Sky Blog
In the controversial practice of appraisal arbitrage, activist investors buy shares of a corporation to be acquired by merger so as to assert appraisal rights challenging the merger price – which may already have been approved by the target’s stockholders. …
In In re Books-A-Million, Inc. Stockholders Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed the fiduciary duty claims of former minority stockholders following a going-private, squeeze-out merger because the transaction satisfied the framework to invoke business judgment review as approved …
Over the past five years the business models in the Entertainment, Media and Communications (EMC) sector have been upended, paving the way for new EMC players to enter the industry that were traditionally technology companies.
Not too long ago, the …
Skadden and Erskine Chambers recently hosted a series of comparative corporate law events in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Queen Mary University of London School of Law; New York University School of Law; Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & …
Hedge fund activism is to corporate law’s early 21st century what the hostile takeover was to its late 20th century. Like the hostile takeover, activism threatens incumbent managers and disrupts their business plans by successfully appealing to the shareholders’ interest …
As discussed in prior posts on the Cleary M&A and Corporate Governance Watch blog, recent applications of the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings, 125 A.3d 304 (Del. 2015) have emphasized the high bar …
In mergers and acquisitions transactions with privately-held target companies, transacting parties will often agree to make payments to the target shareholders contingent upon some post-closing events. One frequently used mechanism is an earnout. With an earnout, the parties will agree …
In Larkin v. Shah, issued on August 25, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a stockholder challenge to a merger due to the cleansing effect of fully informed stockholder approval, applying the Delaware Supreme Court’s recent Corwin v. KKR Financial …
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2002 in the aftermath of a series of corporate scandals. It aims to strengthen investor protection by promoting better corporate governance and auditor independence. In particular, Sections 302 and …
Since 2010, 30 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation authorizing for-profit “public benefit corporations” (“PBC”), known in many states just as “benefit corporations.”[1] Although these laws vary slightly by state, each requires the board of directors …
In 2010, after considering 400 possible targets, Indiana-based funeral casket manufacturer Hillenbrand Inc. announced a plan to acquire K-Tron International Inc., a Pitman, New Jersey firm which makes industrial coal crushers and feeding equipment (including a machine to shoot raisins …
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) brought over 400 enforcement actions in the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2016, and is on pace to surpass its record of 807 enforcement actions in a single …
Merger activity seems to rise in step with the market. Academic papers suggest this may be due to bidders exploiting overvalued shares, a pro-cyclicality of merger economies of scale or available capital for deals, or simply the behavioral pressures of …
The UK voters’ decision to exit the EU came as a surprise to many observers, as well as the markets, with the “Leave” campaign even hinting at defeat as the polls closed. The Wall Street echo chamber view that it …
Entrepreneurship—a process of organizing, managing, and assuming the risks of a business or enterprise—has long been viewed as important for sustained economic activity. But the state of the economy, especially booms and downturns referred to business cycles, can itself affect …
It’s been almost seven years since the Delaware chancery court issued its initial opinion in the Trados litigation and instigated a flood of law firm memos, law review articles, and changes to the way deals get done in Silicon Valley. …
Corporate expatriations – transactions that lead a U.S. company to become the subsidiary of a foreign parent – present two problems for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.). First, they give expatriated companies the opportunity to use tax minimization strategies …
On May 6, 2016, in Singh v. Attenborough, No. 645, the Delaware Supreme Court strengthened the defenses available to directors by clarifying a roadmap for effectively dismissing post-closing claims for breach of fiduciary duty. A fully informed, uncoerced vote …
Over the last twelve months, over fifty US publicly traded companies with a market capitalization of over $1 billion have announced plans to spin-off lines of business into independent companies. During that period, companies such as Starwood Hotels, ConAgra Foods, …