The shareholder class action filed in Texas against TXU Corp. in In Re: TXU Corp. Shareholder Litigation — a consolidated suit that challenges the utility company’s proposed $45 billion acquisition by two private equity firms — took a dramatic turn on May 25, when Carlos Cortez, judge of the 44th District Court in Dallas County, granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff-stockholder Harry Schipper brought the first class action on Feb. 26, the same day TXU announced that Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. had entered into an agreement with TXU to acquire the Dallas-based company. In his First Amended Class Action Petition, Schipper alleged, among other things, that the price the equity firms agreed to pay to take TXU private — $69.25 a share — was “grossly unfair, inadequate and substantially below the fair or inherent value of the Company.” He also alleged that TXU did not give fair consideration to “alternative transactions” and did not “engage in a fair or open bidding process.”
