A recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision discussed many issues of great interest to commercial and corporate litigators in connection with a finding that Boston Scientific Corporation could not justifiably terminate an acquisition agreement with the target company, including an analysis of the familiar contractual standard of “commercially reasonable efforts,” which has been held to be synonymous with the similar phrase “reasonably best efforts.” In Channel Medsystems, Inc. v. Boston Scientific Corporation, C.A. No. 2018-0673-AGB (Del. Ch. Dec. 18, 2019), a 119-page decision, Delaware’s equity court determined that Boston Scientific did not fulfill its contractual duty to use “commercially reasonable efforts” to consummate the merger.

The court noted that Delaware case law “contains little support for distinctions” between the clause “commercially reasonable efforts” and the clause “reasonably best efforts.” See footnote 410 (citing the Delaware Supreme Court decision in Akorn, 2018 WL 4719347, at * 91.)   Many prior Delaware decisions interpreting and applying that contractual standard have been highlighted on these pages. Followers of this area of the law will find the scholarly insights on this topic by Professor Bainbridge especially notable.

In the instant Chancery decision, the court relied on the Akorn case that interpreted a similar covenant to “impose obligations to take all reasonable steps to solve problems and consummate the transaction.”  (citing Williams Cos. v. Energy Transfer Equity, L.P., 159 A.3d 264, 272 (Del. 2017)).  The Williams case was highlighted on these pages.  The court further relied on the Delaware Supreme Court decision in Akorn to provide the following guidance:

“When evaluating whether a merger partner has used reasonable best efforts, this court has looked to whether the party subject to the clause: (i) Had reasonable grounds to take the action it did; and (ii) Sought to address problems with its counter party.” See footnote 410.

The instant Chancery decision provided several examples why the record supported the holding that Boston Scientific, according to the court’s findings, made no reasonable efforts to engage with Channel, or “to take other appropriate actions to attempt to keep the deal on track . . ..” See Slip op. at 102.

The court used the reasoning of another decision when it explained that:

“Utter failure to make any meaningful attempt to confer with Channel when Boston Scientific first became concerned . . ., both constitutes a failure to use reasonable best efforts to consummate the merger and shows a lack of good faith.” See footnote 418 (citing to Hexion, 965 A.2d at 755-56.)

Finally, the court observed that even though motive to avoid a deal does not demonstrate the lack of a contractual right to do so, the evidence in this case, according to the court’s findings:

“Adds credence to and corroborates other robust factors demonstrating that Boston Scientific did not fulfill its obligation to engage with Channel in a commercially reasonable manner to vet any concerns they may have had about the findings in the Greenleaf Report and to keep the transaction on track thereafter. To the contrary, Boston Scientific simply pulled the ripcord.”