Dow Jones reports that the judge who will preside over the ADVO/Valassis trial upheld a merger agreement in a similar case in 2001. Judge Leo Strine ruled against Tyson Foods in that case, when it tried to quash an agreement to acquire IBP, claiming that accounting problems at IBP had masked its poor financial future. The story quotes Strine’s decision that in order to invalidate an agreement, fiscal problems need to be ”consequential to the company’s earnings power over a commercially reasonable period,” which he said should be “measured in years rather than months.”

The case is set to go to trial in Delaware Chancery Court on December 11.

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