Has the SPAC Bubble Burst? Part 2: The SEC’s New Rules
Has the SPAC Bubble Burst? Lessons Learned From the Early Days of SPAC Mania
FCPA Compliance Report - Karen Woody on JPMorgan and Nikola SEC Enforcement Actions
Compliance Into The Weeds - Year End Review, Part 1
Compliance Into The Weeds - Red Flags and SPACs
Reps & Warranties Insurance: Sealing The Deal
Understanding SPAC Transactions: What it Takes to Be “SPAC Ready"
Don’t Step on a Crack in the SPAC/deSPAC Insurance Claim Process
Fast Track to IPO: Why Are Series A Startups Snatching Topflight CFOs?
The Brave New Frontier of Securing D&O Insurance for SPACs and deSPACs
Compliance and Coronavirus-Michael Beber on M&A, IPOs and SPACs During and After Covid-19
In Solak v. Mountain Crest Capital, the Delaware Court of Chancery found that a stockholder plaintiff pleaded a viable breach of fiduciary duty claim based on an alleged failure of the board of directors of a SPAC to disclose...more
Cornerstone Research, a top consulting and expert testimony firm, recently issued its annual report analyzing securities class action settlements. Cornerstone reports that, in 2024, both total settlement dollars and the...more
On April 4, 2025, Judge Gordon P. Gallagher of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado dismissed with prejudice a putative class action asserting claims under the Securities Act of 1933 and the...more
In the last edition of the SPAC Notebook, we examined the current risks to SPACs incorporating in the Cayman Islands. In this edition, we turn our focus to Delaware and its new set of amendments to the Delaware General...more
Solak v. Mountain Crest Capital LLC, et al., C.A. No. 2023-0469-SG (Del. Ch. Oct. 18, 2024) - The Court of Chancery found that the plaintiff stated legally-sufficient claims in connection with a merger transaction against...more
Cayman continues to be a hot topic among SPACs. It comes up in almost every conversation I have about SPACs and de-SPACs. My clients are asking: Should they incorporate in the Cayman Islands and then remain there after their...more
Since Vice Chancellor Lori Will’s seminal decision in In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation in January 2022, the Delaware Court of Chancery has seen a wave of lawsuits accusing special purpose acquisition companies...more
On August 14, 2024, Judge Michael T. Liburdi of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona granted with leave to amend a motion to dismiss a shareholder derivative suit brought in the name of the company, a...more
Special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”) have been in the litigation spotlight recently. As SPAC disputes play out in courts nationwide, one especially interesting field of play is in the Delaware Chancery courts where...more
Delaware legislature is considering proposed amendments to Section 242 of the Delaware General Corporation Law that would help address the challenges dual-share class companies have been facing in the wake of Garfield v....more
In this past year, we saw an uptick in in-person court proceedings as the effects of the pandemic subsided, a decrease in pandemic-related litigation, and a return to many of the core issues facing Delaware companies...more
On January 4, 2023, and again on March 1, 2023, Vice Chancellor Lori Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied motions to dismiss claims against directors and controlling shareholders of GigCapital-affiliated special...more
What happened - A recent Delaware chancery court decision has called into question consolidated voting on charter amendments by some companies with multiple classes of common stock. In Garfield v. Boxed, Inc., the court...more
On January 24, 2023, Skadden presented the fourth and final part of our 15th Annual Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Update series, “Developments and Trends in Delaware Law: A Review of 2022 and What to Expect...more
On January 4, the Delaware Chancery Court issued a second decision suggesting that SPAC sponsors and directors proceed with care in connection with de-SPAC transactions (and potentially future SPAC formation). As a result of...more
With all the SPAC activity and scrutiny over the past several years, it was only a matter of time before the Delaware courts had an opportunity to weigh in on SPAC stockholder litigation. Early last year, in January...more
On October 28, 2022, Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the declaratory action brought by Buzzfeed Inc. against 91 current and former employees is not bound by arbitration provisions...more
By 2020, SPAC IPO activity had been booming, with a sharp growth in both the number of deals and volume across all industries, including energy. However, in 2021, investor sentiment seemed to shift as shareholder scrutiny...more
As discussed in prior issues, Delaware courts have recently refined and limited defenses to Section 220 books and records actions. No longer does a stockholder need to specify the ends to which it might use the books and...more
On March 7, 2022, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to stay a putative class action brought by legacy stockholders of DiamondPeak Holding Corp., a special purpose acquisition...more
SPAC sponsors, investors, advisors, and (most keenly) directors are asking questions following a Delaware court’s denial in January of the defendants’ request for dismissal in the MultiPlan Corp. shareholder litigation. Those...more
Highlighted below are several recent opinions from the Delaware Court of Chancery relating to special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) that provide helpful guidance to sponsors, investors and practitioners. These cases...more
Takeaways - The Delaware Supreme Court simplified the pleadings-stage test applied to derivative suits where no demand has first been made on the board. Disputes about stockholder books-and-records requests focus...more
Takeaways - Despite a decline in securities class action filings in 2021, we saw a spike in SPAC-related lawsuits and continued activity in event-driven suits focused on issues of cybersecurity, the pandemic and...more
In 2021, there were 613 initial public offerings (“IPOs”) of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”), after 248 SPACs went public in 2020 and 59 in 2019. Prior to 2021, there had not been more than 500 IPOs of any...more