In the world of corporate law, Snap will set a precedent with its expected IPO. It will likely be the first company to go public with a novel legal defense against an increasingly common kind of IPO-related lawsuit, one sparked when a company’s stock price falls after the public offering.
Snap added a provision to its charter last October requiring any shareholders wishing to file such a suit against it to do so in federal court, rather than state court, filings show. That’s significant: Companies find it much easier to get these cases thrown out of federal court than when they’re heard in state court. Settling is cheaper in federal court as well. These kinds of suits filed in California state courts end up settling for around $6 million to $10 million each, compared to $4 million average settlements for federal lawsuits, according to insurance firm Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.