Dealmaking Scrutiny Overhaul Draws 11th Hour Compromise Bids

Opponents of a legal overhaul advancing in America’s corporate capital are scrambling to float compromise versions before Delaware lawmakers begin voting on the changes as soon as this week.

State Senate Bill 21 in its current form would lower judge-made guardrails around insider deals, restrict shareholder access to the texts and emails of company leaders, and strengthen a presumption that board members are independent of one another. The changes are aimed at mollifying controlling stockholders such as Elon Musk—who has lambasted the court system that cost him his $56 billion pay package—after news of several corporate departures to ...