The ball is back in Williams Companies’ court after its proposed merger-partner, Energy Transfer Equity L.P. filed a counterclaim lawsuit against Williams last week. The legal action came after a judge in Dallas County, Texas granted a motion to dismiss a related lawsuit brought by Williams against Kelcy Warren, the billionaire owner of ETE.
The counterclaim accuses Tulsa-based Williams Cos. board of directors of breaching the merger agreement announced last fall. It also says the board of directors refuses to cooperate with ETE’s efforts to finance the merger and failing to use “reasonable best efforts to complete the merger.”
ETE also maintains the Williams board sued Kelcy Warren in “violation of a mandatory forum selection provision in the merger agreement.” The suit alleges the board of “consistently making public statements implying that the Williams board supports enforcing the merger agreement as opposed to completing the merger.
ETE wants a declaratory judgment that Williams breached the agreement and is not entitled to the relief it seeks. The Dallas-based company says “ETE is entitled to immediately terminate the merger agreement” and that if a judge grants such relief, “Williams would owe ETE a termination fee of $1.48 billion.”
