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US: Study finds 94% of 2013 mergers faced lawsuits

By  |  March 13, 2014

A report recently released by Cornerstone Research found that 94 percent of all mergers struck in 2013 faced lawsuits, a troubling trend that some report say costs shareholders millions of dollars.

According to reports, lawsuits were field against 90 percent of merger deals worth at least $100 million. It’s the fourth-straight year this has happened – up from just 44 percent of mergers that faced lawsuits in 2007.

According to Forbes, the trend suggests not that mergers are getting sloppier, but that lawyers are failing to research the transactions ahead of filing litigation, relying on a lawsuit to delay a transaction in efforts to obtain settlements or lawyers’ fees.

According to the Cornerstone study, the average number of lawsuits a merger faced was five. Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, faced 26 lawsuits in his acquisition of the company.

Full Content: Forbes

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