Sky Blog
Delaware is dead, long live Delaware? To a U.S. M&A practitioner, much of the “Dexit” debate about whether corporations should exit Delaware as their jurisdiction of incorporation in favor of another state feels as if it may come full circle …
Around the time Tesla’s board granted CEO Elon Musk a massive 10-year, $2.3 billion equity award, a small number of companies offered similar “mega grants” to their CEOs. The outcome of Musk’s grant is known, but the outcomes of these …
As Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI advances to trial in April 2026, the case offers more than courtroom drama – it provides a critical test of whether hybrid corporate organizational structures can sustain public-interest commitments in the face of extraordinary …
Elon Musk finally has his 2018 Tesla pay package back. The Delaware Supreme Court has spoken. The saga that consumed years of litigation, untold judicial energy, and more Twitter commentary than any fiduciary duty case deserves is, at least formally, …
Over the past two decades in Delaware, two schools of thought coexisted regarding non-majority control. One school took a formal approach that (i) focused on control over the board of directors, (ii) discounted sources of influence other than stock ownership, …
Elon Musk can cash the largest paycheck in history, the Supreme Court of Delaware has ruled in a narrow and sensible opinion grounded in longstanding principles of equity and contract law.
To catch up: Tesla and Musk entered into an …
On September 15, 2025, Elon Musk filed a disclosure with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating that he had acquired approximately 2.57 million shares of Tesla Inc. in open-market transactions on September 12, at a cost of nearly …
Elon Musk is once again testing the boundaries of the law on fiduciary duties. In September 2025, Tesla proposed to give him a new compensation package valued at more than $1 trillion, the largest in corporate history. Shareholders are scheduled …
On September 2, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in Frazier v. X Corp., No. 24-1948, — F.4th —-, 2025 WL 2502133 (2d Cir. Sept. 2, 2025), that a district court cannot intervene in …
In response to fears that companies would reincorporate in states like Texas or Nevada, the Delaware legislature recently enacted a controversial bill (SB-21) that makes the state’s law friendlier to persons controlling corporations. Many writers have commented on the Delaware …
After the Delaware Court of Chancery invalidated Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package, Tesla made headlines by moving its incorporation from Delaware—the longtime gold standard for incorporation—to Texas. Following Tesla’s reincorporation, Texas moved to strengthen its newly created business court. …
On February 20, Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Collins Seitz met with members of the state’s General Assembly and delivered some sobering words: “Along with our respect for your legislative judgments, I ask you to consider the importance of judicial …
We are living in a particularly polarized era, and corporate governance is no exception. The divisions have threatened to spill over to Delaware, the preferred jurisdiction for incorporation in the United States, with several high-profile cases calling the state’s neutrality …
Delaware’s regime governing controlling shareholders relies on the courts’ ability to police conflicted transactions under the stringent “entire fairness” standard of review. In theory, judicial review under this standard allows judges to distinguish between fair transactions and those that are …
The establishment of the Texas Business Court (“Business Court”) in September 2024 marks a watershed moment in corporate governance. As the “Dexit” phenomenon gains traction – with corporations considering an exit from Delaware as a state of incorporation – Texas …
The proposed Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”) in incoming President Donald J. Trump’s administration promises an ambitious agenda of “regulatory rescission, administrative reductions and cost savings” with the goal of “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy” by July 4, …
Controlling shareholders function as a dual-edged sword in corporate governance. They can reduce agency costs by monitoring management but also pose risks of self-dealing that can harm minority shareholders. In recent years, Delaware courts have increasingly focused on the latter …
Are “lost-premium” provisions – clauses that typically allow a target to recoup the premium its shareholders were denied because a buyer wrongfully backed out of a deal – enforceable? In a surprising decision last year, the Delaware Court of Chancery …
A great deal of space has been devoted by the media to discussions relating to the pay of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. The media outrage centers around his 2018 pay package, with many of the headlines reporting a whopping …