Today the Delaware Chancery Court issued its ruling in the Clearwire case, which included claims for breach of fiduciary duty as well as appraisal arising from its acquisition by Sprint.  We’ll provide a more comprehensive breakdown of the decision in a later post.

In the meantime, as reported today by Reuters, Hedge fund stung by unusual ruling over Sprint-Clearwire deal, the ruling “stands out for a court that rarely finds fair value below deal price, let alone more than 50 percent below.”

Among other factors, the court found that neither side argued in favor of deal price, and so the court did not even consider it but looked only at the respective valuation analyses put forth by each side’s valuation expert.  Given the considerable synergies in this transaction, the court held that the deal price provided an “exaggerated picture” of Clearwire’s value.  The court also noted that the experts’ choice of projections drove 90% of the difference in their DCF valuations.