In collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group and RBC Capital Markets, our Canadian Special Situations Team has released a paper offering a fresh perspective on defensive strategies addressing the spectre of shareholder activism.

Long-serving boards and board renewal policies may face increasing scrutiny in the 2015 proxy season.

Activist shareholders have been accused of hindering innovation in companies they target. During a 2-3 year activist engagement in a company, activist shareholders focused on pursuing short-term goals may seek to cut costs in the target, maximize profits, then exit quickly, (possibly) with little care for the long-term prospects of the target company.

Of particular note is the proportion of overall M&A activity which is now represented by buyout-private equity deal structures.

July 2013, the government adopted the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (the MMPR), superseding the 2001 regulations on the same subject matter.

Low oil and gas prices promise to make 2015 a year in which well-capitalized players find opportunities to invest or grow in the oil and gas industry.

According to the VMS study, most respondents expect the volume of corporate breakup transactions to increase over the next 12 months.

The Canadian Securities Administrators recently provided an update on their ongoing review of proxy voting infrastructure.

On June 18th the Digital Privacy Act (Bill S-4) received Royal Assent. This new law provides long overdue amendments to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Diligence is required to provide the buyer with a validation of purchase price and a clear indication of deal risks – a balancing act between cost and perceived risk.

Looking ahead to 2016, Intralinks recently published its Deal Flow Predictor report for Q1 2016, which tracks global, early-stage M&A activity in order to predict M&A deal volume in the coming quarter.

Executive compensation has been a hot button issue as of late. Not only has executive compensation come under increased scrutiny from politicians, regulators and the public at large, it is an issue that is also top-of-mind for shareholders, analysts and proxy advisory firms.

The University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business and the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) released the results of the first-ever Alberta Women on Boards Index on September 22, 2015 (the Index).

Canadian companies are becoming increasingly attractive to American and European companies as targets of foreign investment according to a recent article from the Lexpert Special Edition on Canada's Leading Corporate Lawyers.

2014 is increasingly looking like a celebratory year in Canadian M&A.

The Court’s decision in Bhasin v. Hrynew provides needed clarity and certainty in contractual expectations and contracts that fail to clearly speak to a duty of good faith in performance.

The IIROC published proposed guidance for underwriters conducting due diligence in connection with a securities offering.

In an M&A transaction, the integration process is key. In Mergermarket's study, 47% of respondents reported that they started to consider merger integration strategies during negotiations.

The acquisition of a business, whether via the purchase of either its shares or its assets, often involves the transfer of intellectual property.

Due diligence is a fundamental stage in every M&A transaction and lays the foundation on which a deal is built.