It looks likely – per this blog post from Deminor Recovery Services. With numerous US-listed People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) companies facing threats to their listings, the attractiveness of withdrawing from the US market may become stronger. Take privates, mergers, and other arrangements resulting in the delisting of the PRC company from the US exchange
Minority Rights
Del. Supreme Court Weighs In and Affirms Shareholders’ Rights to Access Books and Records
With litigation over section 220 demands becoming more frequent and contentious, the Supreme of Court Delaware weighed in an en banc ruling and affirmed shareholders’ rights to inspect a company’s books and records. In this protracted dispute which we’ve previously blogged about, AmerisourceBergen Corporation took the Chancery Court’s ruling allowing shareholders the right to inspect…
Private Company Appraisal in Action: Zoox Investors Seek Appraisal
While the appraisal landscape, and many of the major appraisal decisions of the past few years, have concerned the appraisal of public companies, it is critical for investors and practitioners to not lose sight of private appraisal.
Appraisal rights can be available to shareholders of privately held corporations, and can be exercised when a…
Del. Chancery Admonishes Issuer Over Attempts to Block Shareholders’ Access to Books and Records
Pharmaceutical company Gilead’s “overly aggressive defense strategy” received the ire of Vice Chancellor McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery, who found in a recent decision [$$] that shareholders easily showed they had the right to access books and records to investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with Gilead’s marketing of HIV drugs, and allowed the…
Does Washington State Have Appraisal Rights? Yes. With a Twist!
Does Washington state offer appraisal rights (also known as dissenters rights)?
Yes it does – according to this post from the Jacob Freeman Law Firm in Seattle. And unlike Delaware (indeed, unlike the majority of US states), Washington does not have a “market out exception”. We’ve covered before that the somewhat maligned “market out…
Books and Records (Del.): Valuing Private Shares is a Proper Purpose
Shareholder rights (at least in Delaware) include the right to inspect the books and records of the company for a “proper purpose”. What is a proper purpose? We’ll be covering a number of cases in the coming months on this oft-contested issue. For today: enter Woods Tr. of Avery L. Woods Tr. v. Sahara Enterprises…
Amerisource Bergen Goes to Del. Supreme Court Over Shareholders’ Access to Books and Records
AmerisourceBergen Corp. has asked the Delaware Supreme Court to reverse a Chancery Court ruling allowing shareholders the right to investigate the company’s books and records for corporate wrongdoing in connection with the opioid crisis. Amerisource Bergen argued before the full five-member panel that Vice Chancellor Laster’s prior ruling went too far and invites harassment.
Books…
SEC Enacts Stricter Rules for Shareholder Proposals
The SEC has recently enacted rules that make it tougher for shareholders to submit ballot proposals. As we previously blogged about, the rules now approved by the SEC by a 3-2 vote: (1) increase the monetary amounts and length of investment required to submit shareholder proposals and (2) raise the threshold of shareholder support required…

Appraisal Rights as Part of the Decision Where to Incorporate: Firm Compares Florida and Delaware
We’ve previously written about how appraisal rights are a factor considered by deal-makers during the merger process, as well as by in-house counsel and other professionals involved in mergers: but are appraisal rights part of the decision-process when deciding where to incorporate? Perhaps they should be, as one writer has compared the appraisal regimes in…

Lexology: Drag-Along Rights May Put Shareholders’ Appraisal Rights At Risk
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…