Key Points In AB Stable VIII LLC v. Maps Hotels and Resorts One LLC, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a precedential decision addressing whether a buyer could walk away from an M&A transaction because the target company’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic constituted either (1) a “material adverse effect” (MAE) or (2) a breach of the covenant to operate in the ordinary course of business between signing and closing (“Ordinary Course Covenant”). Although the MAE definition did not include an exception for the effects arising from a “pandemic” or “epidemic,” the court found that the impact of COVID-19 on the target’s business fell within the “natural disasters or calamities” exception to the MAE clause and thus did not constitute an MAE.