The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:31:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png Del Monte Settlement Highlights Risk of Conflicts in Buyout Financing – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Del Monte Settlement Highlights Risk of Conflicts in Buyout Financing https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2011/10/21/del-monte-settlement-highlights-risk-of-conflicts-in-buyout-financing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=del-monte-settlement-highlights-risk-of-conflicts-in-buyout-financing https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2011/10/21/del-monte-settlement-highlights-risk-of-conflicts-in-buyout-financing/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:14:08 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/?p=22532?d=20150113160329EST Posted by Theodore Mirvis, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Friday, October 21, 2011
Editor's Note:

Theodore Mirvis is a partner in the Litigation Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. This post is based on a Wachtell Lipton firm memorandum by Mr. Mirvis, Paul K. Rowe, William Savitt, and Ryan A. McLeod. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is co-sponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here.

Recently, there was the announcement of a proposed $89.4 million settlement of shareholder claims arising out of the buyout of Del Monte Foods Company. The shareholders had alleged that the sales process was tainted by collusion between the buyers and Del Monte’s banker, which had sought to provide financing to the buyout group. The settlement follows the closing of the transaction and will be funded by both the new owners of the company and the banker.

The $89.4 million payment is one of the larger settlements to occur in Delaware shareholder litigation. The driver of the settlement was the Court of Chancery’s February ruling granting a motion for a preliminary injunction. (See our memo of February 15, 2011 on the decision.) The case highlights the following considerations relevant to sale-of-a-company processes:

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