This is an important decision. Courts are usually very deferential to management and board decisions.
In a ruling that could have broader effects on the booming buyout business, a Delaware judge faulted Netsmart Technologies for excluding strategic buyers from its sale process and ordered the company to delay a vote on its proposal to be acquired by two private equity firms. In a memo to clients, law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz called the decision, issued late Wednesday by Vice Chancellor Leo E. Strine Jr. of Chancery Court, a “major opinion†on a deal that, although small, had many of the same elements as large private-equity transaction.
From Dealbook