Robert B. Little is partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. This post is based on a Gibson Dunn publication by Mr. Little and Chris Babcock. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is cosponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here.
The Delaware Court of Chancery’s endorsement of exclusive forum bylaws—bylaw provisions establishing that certain types of lawsuits relating to internal corporate governance matters may only be pursued in a designated forum—has led to the extensive use of these bylaws as a way to manage the litigation that commonly accompanies public mergers and similar transactions. In particular, following the decision in City of Providence v. First Citizens BancShares, [1] where the Court determined that it was not a per se violation of a board’s fiduciary duties to adopt exclusive forum bylaws in the context of an upcoming acquisition, it appears that public company targets have more often than not adopted these provisions. Examining a sample of public M&A deals taking place after City of Providence, we found that the target adopted exclusive forum bylaws prior to or at the time of the acquisition in over two-thirds of the deals reviewed. This finding suggests that adoption of such bylaw provisions is becoming a routine part of public M&A practice.