Oral Arguments in a Hypothetical Appeal of Air Products v. Airgas to the Delaware Supreme Court
Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., Moderator
Stephen P. Lamb, Presiding Justice
William M. Lafferty, Counsel for Petitioner
Kevin R. Shannon, Counsel for Respondent
As indicated earlier, our luncheon program is a mock argument before a fictitious Delaware Supreme Court consisting of you, our audience, of an appeal of the Airgas case. In Airgas, Chancellor Chandler of the Delaware Court of Chancery upheld Airgas’s poison pill.
Air Products and Airgas are both Delaware corporations. Both corporations are headquartered in Pennsylvania and are in the industrial gas business. Between October 2009 and February 2010, Air Products made a series of purchase offers to the Airgas Board, first at $60 per share and then at $62. Airgas rejected each offer. Air Products followed up on February 11, 2010, with a $60 all-cash, all-share tender offer to the Airgas stockholders. The Airgas Board recommended against the offer as inadequate and refused to redeem its poison pill.