By J.B. Heaton ( October 4, 2018, 6:00 PM EDT) -- As Law360 reported, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a pathbreaking opinion allowing pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi AG to abandon its merger with Akorn Inc. The decision was pathbreaking because it is the first time a Delaware court has found a material adverse effect to have occurred, which excused a buyer's obligation to close under a merger agreement. While Vice Chancellor Laster also found that Akorn had misrepresented its compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations and improperly changed its internal audit procedures pending the merger, the finding of a "general MAE" did not rely on these findings. Rather, it was the change in the performance of the business alone that supported Vice Chancellor Laster's ruling on the general MAE. Put differently, it is a result with wide-ranging implications because Akorn's regulatory problems appear to have had no material impact on its business. It was a business decline from competition that the vice chancellor found severe enough to constitute a general MAE....