Patricia Olasker

Jan 7, 2025 | mondaq.com | Patricia Olasker |Ghaith S. Sibai |Sébastien Roy

Despite a strong start to the year, activist activity in Canadain 2024 tapered to pre-pandemic levels. This reversion to morehistoric annual totals follows a notable resurgence of shareholderdemands directed at Canadian public companies in 2023, whenshareholder engagement reached its highest levels sincerecord-setting 2018. The passing of another year invites reflection on the trendscurrently animating the Canadian activism space.

Mar 4, 2024 | businesslawtoday.org | Patricia Olasker |Jonathan Bilyk |Mathieu Taschereau

What is a spurned seller’s recourse when a buyer walks away from a deal in breach of the purchase agreement? In private M&A, the answer is reasonably straightforward: sue the buyer to close the deal or to recover damages. In public M&A, however, the answer is murky at best. The problem arises from the manner in which public deals are typically structured.

Feb 2, 2024 | mondaq.com | Patricia Olasker |Jonathan Bilyk

Important guidance on "acting jointly or in concert" in a proxy contest was provided by the British Columbia Securities Commission (Commission) in NorthWest Copper Corp. (December 22, 2023). The Commission declined to find a joint actor relationship between a dissident and another shareholder, notwithstanding that the shareholder had funded the dissident's proxy contest to replace an incumbent board and had selected one of the nominees included in the dissident's slate.

Feb 1, 2024 | mondaq.com | Patricia Olasker |Brett Seifred |Franziska Ruf

In this article, we explore 10 important trends that should be of interest to general counsel and boards in their strategic and compliance planning. As we discussed in our article on shareholder activism, 2023 was a banner year for activism in Canada. No fewer than 47 companies were targeted by activists (excluding shareholder proposals), well in excess of even pre-pandemic levels of activity. We see little reason to expect this activity to abate in 2024.

Jan 30, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Jonathan Bilyk |Patricia Olasker

Important guidance on “acting jointly or in concert” in a proxy contest was provided by the British Columbia Securities Commission (Commission) in NorthWest Copper Corp. (December 22, 2023). The Commission declined to find a joint actor relationship between a dissident and another shareholder, notwithstanding that the shareholder had funded the dissident’s proxy contest to replace an incumbent board and had selected one of the nominees included in the dissident’s slate.