Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Weekly Roundup: July 28–August 2, 2017

Balancing Board Experience and Expertise Posted by John Roe, Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc., on Friday, July 28, 2017 Tags: Board composition, Board performance, Boards of Directors, Director qualifications, Diversity, Institutional Investors Common-Sense Capitalism Posted by David A. Katz and Laura A. McIntosh, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Friday, July 28, 2017 Tags: Accountability, Commonsense Principles, Corporate governance, Engagement, Institutional Investors, Long-Term value, Proxy advisors, Securities regulation, Shareholder voting, Stewardship, Stewardship Code, Wachtell Lipton The […]

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The Delaware Supreme Court Speaks to Market Evidence in Appraisal: DFC

The Delaware Supreme Court’s ruling this week in DFC is its first significant statement on the role of market evidence in appraisal “fair value” determinations in seven years. The wide-ranging and thorough opinion marks a robust affirmation of the primacy of real-world evidence in determining fair value. DFC Global Corp. v. Muirfield Value Partners, L.P., No. 518, […]

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The New Market Manipulation

Financial markets face a new and daunting high-tech mode of manipulation. With this new mode of market manipulation, millions of dollars can vanish in seconds, rogue actors can halt the trading of billion-dollar companies, and trillion-dollar financial markets can be distorted with a simple click or a few lines of code. Almost every investor and […]

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Snap Decision: Leading Index Providers Nix Multi-Class Shares

Changes Respond to Snap Controversy But Would Hit Many Other Public Companies The Snap, Inc. IPO in March 2017 was the first in which only non-voting shares were offered to the public. In response, the Council of Institutional Investors and others lobbied the major index providers to bar non-voting shares from their indices, arguing that […]

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Delaware Court of Chancery Holds Controller Transaction Satisfies Entire Fairness and Issues Appraisal Award Below Deal Price

The Delaware Court of Chancery recently issued a post-trial opinion holding that a controller cash-out merger was “entirely fair” and appraised for a value less than half of the deal price. ACP Master, Ltd. v. Sprint Corp. C.A. No. 8508-VCL (Del. Ch. Jul. 21, 2017). The case concerns the 2013 buyout of Clearwire by its majority stockholder, Sprint. The […]

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Managerial Myopia and the Mortgage Meltdown

In a new study forthcoming in the Journal of Finance Economics, we present evidence that financial firm CEOs’ incentives for short-term focus played an important role in the subprime crisis of 2007-2009. Prominent policy makers and opinion leaders have asserted that incentives for managerial myopia were important drivers of the crisis. For example, the Financial Crisis Inquiry […]

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Delaware Update

Court held claims asserted against directors before the company was acquired by a third party were extinguished in the acquisition—Massey Energy Co. Litigation (May 4, 2017) The former stockholder-plaintiffs asserted “Caremark-type” claims that the Massey Energy directors had failed to exert proper oversight over the company’s operations, resulting in a mining explosion that claimed numerous lives, […]

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Deals Mid-Year Review and Outlook

So far, 2017 isn’t quite the year many deal forecasters were expecting. But at the midway point, it looks on track for a finish that won’t leave dealmakers gritting their teeth. A deals market that had a bullish start in 2017—anticipating what a new, business-friendly government administration might do—has calmed along with the stock market. […]

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Posted in International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications, Private Equity, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Deals Mid-Year Review and Outlook

Board Pay—Not Just a Public Company Concern

The pay levels and mechanisms for directors at public companies are well studied and benchmarked. Private and family-owned companies? Not so much. Indeed, board compensation norms for these non-public firms (which make up a huge segment of our economy) have long been very obscure. New research sheds light on the topic. Private companies continue to […]

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CEO Succession Practices: 2017 Edition

According to a new report by The Conference Board, in 2016 CEO exits from underperforming companies have risen to a level unseen in 15 years amid record-high dismissals in the retail sector. In particular, last year the CEO of poorly performing companies had a 40 percent higher probability of being replaced than in 2015 and […]

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