What's The Big Deal About Delaware?

Today I learnt why we have a so many books on Delaware company law in the library.

I’ve often wondered why Delaware features relatively prominently in our collection. A quick Google search lead me to Wikipedia (of course!) which calls Delaware a “corporate haven”.

I then had a look at the State of Delaware’s website, which informed me that:

"More than 900,000 business entities have their legal home in Delaware including more than 50% of all U.S. publicly-traded companies and 63% of the Fortune 500.  Businesses choose Delaware because we provide a complete package of incorporation services including modern and flexible corporate laws, our highly-respected Court of Chancery, a business-friendly State Government, and the customer service oriented Staff of the Delaware Division of Corporations."*

You can even download a free guide called Why Corporations Choose Delaware from their website if you want to find out more.

Wikipedia entry on Delaware General Corporation Law:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_General_Corporation_Law

*Delaware Division of Corporations:

http://corp.delaware.gov/