A new piece by Reuters Breakingviews, M&A at Last Finds a Way for Lawsuits to Pay, covers last week’s rulings on appraisal arbitrage by the Chancery Court in Ancestry.com and BMC (which we posted about last week), and also observes generally that appraisal actions are “surprisingly successful” and are thus witnessing a surge in filings over the past few years. The author finds appraisal cases to be “the rare litigation strategy that can benefit investors more than their lawyers.” The article also briefly discusses the upcoming en banc hearing by the Delaware Supreme Court scheduled for February 2015, in the appeal of the appraisal of CKx shares, which we’ve addressed in a prior post.
In conjunction with this article, the author discussed his research and findings about the success of appraisal actions in a short Reuters Breakingviews video, “A New Way to Make M&A Hay.”