Skadden litigators scored their third major deal-related litigation victory this year, securing the dismissal of claims brought against firm client CME Group, Inc. Former NYMEX shareholders and Class A members alleged fiduciary and corporate governance failures related to CME's $10 billion acquisition of NYMEX in 2008.
In his September 30 decision, Vice Chancellor John W. Noble of the Delaware Court of Chancery wrote, "One cannot help but wonder if the Plaintiffs in both actions have sought to present a litany of claims with the hope that in the aggregate they will support a theme that something untoward occurred. In this instance, the Court is not persuaded that it can reasonably infer that the collective whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts."
Earlier this year, Skadden's Wilmington-based litigation team also successfully handled high-profile cases related to the $13 billion Lyondell-Basell merger and the $18 billion Activision-Vivendi merger.