Washington Mutual, Inc. v. United States, 2014 Del. LEXIS 115 (March 14, 2014) In a case arising out of the savings and loan debacle, the successor-in-interest to a “healthy” thrift that agreed to take over a number of failing ones sued the government for a tax refund based on tax deductions and losses for certain  Continue Reading »

The valuation opinions of nonexperts can be a useful reality check on the opinions of bona fide valuation experts, says the Delaware Court of Chancery in a case that involves an increasingly popular technique known as “appraisal arbitrage.” The court’s finding applies to other cases involving valuation matters. Discovery dispute: Two investment firms bought millions  Continue Reading »

Wisniewski v. Walsh, 2013 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 724 (April 2, 2013) Children learn that bad behavior has consequences. An appellate court recently taught a similar lesson to a troublemaking shareholder whose doings forced a buyout. Three siblings each owned a one-third interest in a family business. They had a falling out, and one sued  Continue Reading »

Bank of America, N.A. v. Veluchamy (In re Veluchamy), 2014 Bankr. LEXIS 5106 (Dec. 18, 2014) A noteworthy discussion involving reputed valuation experts over how to value stock in one of the defendants’ S corporations lies buried in a bankruptcy case that features over 20 claims of fraudulent transfers. The court ruled on bread-and-butter valuation  Continue Reading »

Valuation experts receive a lot of advice on how to guard against an attack from the opposing side, but sometimes an attack can come from the expert’s own client. A recent case shows how an appraiser who sued a client over unpaid fees was put on the defensive. Costly divorce: The client hired an accounting  Continue Reading »

Lane v. Lampkin, 2014 Miss. App. LEXIS 497 (Sept. 16, 2014) How do you assess damages in a situation in which one of two equal shareholders died and the surviving partner feels compelled to open a new company that does the same work as the original company? A divided appeals court recently dealt with the  Continue Reading »

Financial experts are often needed in commercial litigation cases. They could be used to value a business, figure out economic damages, or to look into fraud allegations. In these cases, the quality of the numeric data that is available to the expert is critical, affecting both the time that the financial expert must put into  Continue Reading »

Sometimes courts face a hard choice, having to decide between equally compelling and competent valuations. Not so in a recent fair value proceeding in which the skills gap between the testifying experts made it easy for the court to pick the winner. Biz divorce: The petitioner and the respondent were the two owners of a  Continue Reading »

For small business owners, it may seem like all you need is a little business and financial knowledge to perform a quick calculation to determine a business’ value. However, experienced valuation professionals apply tested valuation approaches that are based on real world market data, and, importantly, they have strong verbal and written communication skills that  Continue Reading »

It seems obvious that the best time to find out about possible culture differences between two companies considering a merger is before the deal is complete. One of the most common reasons for mergers or acquisitions to fail is concern about cultural integration. It has become a high priority for companies considering these transactions to  Continue Reading »