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Court Of Chancery Applies Entire Fairness To Controller Contract

In Re EZCORP Inc. Consulting Agreement Derivative Litigation,  C.A. 9962-VCL (January 25, 2016)

This is an important and useful decision for at least two reasons. First, the Court carefully analyzes past Delaware precedent to conclude that the entire fairness test applies not just to squeeze-out mergers, but also to other transactions where a controller obtains non-ratable benefits, such as contracts with an entity owned by a controller of the company. This is important because prior case law was inconsistent on the test it applied to such contracts.

Second, the opinion has an exhaustive review of Delaware law on how to determine if a director is interested for purposes of the demand futility standard to bring a derivative suit.

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