Delaware Slashes Clearwire Value; Favors Management Projections
Observers expecting another decision from Delaware Chancery Court favorable to petitioners got a big surprise last month, as the string of above merger price appraisals came to an end. On July 21, 2017, Vice Chancellor Laster ruled in the Clearwire Corp appraisal proceeding that the fair value of Clearwire’s stock at the time of its merger with Sprint was $2.13 per share, some 57 percent below the merger price of $5.00 per share. This comes on the heels of two recent Chancery Court appraisal decisions, Dell, Inc. and ISN Software Corporation, where fair value was determined to be 27 percent and 158 percent higher than the buyout prices, respectively, rewarding petitioners for pursuing the costly process of seeking an appraisal.