Category Archives: Corporate law

Third Circuit Upholds Prohibition on Credit Bid in Philadelphia Newspapers Auction

The incumbent management of the bankrupt company that owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News won a significant, but likely short lived, victory in the Third Circuit Yesterday. The Daily News reports that a three judge Thgird Circuit panel has upheld bankruptcy Judge Steven Raslavich’s ruling prohibiting the company’s creditors from using the…

Increased Criminalization of Business Practices No Bonus For Investors

That’s the general thesis of a very interesting article in the Winter 2008 issue of The City Journal. The criminalization of bad business decisions, previously dealt with in civil courts through claims for civil fraud or other liability theories, has been a troubling trend since the spectacular collapse of Enron. If recent reports concerning the…

Diller Beats Malone

Courtesy of the WSJ’s Law Blog earlier this evening came the news that Barry Diller has prevailed in his litigation with John Malone’s Liberty Media concerning Diller’s plan to split internet company IAC into 4 separate pieces. Neither guy is all that likeable, but when two new media kingpins square off in court its always…

Another View on Lord Black

In an earlier post I criticized the government’s case against Lord Conrad Black and labeled its prosecution a “jihad” against business. In the interest of being fair and balanced, I commend to you this post by Professor Bainbridge, which makes a cogent argument that Lord Black plundered his company and its shareholders.

Delaware Chancery Court Allows Backdating Case to Proceed

Chancellor William Chandler, in a very pointed opinion, denied Maxim Integrated Products’ motion to dismiss most of the backdating related claims brought against it by shareholder William Ryan (you can access a copy of Chancellor Chandler’s opinion here.) Noting that a majority of the board of directors approved each of the backdated options grants in…

Is Apple Sticking Its Head in the Sand?

After reading today’s New York Times article on Apple’s latest pronouncement related to its internal proble of its options dating issues, one would conclude either that the company is trying to put the best face on a very bad situation or is simply sticking its head in the sand. Simply stating that the CEO knew…

Martha, Martha, Martha

Joan Heminway, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, has written a book entitled “Martha Sewart’s Legal Troubles,” that is due to be published in a week or so. You can order a copy here.