Publications

March 2024
Case

Nomad: A License to Bank

By: Paul A. Gompers and Pedro Levindo

In late 2023, Lucas Vargas, CEO and co-founder of Nomad, a fintech that offered financial services in the United States for Brazilian residents, had to decide what to do to ensure the company’s continued expansion. Nomad launched its first product, a U.S. digital bank... View Details

08 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 8, 2008

Deals-Announcement Effects, Risk Arbitrage and Event Risk Harvard Business School Note 208-103 The announcement of merger or acquisition conveys new information to the capital... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 1988 (Revised September 1991)
Case

Simmons Japan Ltd.

By: W. Carl Kester and Richard P. Melnick

Concerns the first leveraged buyout to occur in Japan. Analytic tasks include a valuation of the company and an assessment of its debt capacity. Also provides opportunities to discuss agency costs associated with alternative capital and equity ownership structures,... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Cost; Equity; Production; Valuation; Japan; United States

January 2003 (Revised July 2006)
Exercise

Travelexis.com Role for Robin Knight from TravelPlanner.com

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Nicole Nasser

Two fictional travel companies, SCOUT and TravelPlanner, engage in competitive bidding to acquire a third party, Travelexis. This exercise consists of three roles, one representative from each of the three companies. It is based on the actual negotiations between... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Bids and Bidding; Acquisition; Travel Industry

June 2004
Case

Aventis SA (B): A Company is Born

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Mergers and Acquisitions; Horizontal Integration; Organizational Design; Organizational Culture; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

05 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2006

Gary Kusumi is considering. GMAC Insurance, the wholly-owned auto insurance subsidiary of General Motors, formed through the merger of two smaller insurance firms, is at a strategic cross-roads. Progressive changed the competitive... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)

By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Amram Migdal and Susan Pinckney

Arla implemented a data-based price incentive system to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world’s fourth largest dairy cooperative. View Details

Keywords: Dairy Industry; Business Earnings; Earnings Management; Environmental Accounting; Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Financial Strategy; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Geopolitical Units; Global Strategy; Ownership Type; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Natural Environment; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; European Union; Germany; Denmark; Sweden; Luxembourg; Belgium

17 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 17, 2006

Reorganizations—Triangular Mergers Harvard Business School Note 207-009 Discusses the reasons and uses of triangular or three-party mergers to complete a business View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2003
Case

Whitbread Hotel Company (A)

By: Michael Beer and James Weber

Alan Parker has developed an effective organization using organizational fitness profiling and other change methodologies. Parker knows that as Whitbread continues to grow, both internally and through acquisitions, the company will have to change its organization... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration

Find at Harvard

November 1999 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Revere Street

By: Arthur I Segel, John H. Vogel, Jr., Lisa Strope and Erich Dylus

Although inexperienced in real estate, Edward Alexander hopes in June 1999 that youthful enthusiasm and an $80,000 inheritance will help him enter the real estate business. His experience chronicles the process of finding, evaluating, and acquiring a four-unit... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Investment; Housing; Real Estate Industry; Boston

June 2013
Case

Hess Corporation

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante

On January 29, 2013, Elliott Management, a hedge fund run by Paul E. Singer, which owned 4.5% of Hess Corporation stock, put forward a slate of five independent directors it wanted elected to improve the company's performance. Elliott argued that Hess lacked focus and... View Details

Keywords: Takeover Attempt; Board; Hess; Governing and Advisory Boards; Organizational Structure; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry

May 2008
Teaching Note

Michael Fernandes at Nicholas Piramal (TN)

By: Michel Anteby and Nitin Nohria

Teaching Note for [408-001]. View Details

Keywords: Conflict and Resolution; Conferences; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Globalization; Pharmaceutical Industry; Canada; United Kingdom

October 2013
Supplement

Advantage Partners: Dia Kanri (B)

By: Paul A. Gompers, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

This case presents the final decision and outcomes for the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; LBO; Roll-up; Investment; Condominium Management; Leveraged Buyouts; Asia

January 1991 (Revised May 1991)
Case

Hoechst in the United States (A)

Describes the U.S. market for chemicals following WW II to the present and the attention of the market for global chemical companies. Traces the involvement of Hoechst in this market up to the 1980s when minimum growth has been offered through Hoechst's U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Chemicals; Acquisition; Chemical Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

24 Jul 2014
Op-Ed

Reform Tax Law to Keep US Firms at Home

I am a Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School, a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Recent merger transactions highlight... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai; Pharmaceutical

16 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 16

Managing such a firm in the era of globalization posed enormous challenges. The book covers the company's strategies and provides compelling evidence of its decision making, marketing, brand management, innovation, View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2010
Working Paper

When Do Analysts Add Value? Evidence from Corporate Spinoffs

By: Emilie Rose Feldman, Stuart Gilson and Belen Villalonga

We investigate the information content and forecast accuracy of 1,793 analyst reports written around 62 spinoffs—a setting in which analysts' ability to inform investors is potentially very high. We find that analysts pay little attention to subsidiaries about to be... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Subsidiaries; Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Initial Public Offering; Price; Reports; Research

Read Now

13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

Focuses on Furman Selz's acquisition by Xerox in 1987; its return to a private company in 1993; and a second acquisition, by ING, in 1997. In particular, provides the opportunity to evaluate five major... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Teaching Note

Parmalat Uruguay (A) & (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Jim Sharpe

This teaching note is for cases Parmalat Urguguay A & B. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Negotiation; Performance Improvement; Financial Services Industry; Uruguay