Publications

February 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Tad O'Malley: The Investment Conundrum

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Tad O'Malley has just started as an associate with Empire Investment Group. He must evaluate three investment opportunities facing the big leveraged buyout firm. All are global, but each pertains to different offices and each deal has different strengths and... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Investment; Strength and Weakness; Negotiation Deal; Personal Development and Career

April 1998
Case

Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (C)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg

Jim Sharpe, president of Extrusion Technology, describes the first five years at the aluminum extrusion company he purchased. He begins with day one as he introduced himself to the employees in 1987 and assured them of the company's continuity. Over the next two years,... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost Management; Profit; Innovation Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Mining Industry

November 2024
Teaching Note

Mercado Bitcoin: M&A, IPO, or Series B?

By: Raymond Kluender, Emanuele Colonnelli and Sabrina Howell

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-047. In April 2021, Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin, had to decide how to scale: go public, M&A with a bank, or take a VC big check. In a highly volatile market, Roberto Dagnoni, chairman of the board, viewed the... View Details

January – February 2008
Article

The Dangers of Wishful Thinking

By: Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben

Too many U.S. businesses (including tires, super-markets, and information technology) have been infected with the disease of denial. The answer? In Lincoln's words, “We must disenthrall ourselves.” View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Success; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking

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February 2004 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Apax Partners and Xerium S.A.

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

In 2002, Apax Partners had to decide whether to accept a less-than-perfect offer for one of its portfolio companies or to refinance it. This company, a maker of paper industry consumables with a global presence, had been purchased in 1999 and performed extremely well... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business Exit or Shutdown; Borrowing and Debt; Investment; Cash Flow; Pulp and Paper Industry

November 2020 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Roll-Ups and Surprise Billing: Collisions at the Intersection of Private Equity and Patient Care

By: Trevor Fetter and Kira Seiger

This case describes the increasing investment by private equity (PE) firms in patient care and other healthcare services. The case focuses on investments in physician staffing firms and roll-up strategy investments in physician practice management (PPM). Included in... View Details

January 2023
Teaching Note

Duolingo: Teaching Languages to the Masses

By: Youngme Moon

Teaching Note for HBS Case 323-016. At the time the case is written, Duolingo is the most popular language learning service in the world. The company has more than 40 million monthly active users, and the company’s total annual revenue has reached $250 million a year.... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Acquisition; Retention; Innovation and Invention

April 2002
Case

Ocular

By: Paul A. Gompers, Gregor M. Andrade and Jonathan Man

Concerns the decision of Ed Kennedy, co-founder of Ocular Networks, as he decides what financing strategy his firm should take. The venture capital and public markets for telecommunications start-ups had dried up and Kennedy must decide whether to cut costs and raise... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Startups; Decisions; Venture Capital; Cost Management; Business Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

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February 1998 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Teradyne, Inc.: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III

Alexander d'Arbeloff, Teradyne's founder and CEO, is launching his company into the software and network testing business. He has acquired three external start-ups and is beginning to integrate them with the rest of the company. While Teradyne's core... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Success; Horizontal Integration

31 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 31

three owner-directors must decide whether it is time to stop customer acquisition for a while to "get their house in order." At that moment, though, one of Shuberg Philis perhaps most important business opportunities so far... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

21 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

Strategy and Execution for Emerging Markets

vehicle at the $2,500 price level to address the needs of the emerging middle class in India. At the same time, Ratan Tata has challenged his companies to think globally. They have done a large number of acquisitions around the world, the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Connecting School Ties and Stock Recommendations

placed on information acquisition and synthesis. Certain agents play key roles in revealing information into equity markets. A large part of an equity analyst's job is to research, produce, and then disclose reports forecasting aspects of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

01 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

How Politics Drives Business Decisions in a Polarized Nation

colleague’s politics is not always bad for business. There is some evidence that mergers and acquisitions are more likely to occur, and are more likely to be smoothly implemented, if they’re conducted by executives who share the same... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

March 2017
Case

Cantel Medical

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Cantel Medical Corporation provided infection prevention and control products and services for patients, caregivers, and other healthcare providers. In 2016, Cantel generated sales of $665 million and net profits of $60 million, double the levels of five years earlier.... View Details

Keywords: Cantel; Charles Diker; Furniture Industry; Matrix Organization; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Chemicals; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Business History; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development; Opportunities; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Information Technology; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Health Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; New Jersey

September 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

RailTex, Inc. (A)

By: Norman A. Berg and James Weber

By 1992, RailTex, Inc., had acquired and was operating 23 geographically separate short-line railroads (feeder lines for larger railroads) in Mexico, Canada, and primarily in the United States. Founded in 1977 with $500,000 of capital as a railcar leasing company, the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Divisions; Cost Management; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Systems; Product Marketing; Logistics; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation

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January 2010
Article

The Role of Experience in the Gambler's Fallacy

By: Greg Barron and Stephen Leider

Recent papers have demonstrated that the way people acquire information about a decision problem, by experience or by abstract description, can affect their behavior. We examined the role of experience over time in the emergence of the Gambler's Fallacy in binary... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Forecasting and Prediction; Knowledge Acquisition; Outcome or Result; Game Theory; Prejudice and Bias

04 Mar 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Lessons from Running GM’s OnStar

automobiles; it was up to Huber to figure out what that meant. Primarily the GM leadership was looking to justify GM's earlier multibillion-dollar acquisitions of Hughes Aircraft (which included commercial satellites) and Electronic Data... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Auto

October 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Century Bank: Closing Time?

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Bill Kwon

Barry Sloane, second-generation Chairman, President, and CEO of his family’s bank, Century Bank, weighed whether to sell to Eastern Bank. As a small regional bank, Century faced a number of challenging trends, such as digitization and market share decline in the coming... View Details