Windstream Must Pay Up for PAETEC Acquisition

**Editor’s Note: Please click


here

 for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in Q1 2013 or here for the biggest M&A during that time in the service provider-BSS/OSS spaces.**

Windstream must pay some PAETEC shareholders $500,000 to cover their legal fees following their lawsuit over the merger of the communications giants in 2011. Although the lawsuit itself was settled out of court and finalized in December, a Delaware judge didn’t rule on legal fees until recently.

A group of PAETEC investors sued the company two years ago, saying the $2.3 billion price tag $5.50 per share was too small.

The judge said, in a 23-page decision, that the “corporate benefit doctrine” applied in this case. While it’s typical for the legal parties to pay their own attorneys’ fees, this doctrine allows the PAETEC investors to be reimbursed if the end-result of the case benefits the company or its shareholders, the Democrat and Chronicle noted.

Follow senior online managing editor


@Craig_Galbraith

on Twitter.