James E. Langston

Firm/Organization: Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Blogs: Cleary M&A and Corporate Governance Watch

Latest Articles

Until Vice Chancellor Laster’s decision last week in Akorn Inc. v. Fresenius KABI AG,[1] no Delaware court had released an acquiror from its obligation to close a transaction as a result of the occurrence of a “Material Adverse Effect.”[2]  The cases previously adjudicated in Delaware all had required the acquiror to close, often despite a significant diminishment in target value and, in some, the court criticized the acquiror for seeking to avoid…
Last month, in Vento v. Curry,[1] the Delaware Chancery Court preliminarily enjoined the Consolidated Communication Holding (“Consolidated”) shareholder vote[2] on the company’s all-stock acquisition of FairPoint Communications (“FairPoint”) due to Consolidated’s failure to adequately disclose the compensation its financial advisor would receive for participating in the acquisition financing. The court’s ruling ultimately had very little impact on the transaction – Consolidated subsequently disclosed that its financial advisor would receive $7 million in…
The past few years have witnessed a resurgence in the mergers and acquisitions and initial public offering markets—particularly for health care. Many private companies have pursued a dual-track M&A/IPO process, in which the company simultaneously pursues an IPO and a confidential sale. The dual-track process has been growing in popularity among health care companies, since the IPO process can be helpful in generating momentum for a potential sale in a consolidating industry.…