Busted-Deals Docket Grows With Forescout Suit Against Advent (1)

Private equity group Advent International Corp. can’t rely on fallout from the pandemic to cancel a $1.9 billion acquisition of Forescout Technologies Inc., the cybersecurity company said in a lawsuit, adding to the pile of broken deals in Delaware Chancery Court.

Forescout argues the purchase agreement specifically bars Advent from citing the coronavirus as creating a “material adverse effect” that excuses the investment fund from finalizing the deal. Advent executives “expressly agreed to bear the risk of adverse impacts on the company from a pandemic,” Forescout’s lawyers said in the complaint, filed Tuesday.

The San Jose, California-based ...