"In Alberta and Now Ontario: There Comes a Time When a Poison Pill Gets to Stay", Securities Source – Securities Law Newsletter, Westlaw eCarswell, June 2009
Date:
June 1 2009
In 1991, at the first hearing by a Canadian securities regulatory authority to consider whether to grant a bidder's application for an order cease trading the target company's shareholder rights plan ("poison pill") in the course of a hostile take-over bid, the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") set the tone for all the hearings to come for the next 16 years. In the roughly 20 cases from 1991 to 2007, the only unpredictable aspect was the question of whether the pill would be cease traded immediately or a few weeks hence. This unwavering consistency came to an abrupt end in the 2007 Alberta Securities Commission ("ASC") case of Re Pulse Data Inc. Now the OSC has followed suit in its May 2009 decision in Re Neo Material Technologies and Pala Investments Holdings Limited.
Republished with permission.
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