Private Equity

In a self-described “unexpected” ruling for the defendants in the consolidated LIBOR proceedings, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald has dismissed the private plaintiffs’ antitrust and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims and significantly narrowed the scope of the Commodity and Exchange Act (CEA) claim.

In a move intended to ease the uncertainty surrounding the future role of LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate), on September 28, 2012, Martin Wheatley of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (the FSA) offered a path to overhauling the benchmark interest rate.  

When a company with a controlling stockholder seeks to sell itself to a third party, the rights of the controlling stockholder and its obligations to minority stockholders are not always clear, tempting plaintiffs to test the boundaries of the controlling stockholder’s duties. 

In the wake of the recent admissions by Barclays Bank PLC that its traders sought to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR"), corporations and other investors are only now beginning to appreciate the magnitude of the scandal and to consider how it might impact their own investments.

As forecast, on March 27 the U.S. House passed the Senate's amended version of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act), clearing the way for President Obama to sign the bill into law, which he is expected to do in the coming days.

In a recent decision by the Delaware Court of Chancery, Auriga Capital Corp. v. Gatz Properties, LLC, C.A. 4390-CS (Del. Ch. Jan. 27, 2012), the court strongly reaffirmed that managers of a limited liability company owe traditional fiduciary duties to the limited liability company and its minority members unless such duties are explicitly reduced or eliminated by the terms of the limited liability company's operating agreement.