North Carolina Business Litigation Report : North Carolina Business Litigation Lawyer & Attorney : Mack Sperling : Brooks Pierce Law Firm : Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Charlotte

Valuing a closely held business is often a debate over hypothetical dollars, particularly when the company's sole asset is unproven technology.  The Business Court confronted such a situation recently in Vernon v. Cuomo.

The company in question developed a new technology with potential widespread medical application:  silicone-free syringes, which would enable syringes (especially of high-priced medicines) to be pre-filled without risk of contamination.  The potential of the technology, however, was not enough to keep the company together.  Two shareholders asserted dilution and self-dealing claims against the other shareholders.  After a bench trial, the Court concluded that the defendants engaged in self-dealing and breached their fiduciary duty to the plaintiffs.  The Court ordered the judicial dissolution of the company to protect the interests of the complaining shareholders pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 55-14-30(2)(ii).  (Mack wrote about the bench trial opinion last year).

In lieu of dissolution, the defendants exercised their statutory option to purchase the plaintiffs' shares at fair value under N.C.G.S. § 55-14-31(d).  That statute neither defines fair value nor specifies the procedures for a court to use in arriving at it.  In Vernon, Judge Tennille followed a procedure similar to two previous valuation cases, Garlock v. Hilliard and Royals v. Piedmont Electric Repair Co.:  solicit the opinion of an independent appraiser, "but also [take] into account other equitable and practical considerations based on the arguments and submissions of counsel and matters of record."

The added complication of Vernon was that, with the only asset an unproven technology, there was a high risk of windfall on both sides:  "One of the key problems faced by the Court in this valuation process has been how to protect against a windfall by the majority shareholders if the technology proves to be extremely valuable while not requiring the majority to pay an initial price that may be too high if the technology is not adopted widely in the industry."

The Court approved of the methodology of the appointed appraiser, who had extensive IP valuation experience.  The appraiser's methodology included:

• the discounted future economic income method to discern fair value
• Latin Hypercube simulation algorithms to generate income estimates
• a Fisher Pry model to project a market adoption rate for the technology
• Monte Carlo simulation methods to consider uncertainties in the company's underlying earnings potential

However, because of the uncertainties and the windfall risk, the Court concluded that a royalty sharing arrangement would best capture the value of the technology for both sides.  The Court found that the plaintiff's shares were worth a specific amount, plus a royalty sharing arrangement of a specified percentage.  (The amounts themselves are redacted in the public version of the Court's opinion).  The Court ordered the closing to take place within 20 days, with 50% of the purchase price paid at closing and the balance paid in two annual installments with no interest.

Recognizing the novelty of the approach (and the appellate courts' distrust of novelty), the Court also reached a backup conclusion of the total fair value of the plaintiffs' shares, which would take effect if an appellate court struck down the royalty sharing arrangement.

[The photo of the syringe is from Zaldylmg's photostream on Flickr, some rights reserved.]

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This Business Court case concerns the valuation of shares of the Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad Company, a North Carolina short-line railroad.  Judge Jolly granted in part, and denied in part, the Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, on May 20, 2008, in In The Matter Of The Ruth Cook Blue Living Trust.

The shares at issue were held by a Trust.  The Trust Agreement provided that upon the death of the settlor (Mrs. Blue), the shares were to be offered to the members of her family "at the value established by the accounting firm engaged by the Railroad as of December 31 of the year preceding my death."

The Trustees (the Plaintiffs) and the family members entitled to buy the shares (the Defendants) were at odds about their value.  The Court ruled, on summary judgment, that the word "value" meant "'fair market value' of the Railroad shares as the same would be viewed by the Trust, as prospective seller, and the Blue family, as prospective purchasers."  The term "value" did not mean the fair market value of the shares if they had been offered to the general public.

The Defendants argued that a valuation report done by the Railroad's accounting firm shortly before Mrs. Blue's set the value for the shares.  The Court noted, however, that this report had been prepared "for the limited purpose of determining the fair market value between a willing buyer and a willing seller in the general marketplace of a minority interest of a share of the Railroad's common stock for gift and estate tax purposes."   The Court found that there were material issues of fact whether this valuation, which incorporated a significant discount for the lack of marketability of the shares, reflected the intent of Mrs. Blue.  (There were similar issues raised by the Classic Coffee Concepts case earlier this year.)

The Court granted summary judgment, however, on the issue of whether the accounting firm issuing the report was in fact the proper firm to perform the valuation.  It found that it was.  Then, the Court rejected an argument by the Plaintiffs that they were entitled to challenge the methodology of the accounting firm.   It held "the court notes that since Ruth Cook Blue is deemed to have embraced the expertise of [the accounting firm] by virtue of paragraph 8.01 of the Trust Agreement, it is likely that criticism of [the accounting firm's] valuation methodology would be of limited probative value, if it would be admissible at all."

The Court also allowed an amendment to the Complaint which, if not allowed, might have been determinative of the valuation  issue.   

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Classic Coffee Concepts v. Anderson, 2008 NCBC 1 (N.C. Super. Ct. January 31, 2008)(Diaz)

Defendant, a terminated employee, owned one third of the outstanding stock of Classic Coffee Concepts. The issue in this case was the price to be paid for the stock, which the corporation was obligated to repurchase under a Stockholders Agreement. The Agreement said that the price would be determined by looking to the fair market value of the stock as determined by an independent appraisal of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan. But no ESOP had ever been established. 

A variety of conflicting appraisals were presented to the Court. Defendant would have been entitled to a multi-million recovery under two of them. The first, prepared pre-litigation to address an accounting issue involving goodwill, set the company's "fair value" at $12,500,000. A "fair value" appraisal ignores discounts in value that are typical for closely held corporations, like those for lack of marketability and lack of control. Defendant's shares would have been worth $4 million if this appraisal applied. A second appraisal factored in the discounts applicable to closely held corporations, and concluded that the corporation had a value of $8,390,000. If this appraisal had controlled, defendant's shares would have been worth more than $2.7 million. 

The company obtained a hypothetical appraisal for purposes of the litigation which valued the company as if the ESOP required by the Agreement was in place. The value placed on defendant’s shares under this approach was markedly lower, only $120,000. Another appraisal assuming the existence of the ESOP valued defendant's shares at $192,000, and the last of the many appraisals before the Court valued them at zero.

After analyzing this thicket of conflicting appraisals, the Court held that it would

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