Episode 24: Corporate Oppression Doctrine Meets Sex Discrimination: A Conversation with Professor Meredith Miller
Episode 23: LLCs as They Approach the 50-Year Milestone: A Conversation with Professor Susan Pace Hamill
Litigation developments: core M&A and corporate governance doctrines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen GovCon Perspectives - Why Was My SWaM Certification Denied, and What Can I Do?
Episode 8: Minority Oppression in the LLC: Interview With Professor Douglas Moll
Episode 10: The Marketability Discount Revisited: Interview with Greg Barber
The M&A Word of the Day® from the Book of Jargon® – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Is Squeeze Out
On January 21, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision in In re Oracle Corp. Derivative Lit., finding that a less than 50% stockholder does not owe fiduciary duties absent evidence of either...more
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
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
In In re HomeFed Corp. Stockholder Litigation (“HomeFed”), the Delaware Court of Chancery considered on a motion to dismiss whether a squeeze-out merger by a controlling stockholder complied with the procedural framework set...more
IN RE DELL TECHNOLOGIES INC. CLASS V STOCKHOLDERS LITIGATION There has been a growing deference in Delaware courts for transactions approved by independent special committees and minority stockholders. In the context of a...more
In Flood v. Synutra Int’l, Inc., No. 101, 2018, 2018 Del. LEXIS 460 (Del. Oct. 9, 2018), the Delaware Supreme Court (Strine, C.J.) held that a controlling stockholder who pursues a merger with the controlled company will have...more
In another significant M&A decision from the New York Supreme Court, the controlling stockholder of a Delaware corporation failed to obtain judicial deference under the so-called "MFW" framework for its merger with the...more
In two recent cases, the Delaware Court of Chancery provided informative guidance on when stockholders that hold less than 50% of a corporation’s stock are nevertheless considered to be controlling stockholders. This inquiry...more
On February 2, 2018, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a stockholder challenge to the buyout of Synutra International Inc. (“Synutra”) in a squeeze-out merger by a controlling...more
A transaction involving a controlling stockholder on both sides of the deal presents a clear conflict of interest that will result in heightened scrutiny under the “entire fairness” standard of review if later challenged....more
On May 5, 2016, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a shareholder class action and formally adopted the standard of review for going-private transactions articulated by the Delaware Supreme Court in Kahn...more
The New York Court of Appeals has followed Delaware in holding that the business-judgment rule applies to going-private mergers as long as certain shareholder-protective measures are met. The court’s May 5, 2016 decision in...more
The New York Appellate Division, First Department, ruled Thursday that the business-judgment rule – not the entire-fairness standard of review – can apply to a going-private transaction with the majority shareholder where the...more
When a controlling stockholder’s buyout of a company has been challenged by minority stockholders, Delaware courts have generally subjected the transaction to entire fairness review, the most rigorous standard of review in...more
In Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp., the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision that the more deferential business judgment rule standard of review, rather than an entire fairness standard 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 2013 decision, the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the business judgment standard of review should apply to a going-private transaction where certain procedural safeguards were implemented to protect minority...more
In a decision with great potential significance for the structuring of going-private transactions, Delaware Chancellor Leo Strine recently held in In re MFW Shareholders Litigation that a merger with a controlling stockholder...more
On May 29, 2013, the landmark decision of In re MFW Shareholders Litigation (MFW), issued by Chancellor Strine of the Delaware Chancery Court, held the business judgment rule standard of review is applicable to freeze-out...more