On March 25, 2025, the governor of Delaware signed into law significant changes to Section 144 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”). The changes provide safe harbors to Boards of Directors and controlling...more
Since the early 1990s, the U.S. stock exchanges have long been home to many prominent Chinese companies as they tried to attract a wide spectrum of investors and enhance their global profile. Over the past decade, waves of...more
PE dominance - Private equity and family offices are exerting increasing influence over public takeovers in the UK, with public to private transactions ("P2Ps") making up more than 2/3 of all bids in H1 2021 and...more
A previous article by our firm has sorted out and summarized privatization transactions. As a companion article, this article will discuss a very important but easily overlooked issue in privatization transactions. The...more
To assist interested parties in navigating a going-private transaction in Canada, we have prepared the following summary of key considerations. What is a Going-Private Transaction? A going-private transaction converts a...more
After a panel rehearing, the Seventh Circuit in Emmis Communications Corp. v. Illinois National Insurance Co., No. 18-3392 (7th Cir. Aug. 21, 2019), vacated a prior judgment and withdrew an opinion issued in July 2019,...more
On December 14, 2017, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated opinion in the Dell appraisal case, Dell, Inc. v. Magnetar Global Event Driven Master Fund Ltd., affirming in part, and reversing in part, the...more
2016 saw many notable developments in corporate governance litigation and related regulatory developments. In this article, we discuss significant judicial and regulatory developments in the following areas: Mergers...more
Action Item: New York’s High court provides a road map of how corporate attorneys should structure going-private transactions involving controlling shareholders. Utilizing certain protective measures at the outset should...more
In re Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. Shareholder Litigation - We previously reported on the Delaware Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. (MFW) applying the deferential, defendant-friendly...more
Enforcement actions raise potential disclosure concerns for private equity sponsors exploring investments in public companies - Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced charges...more
In a cash-out merger or consolidation, qualifying shareholders of a constituent Delaware corporation who do not vote in favor of the transaction may seek a judicial determination of the “fair value of [their] shares” under...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed a district court decision holding that under Indiana law, an Indiana corporation could vote its own outstanding preferred shares. In 1999, Emmis...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently held, in a case of first impression, that a non-reciprocal fee-shifting bylaw cannot be applied to a claim brought by a former shareholder who had been cashed out of the company before...more
When a significant stockholder in a publicly-held company is considering plans to take the company private, how soon must the stockholder disclose those plans in a Schedule 13D filing?...more
On March 13, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged eight officers, directors and major shareholders for failing to update material changes in their stock ownership disclosures on Schedule 13D in connection with...more
On Friday, the SEC charged eight officers, directors and major shareholders for failing to update their Schedule 13D stock ownership reports to reflect material changes in connection with several going-private transactions. ...more
The Delaware Supreme Court will address the standard for pleading that an independent director has breached fiduciary duties in connection with a controlling shareholder buyout. The issue was certified for interlocutory...more
The shareholders of Southbridge Towers, a 1,651 affordable unit cooperative in Manhattan, recently voted to privatize their development, allowing the residents to sell their apartments at market rate and walk away with a...more
New York companies seeking to go private with a controlling shareholder may now be less vulnerable to shareholder litigation. On November 20, 2014, the New York Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed a New...more
On March 14, 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court decided Kahn v. MF Worldwide Corp. and unanimously affirmed the Chancery Court’s ruling in In re MFW. As we discussed previously, in In re MFW, then-Chancellor (now Chief Justice)...more
In Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp., the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Chancery Court’s decision in In re MFW Shareholders Litigation. In that decision, the Chancery Court had granted summary judgment in favor of...more
On March 14, 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the Court of Chancery’s 2013 decision in In re MFW Shareholders Litigation, holding that in going-private mergers where there is a controlling stockholder, the use of both...more
In a landmark decision issued this morning, the Delaware Supreme Court held for the first time in Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. that the deferential business judgment standard of review should apply to a merger between a...more