Litigation developments: core M&A and corporate governance doctrines
Compliance Perspectives: Due Diligence and Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO)
On June 21, 2024, Vice Chancellor Nathan A. Cook of the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss a putative stockholder class action asserting breach of fiduciary duty claims against the officers and directors...more
In a recent decision, the Delaware Supreme Court clarified the proper standard to apply to a non-freeze-out merger transaction involving a controlling stockholder. Litigators who practice in the Delaware Court of Chancery are...more
In In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, the Delaware Supreme Court held that the dual procedural protections announced in the seminal case of Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp. (MFW) are required in order to shift the...more
On April 4, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its opinion in In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, clarifying that the heightened entire fairness standard of review applies to judicial review of any transaction...more
In a case with implications for companies with controlling stockholders, the Delaware Supreme Court held that the MWF Doctrine applies to any transaction involving a controlling shareholder receiving a non-ratable benefit,...more
In a landmark decision, In re Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores, Inc. Stockholder Litigation,1 the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a controlling stockholder did not breach his fiduciary duties when he amended company bylaws...more
On May 1, 2023, Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss a putative stockholder class action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty claim against the directors of a...more
On January 4, 2023, and again on March 1, 2023, Vice Chancellor Lori Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied motions to dismiss claims against directors and controlling shareholders of GigCapital-affiliated special...more
When a court reviews contested business transactions of a Delaware corporation, they typically rely on one of two standards of review: the “business judgment rule” or the “entire fairness standard.” The business judgment rule...more
On February 14, 2022, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery entered judgment in favor of Lee Enterprises, Inc. (the “Company”) and its directors following an expedited trial on claims for breach of...more
The decision adopts enhanced scrutiny of director fiduciary duties for de-SPAC transactions, but suggests dismissal may be appropriate when stockholders exercise redemption rights on a fully informed basis. On January 3,...more
On January 3, 2022, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery largely denied a motion to dismiss a putative class action brought by the stockholders of Churchill Capital Corp. III, a special purpose...more
On October 13, 2021, Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a request for injunctive relief in a stockholder action against the board of CytoDyn (the “Company”). Rosenbaum v. Cyotodyn...more
In 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court’s landmark Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp.1 (MFW) decision established that the deferential business judgment standard of review could apply to controlling stockholder “squeeze-out” mergers...more
In re HomeFed Corporation Stockholder Litigation, C.A. 2019-0592-AGB (Del. Ch. July 13, 2020) - This case illustrates that the Court of Chancery will apply the entire fairness standard to review a squeeze-out merger by a...more
On February 27, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued important guidance to boards of directors seeking to utilize special committees of disinterested and independent directors to insulate themselves from fiduciary liability...more
In the context of an M&A transaction, practitioners are routinely left to navigate the various standards of review that are applied by the Delaware courts to evaluate whether a Delaware corporation’s directors have complied...more
The Background: A shareholder challenged an extraordinary and extremely lucrative incentive-based compensation package awarded by Tesla to its chair, CEO, and controlling shareholder, claiming a breach of fiduciary duties. ...more
In the latest Delaware decision to expound MFW and the structuring of controller transactions, the Delaware Supreme Court clarified the requirement for a controlling stockholder to condition its offer “up front” on MFW’s dual...more
Delaware courts evaluate a self-dealing transaction with a controlling stockholder through the lens of entire fairness — meaning that both the deal process and price must be deemed fair. The burden of proving entire fairness...more
In Olenik v. Lodzinski, the Delaware Supreme Court found that the conditions required for business judgment review of a controlling stockholder transaction under the MFW standard were not in place “at the outset” of the...more
Olenik v. Lodzinksi, No. 392, 2018 (Del. Apr. 5, 2019). Under Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp., 88 A.3d 635 (Del. 2014), deferential business judgment review governs mergers between a controlling stockholder and the controlled...more
In a decision with potentially far-reaching implications for private equity sponsors and other controlling stockholders, the Delaware Court of Chancery expanded the potential for liability for foreign-based controllers by...more
On February 20, 2019, Skadden held a webinar titled “2019 M&A and Corporate Litigation Trends.” The panelists were litigation partner and Delaware litigation practice leader Edward Micheletti and litigation counsel Jenness...more
In the second half of 2018, the Delaware courts once again produced decisions that will guide M&A transactions in the future. Three cases affecting US M&A stood out in 2018....more