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(News) Multiple law firms in the US have announced they will investigate and, if needed, take legal action against the Board of Directors of Great Wolf Resorts after it announced  the company's acquisition of Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management.
 
Amongst them, Bernstein Liebhard LLP announced that it has filed a case in the Delaware Chancery Court relating to the proposed takeover of Great Wolf Resorts by Apollo Global Management.  Plaintiffs allege that the Great Wolf Board of Directors has breached their fiduciary duties to Great Wolf shareholders by failing to undertake a process to obtain maximum value and adequately compensate the Company's shareholders.

PWK Partners Atlas Funds, LLC, a significant shareholder of Great Wolf Resorts announced that it delivered a letter to the Board of Directors of the Company expressing its serious concerns with the proposed acquisition by Apollo Global Management LLC of all the issued and outstanding shares of the Company at a price of $5.00 per share in cash.

Securities lawyers at Goldfarb LLP stated they too are investigating whether certain officers and directors of Great Wolf Resorts violated shareholder protection laws by agreeing to a buyout offer for $5.00 per share to Apollo, a leading global asset manager. "This buyout is only a 19.3% premium over Great Wolf's closing stock price on March 12, 2012," said Hamilton Lindley. "Additionally, an analyst covering Great Wolf stock set a target price of $6 per share. Our proposed shareholder lawsuit seeks to obtain more value for shareholders than the current buyout offer."

On March 13, 2012, Apollo commenced a tender offer to Great Wolf shareholders to purchase all outstanding shares of Great Wolf common stock for $5.00 per share.  Also on March 13, 2012, Great Wolf announced that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Apollo after the close of the tender offer.  The tender offer is scheduled to close on April 10, 2012.

Plaintiffs allege that the $5.00 offer price is inadequate consideration for Great Wolf shareholders. According to the tender offer documents filed by Great Wolf, the Company accepted Apollo's offer despite the fact that there was a higher offer for Great Wolf from another party on the table, stated Bernstein Liebhard LLP .