Sky Blog
Delaware is widely known for providing the U.S. corporate law that governs most large, publicly traded companies. However, the economic imperatives prompting this have also led Delaware to explore opportunities in related though distinct fields, effectively leveraging its corporate law …
Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Pinterest offer hundreds of items, from t-shirts to coffee mugs to posters, warning against agreement for the sake of agreement.* My wife has, on more than one occasion, reminded me of the danger.[1] And now, …
In response to the growing practice of “appraisal arbitrage,” in 2016 Delaware’s General Assembly amended the state’s appraisal statute, Section 262 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. The amendment to Section 262(h) granted corporations the option to “prepay” appraisal claimants …
Last quarter, the Delaware courts issued the first post-Dell appraisal decisions—Aruba and AOL (issued by the Court of Chancery) and SWS Group (issued by the Delaware Supreme Court, affirming the Court …
The Corporate Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association (the “Corporate Council”) has released proposed legislation[1] to amend certain provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) which if enacted would, among other things, …
An important feature of U.S. corporate law is regulatory competition among various states. Unlike firms in other industrialized countries, American corporations can choose to incorporate in any state, even if they do not do business there. A large body of …
While all acquisitions require approval from target shareholders, the necessary level of shareholder support varies across jurisdictions and deal structures. Some transactions can be approved by a simple majority of target shareholders, while others require super-majority approval. In our paper, …
Following last May’s announcement of the “Delaware Blockchain Initiative” by former Delaware Governor Jack Markell[1], on March 13, 2017, the Corporate Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association released groundbreaking draft legislation proposing …
Until very recently, it was not controversial to claim that shareholder litigation had entered a period of crisis. A significant majority of deals involving publicly-traded corporations (most of which are organized in Delaware) were challenged in litigation, and to make …
On October 28th, the Delaware Chancery Court, in Espinoza v. Zuckerberg, et al. (“Espinoza”)[1], held that stockholder ratification of a transaction that was approved by an interested board of directors must be accomplished formally through a vote …
The Delaware Corporation Law Council—composed of members of the Delaware bar charged with proposing annual amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL)—has proposed several potentially significant amendments to the DGCL. Among other things, the amendments would seek to prohibit …
James Matarese and Danielle Lauzon are M&A partners at Goodwin Procter LLP whose practices focus on technology and life sciences companies. Their recent representations include Onyx Pharmaceuticals in its merger with Amgen in a transaction valued at $10.4 billion.
On …
Recently, the Delaware legislature adopted and Delaware’s Governor signed into law several substantive amendments to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the DGCL), 8 Del. C. §§ 101 et seq.
New Provisions
Ratification of Defective Corporate …
The Delaware State bar recently proposed an amendment to Section 251 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) to add new subparagraph (h) that would greatly enhance the appeal of the tender offer over a one-step merger structure.
Currently, bidders …