Board of Directors Minority Shareholders

ArentFox Schiff

Delaware’s New Approach To Interested Director and Minority Stockholder Protections

ArentFox Schiff on

On March 25, Delaware governor, Matt Meyer, signed into law Substitute 1 to Senate Bill 21 (SB 21), following its rapid approval by the Delaware state legislature. This legislative measure aims to counter the current trend of...more

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

The Delaware Legislature Proposes Sweeping Amendments to the DGCL

On February 17, 2025, a bipartisan group of legislators seeking to “promote clarity and balance in Delaware’s corporate law” introduced Senate Bill 21 (the “Bill”) to amend the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”). If...more

Perkins Coie

When Is a Minority Stockholder a Controller? The Delaware Supreme Court Reaffirms the Ground Rules in In Re Oracle Derivative...

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Controlling stockholders owe fiduciary duties to other stockholders that minority stockholders do not. A holder of over 50% of a corporation’s voting power is clearly a controlling stockholder. As a consequence, transactions...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Finds That Controller Sale Of Company Did Not Harm Minority Interests

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On January 7, 2025, Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a post-trial decision in favor of defendant, a private equity fund (the “Fund”), finding that the Fund’s sale of a portfolio...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Can a Shareholder Be Oppressed After Ceding Control? Oppression, Reasonable Expectations, and Contractual Formalism

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

One of the first business divorce cases that I participated in as a young litigator was a lengthy arbitration over whether a minority shareholder was oppressed under BCL 1104-a.  With those fond memories, evolution of the...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Supreme Court Holds MFW Is Applicable To Controlling Stockholder Transactions Even Outside Of Freeze-Out Context

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On April 4, 2024, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz, Jr., the Supreme Court of Delaware sitting en banc held that the framework articulated in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp., 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014)...more

Jones Day

Controlling Stockholder Exercising Voting Power as Stockholder to "Change the Status Quo" Owes Fiduciary Duties

Jones Day on

The Background: After unsuccessfully trying to convince the special committee not to implement a plan to liquidate a business line, which the controlling stockholder believed would destroy value, the controlling stockholder...more

Venable LLP

Fiduciary Liability Limitations Under Nevada Law Trigger Entire Fairness Review of Conversion from Delaware Due to Controlling...

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The Delaware Court of Chancery, in Palkon v. Maffei, et al., C.A. No. 2023-0449-JTL (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2024), determined that a reduction in the liability exposure of a fiduciary due to the conversion of a Delaware...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Ministerio de Comercio introduce cambios al régimen de conflictos de interés en Colombia

Holland & Knight LLP on

El Ministerio de Comercio de Colombia ha expedido el Decreto 0046 de 2024 (decreto), que reemplaza lo pertinente del Decreto 1074 de 2015, dedicado a los conflictos de interés de los administradores de sociedades. Este nuevo...more

Conyers

King Bun Limited and Others v. Lau Man Sang, James and Others - Claim No. BVIHC (COM) 2017/086

Conyers on

Nov 2023 In August 2021, the BVI Commercial Court handed down judgment on liability in favour of the Claimants against seven directors of Vanway for carrying out a fraud on the minority shareholders, in selling the assets of...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Post-Trial Oracle Ruling Provides a Roadmap for Navigating Transactions With an Influential Fiduciary on Both Sides of the Deal

The mere potential for a prominent, highly respected officer, director and minority holder to influence a board’s decision to approve a deal where the minority holder sits on both sides is insufficient to confer controller...more

Winstead PC

Texas Supreme Court Holds That A Director Of A Corporation Cannot Hold An Informal Fiduciary Duty To A Stockowner

Winstead PC on

In In re Estate of Poe, shortly before his death, Dick, who was the sole director of Poe Management, Inc. (PMI), authorized the corporation to issue new shares that he bought for $3.2 million. No. 20-0178, 2022 Tex. LEXIS 544...more

Winstead PC

Litigating Minority Shareholder Rights - Presentation

Winstead PC on

David F. Johnson presented his paper “Business Divorce: Minority Shareholder Rights In Texas” to the State Bar of Texas’s Business Disputes Course on September 2-3, 2021. This presentation addressed shareholder oppression...more

Goodwin

A Win for Deal Certainty, Delaware Court of Chancery Orders Closing of Cake Supplier Acquisition

Goodwin on

A Win for Deal Certainty, Delaware Court of Chancery Orders Closing of Cake Supplier Acquisition; Under Armour to Pay $9M to Settle SEC Charges Involving Disclosure Failures; First Circuit Upholds Decision Applying Federal...more

Winstead PC

Navigating Safe Harbors: Review of the Protections Provided to Governing Persons by the Texas Interested Party Statute and the...

Winstead PC on

Under Texas law, when the owners of closely held companies have co-investors, they need to exercise care in managing their business. This need for caution is due in large part to a Texas statute that makes it easier for...more

Winstead PC

Keeping Things in Bounds: Private Company Owners Need toAbide by Clear Fiduciary Duties in Managing Their Companies

Winstead PC on

In February 2009, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes made a toe tapping catch in the back corner of the end zone to secure a thrilling, come-from-behind win and crush the hearts of Arizona Cardinals fans in...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Rejects Attempt to Allege Gentile v. Rossette Direct Claims for Dilutive Preferred Stock Issuances

Morris James LLP on

Silverberg v. Padda, C.A. No. 2017-0250-KSJM (Del. Ch. Sept. 19, 2019). The Court of Chancery held that plaintiff common stockholders’ fiduciary duty claims challenging the company’s overpayment for dilutive preferred...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Allows Claims to Proceed Against Stockholder Subjecting It to Entire Fairness Review

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An “allegation that a transaction involves a controlling stockholder who stands on both sides is a serious one because it imposes fiduciary duties on the controlling stockholder and potentially strips directors of the...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Finds Controlling Stockholder Impliedly Consented to Jurisdiction Through Board’s Adoption of Delaware Forum-Selection...

Morris James LLP on

In re Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. Derivative Litigation, Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0058-JTL (Del. Ch. Mar. 15, 2019). Stockholders that control Delaware corporations find themselves subject to fiduciary duties. According to this...more

White & Case LLP

2018 Half-year in review: M&A legal and market developments

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We set out in the attached Newsletter a number of interesting English court decisions and market developments which have taken place in the second half of 2018 and their impact on M&A transactions. This review looks at these...more

Winstead PC

The Private Company Cookie Jar: Who Decides How Many Cookies The Majority Owners Get to Eat (And Which Ones)?

Winstead PC on

In the private company world, the buck stops with the majority owners, who generally hold the reins to running the business. In our experience, however, it is not uncommon for some majority owners to push the limits of their...more

Morris James LLP

Court Of Chancery Explains Who Is A Controller

Morris James LLP on

In Re Hansen Medical Inc. Stockholders Litigation, C.A. 12316-VCMR (June 18, 2018) - This is another decision in a series of recent decisions where the Court of Chancery had to decide if a less-than-50% stockholder...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Delaware Chancery Court Finds Elon Musk May Be Controlling Stockholder of Tesla Motors

On March 28, 2018, in In re Tesla Motors, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by stockholders of Tesla Motors, Inc. (“Tesla” or the “Company”)....more

McCarter & English, LLP

Delaware Law Updates – Court of Chancery Puts Boards of Directors on Notice that Contracting Away Derivative Claims in a Merger...

Vice Chancellor Glasscock has held that a merger designed to eliminate derivative claims against a majority of directors justified the application of the entire fairness standard of review in a direct challenge to the merger....more

Smith Anderson

Tyranny of the Minority: North Carolina Business Court Explores Potential Fiduciary Duties of Minority Shareholders

Smith Anderson on

The North Carolina Business Court recently issued an opinion considering whether a minority shareholder can ever be considered a “controlling shareholder” who owes a fiduciary duty to other shareholders. The court’s opinion...more

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