Proceeding Without Resolving Conflicting Interests in Dell Appraisal
At a hearing yesterday, the Delaware Court of Chancery denied the
Magnetar Funds’ motion to give them control of Dell appraisal case.
The court also decided to proceed with the trial of valuation next
week, on October 5, according to the December 16, 2014 scheduling
order that had been established before the voting “discrepancy” issues
of lead counsel’s primary clients were revealed,[1]
without first determining whether those clients are entitled to
appraisal.
According to the hearing, this will be the first time the Delaware
Chancery Court has proceeded with an appraisal valuation before
determining the entitlement of petitioners. All of the petitioners not
represented by counsel for T Rowe Price had supported resolving the
entitlement issues before proceeding, even if they did not support
Magnetar’s proposed control of the case, to eliminate conflicts of
interest one way or another.[2] However,
the court decided that it could rely upon the personal integrity of
lead counsel’s senior partner to diligently represent the interests of
the unchallenged claimants rather than his firm’s primary clients, and
that a disruption of the trial schedule was therefore unjustified.[3]
Please let me know if you have any questions about your interests in
the Dell case.
GL – September 29, 2015
Gary Lutin
Chairman, The Shareholder Forum
575 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022
Tel: 212-605-0335
Email:
gl@shareholderforum.com
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