The Delaware Chancery Court issued an important decision early this month (May 5th), allowing Sotheby's to proceed with its annual stockholders' meeting the following day. The significance of that? -- the court is taking a laissez-faire attitude toward a new more aggressive use of the "poison pill" by corporate boards. A "poison pill" in corporate law is the colloquial term for certain shareholder rights plans devised back in the 1980s to make hostile takeovers more difficult. Typically, a plan will provide that when a particular shareholder owns more than some threshold percentage of the equity (say, 15%), there will be a new issuance of shares, to the other shareholders, at a discounted price. The block of shares that puts the potential trouble maker over the 15% mark then, is in two senses "poisoned." It dilutes the value of his equity (for the obvious supply/demand reason) and it significantly lessens the trouble maker's weight...