After Wilmington Trust Corporation announced to be acquired by M&T Bank Corp the investigation on behalf of investors of Wilmington Trust Corporation (NYSE:WL) over possible breaches of fiduciary duties by Wilmington Trust directors continues.

The investigation by a law firm, which started when the first takeover rumors emerged, concerns whether Wilmington Trust Corporation and certain of its officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties owed to Wilmington Trust Corporation (NYSE:WL) investors in connection with the proposed takeover.

After a media report on October 22 sparked rumors that Wilmington Trust Company sought buyers and was in talks with Canadian Banks and sent WL shares to as high as $9.54 per share, Wilmington Trust Company announced on Monday, Nov. 01, that Wilmington Trust and M&T Bank Corp. have entered into an agreement under which Wilmington Trust will merge with M&T Bank. Under the terms of the agreement, Wilmington Trust common shareholders (WL) will receive 0.051372 MTB shares of M&T common stock in exchange for each WL share of Wilmington Trust common stock they own in a stock for stock transaction valued at $351 million (with the price and exchange ratio based on M&T's closing price of $74.75 per share as of October 29, 2010), plus the assumption of $330 million in TARP preferred stock. Based on a MTB stock price of $74.75 WL shareholders would receive an equivalent of $3.84 per WL share they own.

Shares of Wilmington Trust Corporation (WL), which closed the trading day before the Nov.1 announcement at $7.11, fell in response to the proposed offer by more than 40% and closed Monday at $4.21 per share. With a closing price of $4.21 WL shares are 10% above the current offer and investors would receive no premium but would rather exchange their shares to their disadvantage at a discount at the advantage of M&T Bank Corp.

The investigation by a law firm questions whether the sale process and the offered price are unfair to the shareholders of Wilmington Trust Corporation (NYSE:WL) and the investigation focuses on whether the Wilmington Trust board of directors undertook an adequate and fair sales process to obtain fair consideration for all shareholders of Wilmington Trust Corporation (NYSE:WL), and breached their fiduciary duties to Wilmington Trust (NYSE:WL) shareholder by failing to adequately shop the Company before entering into the transaction with M&T Bank Corp.