Delaware And California Courts Split As To Whether A Reverse Triangular Merger Results In An Assignment By Operation Of Law, Creating Potential Pitfalls For Delaware And Other Foreign Corporations Located In California

In Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC v. Roche Diagnostics GmbH, C.A. No. 5589-VCP, 2013 WL 911118 (Del. Ch. Feb. 22, 2013, rev. Mar. 8, 2013), the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a reverse triangular merger does not result in an assignment of the assets of the surviving entity by operation of law. Although the Meso Scale Diagnostics decision confirms, at least under Delaware law, the long-standing view of many practitioners that a reverse triangular merger does not result in an assignment by operation of law, it does not directly affect the contrary position taken by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in SQL Solutions, Inc. v. Oracle Corp., 1991 WL 626458 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 19, 1991), that under California law a reverse triangular merger does constitute an assignment by operation of law. As a result, foreign (i.e., non-California) corporations in California subject to Section 2115 of the California Corporations Code (“Section 2115”) must consider the holdings in Meso Scale Diagnostics and SQL Solutions when analyzing the effect that an acquisitions may have on contractual anti-assignment provisions.

Background

A reverse triangular merger is an acquisition structure whereby one company, the acquirer, creates a subsidiary to acquire a target company. The subsidiary of the acquirer purchases the target and thereafter merges with and into the target company, with the target company surviving the merger. The result of structure is that the target company continues to exist, but as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the acquirer.

SQL Solutions. In 1986, Oracle Corporation entered into a software licensing and services agreement with a software vendor, D&N Systems Inc. Under the terms of that agreement, D&N received rights that were exclusively for its own use and were not to be assigned or transferred to a third party without Oracle's prior written consent. In 1990, D&N merged with SybaseSub, Inc., with D&N as the surviving corporation, but changing its name to SQL Solutions, Inc. Oracle alleged that the anti-assignment terms of the licensing and services agreement were breached when the rights granted thereunder to D&N were transferred to SQL. D&N claimed that because there was only a change of ownership followed by a name change, no assignment or transfer of rights occurred.

In concluding that under California law a reverse triangular merger constitutes an assignment by operation of law, the SQL Solutions court held...