Golden Telecom, Inc. v. Global GT LP, C.A. No. 392, 2010 (December 29, 2010)

In the last few years, the Court of Chancery has sometimes expressed confidence that the deal price set after a solid market check and proper deal negotiations may be the "fair value" to be paid to dissenters in a statutory appraisal proceeding.  Here the Delaware Supreme Court firmly rejects that notion and requires the trial court to independently go through the predicable war of the experts and decide what is fair value.  While this result seems dictated by the Delaware statute, the "Great Recession" has no doubt had an impact as well.