You Stay Classy: Law Firm "Investigates" Non-Existent Deal
It’s become reflexive: Whenever a take-private buyout is announced, class-action law firms begin “investigating” whether the company’s board breached fiduciary duty to shareholders. Never mind if it was a competitive process that produced a 60% premium – suggest bad faith first and ask questions later. But at least these vultures typically wait until the deal is actually announced. Not so with a law firm called Bower Piven, which yesterday announced that it has “commenced an investigation into potential breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of state law by the Board of Directors of Pactiv Corp. in connection with the possible sale of Pactiv Corp. to Apollo Global Management LLC.” Note the operative word is “possible.” Neither Apollo nor Pactiv have announced anything! All we've got is a WSJ article saying that Apollo has offered to buy the company – at a price higher than where Pactiv has traded for the past several years. And today there are reports that strategic players are jumping into the fray.
