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California Shareholders Publicly-Traded Companies

A&O Shearman

Northern District Of California Dismisses Putative Securities Class Action Against Grocery Delivery Company For Failure To...

A&O Shearman on

On May 9, 2025, Judge Edward J. Davila of the Northern District of California granted a motion to dismiss a purported securities class action against a grocery delivery company (the “Company”), certain of its officers and...more

Allen Matkins

Does The Stock Market Believe That California's Board Diversity Mandates Enhance Firm Value?

Allen Matkins on

In 2018 and 2020, California enacted laws mandating that publicly held corporations (as defined) having their principal executive offices in California have specified minimum numbers of directors who are female and from...more

Allen Matkins

Why Was 25% Chosen As California's Jurisdictional Threshold For Recapitalization Transactions?

Allen Matkins on

California's securities qualification requirements and exemptions depend upon whether the offer and sale of securities is an issuer transaction, a change in rights, exchange, merger, or conversion transaction, or a nonissuer...more

Allen Matkins

Is A Change In Transfer Restrictions In A Shareholder Agreement Subject To Qualification?

Allen Matkins on

A recent post discussed whether amending a shareholders agreement is subject to qualification under the California Corporate Securities Law of 1968.  For the purpose of that discussion, it is important to recognize that not...more

Allen Matkins

Directors Removing Directors

Allen Matkins on

Seven years ago, I addressed the question of whether the board of directors of a California corporation could remove a fellow director...more

Allen Matkins

Strangers In A Strange Land - In California, Bumblebees, Crabs and Snails Are Fishes And A General Partnership May Soon Be A...

Allen Matkins on

In California, some things are not what they seem.  Here, a bumblebee, a crab or snail can be a fish, but a goldfish may not be a fish. Now, a bill is pending in the California legislature which threatens even more violence...more

Allen Matkins

California Legislator Proposes To Enhance Criminal Fines For California, But Not Delaware, Business Entities

Allen Matkins on

In February of this year, California Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel introduced a bill making certain technical, nonsubstantive changes to a provision of the Penal Code concerning the removal of prison inmates for court...more

Allen Matkins

What Exactly Must A Board Approve When It Approves A Merger?

Allen Matkins on

Last Friday, John Jenkins wrote about another momentous ruling by Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick.  In Sjunde AP-Fonden v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., 2024 WL 863290 (Del. Ch. Feb. 29, 2024), she ruled...more

Allen Matkins

Is An Option Exercise Non Bis In Idem?

Allen Matkins on

Is the issuance of shares upon exercise of a stock option distinguishable from the issuance of the option?  The answer under California's Corporate Securities Law of 1968 may surprise some.  Corporations Code Section 25017...more

Allen Matkins

Abandoning Cumulative Voting Does Not Extend Term Of Office

Allen Matkins on

In November 2018, the citizens of Mission Viejo elected three persons to the City Council for two-year terms of office, rather than four years as prescribed by California Government Code section 57377.  This was done pursuant...more

Allen Matkins

Does California Require "Reasonable Care" In A Board's Selection Of An Expert?

Allen Matkins on

Professor Stephen Bainbridge recently tackled the question of whether the business judgment rule applies to a corporate board's selection of an expert.   Section 141(e) of the Delaware General Corporation Law fully protects a...more

Allen Matkins

Are Directors Employees And Are Their Homes Their "Workplaces"?

Allen Matkins on

There are potentially a number of ramifications to classifying a board member as employee, including whether the corporation may be entitled to obtain a workplace violence restraining order petition pursuant to Section 527.8...more

Allen Matkins

Judge Rules Beneficial Owner of Shares Lacks Standing to Bring Direct Claims Against Corporation and its CEO

Allen Matkins on

The plaintiffs in Chan v. ArcSOFT, Inc., 2023 WL 2788585, believed that they had been misled in a buyout of their shares and so they sued the company and its Chief Executive officer.  One of the plaintiffs, Marc Chan, did not...more

Allen Matkins

California Amends Corporations Code To Authorize Audio Option For Shareholder/Member Meetings

Allen Matkins on

Historically, a meeting necessarily meant a physical encounter.  Indeed, the word "meet" can be traced to the Anglo Saxon word metan which means to encounter or meet.  So it was that shareholder meetings involved the presence...more

Allen Matkins

Discerning When A Director Has Acted With "Reckless Disregard"

Allen Matkins on

Section 204(a)(10) of the California Corporations Code permits the articles of incorporation to include provisions eliminating or limiting the personal liability of a director for monetary damages in an action brought by or...more

Allen Matkins

Who Votes Pledged Shares?

Allen Matkins on

Under the California General Corporation Law, a shareholder whose shares are pledged is entitled to vote those shares until the shares have been transferred into the name of the pledgee.  Cal. Corp. Code § 702(c).   There are...more

Allen Matkins

What Can Be Done If You Believe That You Were Improperly Appointed An Officer Or Director

Allen Matkins on

On occasion, someone might perceive that they have been improperly  appointed as a director or officer of a corporation.  If this unfortunate circumstance occur, is there any mechanism for publicly disclaiming the...more

Allen Matkins

Does The California Legislature Really Believe In the Existence Of Limited Liability Corporations?

Allen Matkins on

The California Corporations Code includes provides for the formation of corporations as well as limited liability companies.  However, it does not provide for the formation of limited liability corporations.  Oddly, however,...more

Allen Matkins

What Makes An Officer An Officer?

Allen Matkins on

The word officer is used widely in the law.  For example, there are judicial officers, peace officers, and constitutional officers.  Even lawyers are often described as "officers of the court".  See, e.g., Hickman v. Taylor,...more

Allen Matkins

Court Finds FAC Adequately Pled DAO Was A Partnership Under California Law

Allen Matkins on

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or DAO, is a governance structure popular with devotees of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.  It is decentralized because holders of tokens, rather than a board of...more

Allen Matkins

The Superior Court Has The Authority To Determine The Validity Of Board Elections, But What About Recalls?

Allen Matkins on

Section 709 of the California Corporations Code provides a mechanism for "any shareholder" or "any person who claims to have been denied the right to vote" to obtain a determination by the Superior Court of the validity of...more

Allen Matkins

A Corporation Is A Body But Also An "Individual"

Allen Matkins on

Several years ago, I wrote about the various meanings of "person" in the California Corporations Code.  All of the definitions mentioned in that post included corporations within the list of persons.  If a corporation is a...more

Allen Matkins

California Bill Would Require Climate-Related Financial Risk Reports

Allen Matkins on

On Monday, four California state senators introduced a bill, SB 261, that would require businesses to prepare and submit climate-related financial risk reports.  The bill would apply to any corporation or other business...more

Allen Matkins

Bill Would Allow Shareholders To Phone It In

Allen Matkins on

Currently, the California Corporations Code prohibits a California corporation from conducting a meeting of shareholders solely by electronic transmission by and to the corporation, electronic video screen communication,...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

California Adopts Ratification and Verification Statute for Corporations

Throughout the life cycle of a company, and especially during the leaner early start-up stages, corporate actions that are defective due to failures to obtain the correct board or shareholder votes, errors in the approval...more

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