As COVID-19 continues to cause uncertainty in M&A transactions, investors should have a heightened interest in pursuing the rights available to them, including appraisal and inspection rights.
For instance, the Harvard Law Forum expects that buyers who agreed on transaction terms at pre-COVID-19 valuations might seek to terminate those transactions or renegotiate the price
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP posted on Lexology [$$$] about the availability of so-called drag-along rights in private equity deals, which would require minority shareholders to waive rights to appraisal or otherwise challenge controlling shareholder transactions. According to the post, these drag-along rights have become standard fare in stockholder or similar agreements for controlling
In a recent appraisal decision, Delaware Vice Chancellor Slights III awarded investors a 12% premium above deal price, fully adopting the discounted cash flow analysis Petitioners tendered, except for one minor adjustment. The case involved a three-way business combination of a privately held target turned public without minority shareholder approval. The court eschewed the use
In a lengthy decision, Delaware Vice Chancellor Laster ruled that shareholders had the right to inspect the formal board materials of AmerisourceBergen Corporation and conduct a 30(b)(6) deposition to determine whether they needed additional documents, including informal board materials and officer-level documents.
In Lebanon Cty. Emp. Ret. Fund v. AmerisourceBergen Corp., stockholders sought to
Governor John Carney has nominated Prickett Jones & Elliot, P.A. partner Paul A. Fioravanti, Jr. to the Delaware Court of Chancery. The seat was left open by Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves’ nomination to the Delaware Supreme Court. At Prickett Jones, Fioravanti focused on corporate and commercial litigation, including mergers and acquisitions, fiduciary duty obligations, corporate governance,
The Brazilian government proposes strengthening protections for minority shareholders in the wake of corruption scandals, such as Petrobras. The new law would allow minority shareholders the right to seek judicial compensation in the event of misconduct by the company’s board. Shareholders of Brazilian corporations are already entitled to appraisal rights, subject to a few exceptions
Law360 highlights several appraisal decisions in its list of the biggest Delaware cases of 2019. The article notes that among the 2019’s notable Supreme Court decisions was Aruba Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. et al. v. Aruba Networks Inc., where the Court rejected reliance on Aruba’s stock price in determining fair value. The article
Whether communications or work product by a third party destroy the privilege enjoyed between attorney and client is a hotly contested issue in litigation, and appraisal is no exception. For instance, the New York Appellate Division recently held that a valuation report created by a third-party consulting firm to appraise the plaintiff’s stock in the
Recently, Vice Chancellor Slights refused to grant Carl Icahn and affiliates’ novel request for a company’s books and records in order to mount a proxy contest against Occidental for agreeing to an allegedly bad deal with Anadarko. The Vice Chancellor ruled that furthering a proxy contest was not a “proper purpose” to support the activist
The Texas Court of Appeals recently held that shareholders exercising their appraisal rights under Section 10.354(a) of the Texas Business Organizations Code are not entitled to a jury trial, because appraisal is specially created and controlled by statute. Pursuant to section 10.361(e) of the Code, the court determines which owners have perfected their appraisal rights
