Two recent rulings out of the Delaware Court of Chancery have highlighted the importance of clearly defining the terms of pre-closing obligations. In an M&A transaction, it takes significant time to get from a signed letter of intent to a closed deal. Pre-closing obligations, and the level of effort a party is required to exert to meet those obligations, are typically subject to heavy negotiation. While practitioners tend to negotiate according to a sliding scale of efforts standards—”commercially reasonable efforts,”…