Subdivision 1. Shareholder approval; when not required. A corporation may, by affirmative vote of a majority of the directors present, upon those terms and conditions and for those considerations, which may be money, securities, or other instruments for the payment of money or other property, as the board deems expedient, and without shareholder approval:

(1) sell, lease, transfer, or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of its property and assets in the usual and regular course of its business;

(2) grant a security interest in all or substantially all of its property and assets whether or not in the usual and regular course of its business; or

(3) transfer any or all of its property to an organization all the shares or other ownership interests of which are owned directly, or indirectly through wholly owned organizations, by the corporation.

Subd. 2. Shareholder approval; when required. (a) A corporation, by affirmative vote of a majority of the directors present, may sell, lease, transfer, or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of its property and assets, including its good will, not in the usual and regular course of its business, upon those terms and conditions and for those considerations, which may be money, securities, or other instruments for the payment of money or other property, as the board deems expedient, when approved at a regular or special meeting of the shareholders by the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the voting power of the shares entitled to vote. Written notice of the meeting shall be given to all shareholders whether or not they are entitled to vote at the meeting. The written notice shall state that a purpose of the meeting is to consider the sale, lease, transfer, or other disposition of all or substantially all of the property and assets of the corporation.

(b) Shareholder approval is not required under paragraph (a) if, following the sale, lease, transfer, or other disposition of its property and assets, the corporation retains a significant continuing business activity. If a corporation retains a business activity that represented at least (1) 25 percent of the corporation's total assets at the end of the most recently completed fiscal year and (2) 25 percent of either income from continuing operations before taxes or revenues from continuing operations for that fiscal year, measured on a consolidated basis with its subsidiaries for each of clauses (1) and (2), then the corporation will conclusively be deemed to have retained a significant continuing business activity.

Subd. 3. Signing of documents. Confirmatory deeds, assignments, or similar instruments to evidence a sale, lease, transfer, or other disposition may be signed and delivered at any time in the name of the transferor by its current officers or, if the corporation no longer exists, by its last officers.

Subd. 4. Transferee liability. The transferee is liable for the debts, obligations, and liabilities of the transferor only to the extent provided in the contract or agreement between the transferee and the transferor or to the extent provided by this chapter or other statutes of this state. A disposition of all or substantially all of a corporation's property and assets under this section is not considered to be a merger or a de facto merger pursuant to this chapter or otherwise. The transferee shall not be liable solely because it is deemed to be a continuation of the transferor.

History: 1981 c 270 s 97; 1982 c 497 s 57; 1994 c 417 s 6; 2004 c 199 art 14 s 22; 2006 c 250 art 1 s 43,44; 2010 c 250 art 1 s 10