On June 17, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court (Court), sitting en banc, reversed a Court of Chancery ruling that had held a bidder liable for aiding and abetting fiduciary breaches of the target’s management....more
On March 3, a committee of the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA) announced revisions to Senate Bill 21 (SB 21) aimed at paring back some of the proposed protections seen as too controller-friendly....more
In its unanimous decision rendered on February 4, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Delaware Court of Chancery’s ruling in the widely followed “TripAdvisor” case (Palkon v. Maffei) regarding the standard of review...more
Controlled companies and their directors appealed the denial of their motions to dismiss claims by stockholder-plaintiffs challenging the conversions of the companies from Delaware to Nevada corporations....more
Controlling stockholders owe fiduciary duties to other stockholders that minority stockholders do not. A holder of over 50% of a corporation’s voting power is clearly a controlling stockholder. As a consequence, transactions...more
This case stems from the proposed reincorporations of Tripadvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. from Delaware to Nevada, which were first presented to the corporations’ respective stockholders for approval in...more
In an opinion late last month, the Delaware Supreme Court brought a close to the long-running shareholder litigation regarding Oracle’s 2016 purchase of NetSuite. The decision provides instruction for how significant minority...more
Nearly one year ago, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster decided to apply Delaware's most onerous standard of review, entire fairness, to the decisions of TripAdvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. to reincorporate...more
A recent monumental decision of the Delaware Supreme Court (Court), dubbed a “first-of-it-kind” ruling by Bloomberg Law, provides clarity for both public companies looking to amend their bylaws and shareholder activists who...more
Much has been written about Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster's ruling in Palkon v. Maffeii, 2024 WL 678204 (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2024). That case involved a challenge to TripAdvisor's planned reincorporation from Delaware to...more
On April 4, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court held in In re Match Group Inc., Derivative Litigation that the entire fairness standard of review applies to all controlling stockholder transactions in which a controller receives...more
In a much-anticipated decision, the Delaware Supreme Court echoed the Court of Chancery's pronouncement that advance notice bylaws adopted amid an approaching proxy contest are reviewed through the lens of enhanced judicial...more
In this issue, we discuss Delaware court developments, including the first-ever dismissal of a SPAC disclosure complaint, as well as rulings pertaining to financial advisor conflict and disclosure law, state laws involving...more
The first half of 2024 has been a watershed moment for the development of controller law in the Delaware courts. Among the highlights, the Delaware Supreme Court reexamined and confirmed that transactions involving a...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently issued two opinions weighing in on the scope of disclosures involving board advisors in connection with M&A transactions that warrant close attention. In both rulings — each written en banc...more
On January 17, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a significant decision affirming that the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL) does not require companies with multiple classes of common stock to obtain separate...more
A recent opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court could be viewed by some as expanding plaintiffs’ ability to viably plead a duty of oversight (or “Caremark”) claim against directors. In Lebanon County Employees’ Retirement...more
As discussed in prior articles, stockholder plaintiffs have increasingly sought to obtain companies’ books and records under 8 Del. C. § 220 (Section 220) and the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act’s analogous provision,...more
The Delaware courts have issued several noteworthy decisions in recent weeks that should have an impact on practice and stockholder litigation. Below is a brief summary of these decisions, which involved the following...more
On June 6, 2023, in an opinion authored by Justice Karen L. Valihura, the Supreme Court of Delaware sitting en banc unanimously affirmed judgment in favor of defendant, the CEO/Founder and then-Chairman (the “Chairman”) of...more
The proposed 2023 amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) approved by the Delaware State Bar Association are intended to address a number of practical issues facing corporations and their counsel and to...more
For almost 30 years, the Delaware courts have held that corporate directors are charged with a fiduciary duty of “oversight.” Directors must make sure that their corporations both (1) implement reasonable information and...more
In recent weeks, the Delaware Court of Chancery has issued two noteworthy opinions in the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) context—one related to fiduciary duties and one related to the technical question of when a...more
Delaware courts have historically been reluctant to allow Caremark (or “board oversight”) claims to gain traction, describing such a claim as “possibly the most difficult theory in corporation law upon which a plaintiff might...more
The Court of Chancery’s decision in In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation1 is the latest example of how the Delaware Supreme Court’s watershed 2014 decision in Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp. (MFW)2 has been applied to...more