Monday, November 12, 2012

"Plaintiffs' lawyers move nuisance M&A litigation from the pre-merger stage to the post-merger stage"

That was Professor Bainbridge's headline.
Here's the story at D&O Diary:

M&A Lawsuits after the Merger Closes
As I have frequently noted on this blog (most recently here), one of the most distinctive litigation phenomenon has been the rise in litigation involving M&A activity. It has gotten to the point that virtually every merger now also involves a lawsuit (or, more often, multiple suits). These cases have proven attractive to plaintiffs’ lawyers because the pressure to close the deal has allowed the claimants to attract a quick settlement, often involving an agreement to publish additional disclosures or adopt corporate therapeutics and the payment of plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees.

However, as noted in a November 9, 2012 post on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Reform by Boris Feldman of the Wilson Sonsini law firm, there recently has been a new twist to the M&A litigation phenomenon; increasingly, plaintiffs’ lawyers have “refined their business model” and now they aim to “keep the litigation alive post-close.” Moreover, Feldman notes, the plaintiffs are pursing these post-close M&A cases “even in situations where objective factors suggest a lack of merit to the claims: e.g., high premium; no contesting bidders; overwhelming shareholder approval; customary deal terms.”...MORE
Gotta love that "refined their business model".