.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} The battle surrounding Casey’s General Stores Inc. could play out as a unique study in corporate takeover strategy – and an example of why Delaware isn’t necessarily the automatic choice when you register a new company.

Our source is an article by Steven Davidoff, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law who writes as “The Deal Professor” for The New York Times.

He notes that Casey’s is incorporated in Iowa and says: “Unlike Delaware, Iowa has a constituency statute.” This statute, he wrote, allows the Casey’s board to consider several community-interest factors when confronted with a takeover offer.

It can weigh the effects on employees, suppliers, creditors and customers. It can look at the effects on the communities in which it operates. And it can factor in the long- and short-term interests of the shareholders.

Davidoff wrote that “constituency statutes” in many states “generally allow a board of directors to consider interests other than shareholders when deciding how to respond to a hostile takeover offer.”

“If on the basis of the community interest factors the board of directors determines that a proposal or offer to acquire or merge the corporation is not in the best interests of the corporation,” he wrote, “it may reject the proposal or offer.

“This provision appears to provide Casey’s board with wide latitude to adopt takeover defenses and avoid the normal judicial scrutiny that would apply if it were incorporated in Delaware. The Iowa statute appears to remove the board from the risk of review under … a higher standard, although the issue has yet to be considered by an Iowa court.”

This should be an intriguing legal angle to watch. It could affect the way other companies judge Iowa’s business environment.

“The lawyers can become quite creative – provided Casey’s board is willing,” Davidoff wrote, “all in the name of the community.”