Sheri Qualters of The National Law Journal (Jan. 13, 2011), authored a story here, regarding a settlement that was recently announced in a shareholder suit pending in the Delaware Court of Chancery styled as:  In re Alberto Culver Co. Shareholder Litigation. The consolidated case challenges the terms of a pending offer by Unilever to acquire Alberto Culver Co., claiming that the terms of the offer breached the defendants’ fiduciary duties to shareholders. 

The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog here and the WSJ’s Deal Journal here, have related stories.

The proposed settlement, which must be approved by the Court of Chancery, does not include the payment of any money to shareholders (in the sense of creating a common fund payable directly to shareholders), nor does it include an increase in the price that Unilever will offer in the deal.

Last year in the Revlon case summarized here, and in a more recent transcript ruling in the case styled In Re Art Technology Group Shareholders Litigation, Del. Ch., No. 5955-VCL (Dec. 20, 2010), available here, the Delaware Court of Chancery emphasized the greater scrutiny it would apply to settlements of shareholder suits that challenge deals and the related corporate litigation that precedes such resolutions.