On April 20, 2018, the Ninth Circuit ruled that shareholder claims for false or misleading tender offer disclosures under Section 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 require a mere showing of negligence, rather than...more
What’s on tap for 2018 M&A? A recap of 2017 trends and the Cooley outlook on this year’s dealmaking: -
Buying Innovation: Retention and Non-Competes. For both old-line companies and tech giants, innovation is the name of...more
2/9/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Appraisal ,
Appraisal Rights ,
CFIUS ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Innovation ,
Life Sciences ,
Mergers ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test
On December 14, 2017, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed and remanded the Court of Chancery's appraisal of the fair value of Dell Inc. The trial court's 2016 ruling, which found that a $25 billion management-led buyout...more
Former stockholders of SARcode Bioscience were recently denied a claim that they were entitled to be paid $425 million in milestone payments under a merger agreement. The decision provides an anecdotal lesson in drafting...more
Post-employment non-compete covenants are generally invalid in California, with certain limited but important exceptions like when a business or associated goodwill is sold and the buyer – as part of the deal – wants to...more
A transaction involving a controlling stockholder on both sides of the deal presents a clear conflict of interest that will result in heightened scrutiny under the “entire fairness” standard of review if later challenged....more
At what point do “discussions” with a friendly merger party become “negotiations” that are required to be publicly disclosed under the tender offer rules in response to a hostile bid? In a recent settlement of cease and...more
As concerns over the potential exercise of appraisal rights are increasingly being factored into deal price, data points from recent Delaware appraisal decisions may help inform a party of its appraisal risks and, if an...more
Last month, the FTC and DOJ issued a set of antitrust guidelines addressing certain employment and compensation practices that are most likely to occur in the high-tech and healthcare industries where highly-skilled employees...more
Recently, in the midst of an M&A transaction involving Verizon and Yahoo!, news broke of a Yahoo! cybersecurity breach that had occurred approximately two years earlier. This event raised a lot of speculation around what...more
We keep a close eye on developing cases regarding earn-outs and contingent payment rights in light of the prevalent use of these arrangements in life sciences deals and their increasing use in non-life sciences deals. On...more
In a rare decision involving unusual facts, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a buyer (Energy Transfer Equity, L.P.) had the right to terminate a signed merger agreement with its target (The Williams Companies, Inc.)...more
Section 262 of the DGCL provides a statutory remedy for stockholders who do not vote in favor of certain M&A transactions (generally cash mergers) to petition the corporation to buy their stock at a price equivalent to the...more
M&A deal terms will almost always vary based on the specific context of the transaction, including the deal price, structure and each party’s negotiating leverage. Although no amount of data can replace context-specific...more