Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,159)
- Faculty Publications (257)
- March 2003 (Revised November 2005)
- Case
Bertelsmann AG
By: Bharat N. Anand, Michael G. Rukstad and Christoph Kostring
On July 28, 2002, Bertelsmann announced the firing of its CEO, Thomas Middelhoff, in a move that surprised industry observers, analysts, and many employees. Bertelsmann, a privately held company headquartered in Germany, was one of the largest global media... View Details
- Article
The Role of Lockups in Initial Public Offerings
By: Alon Brav and Paul A. Gompers
In a sample of 2,794 initial public offerings (IPOs), we test three potential explanations for the existence of IPO lockups: lockups serve as (i) a signal of firm quality, (ii) a commitment device to alleviate moral hazard problems, or (iii) a mechanism for... View Details
- February 2003
- Article
Which Ties Matter When? The Contingent Effects of Interorganizational Partnerships on IPO Success
By: Ranjay Gulati and M. Higgins
This paper investigates the contingent value of interorganizational relationships at the time of a young firm's initial public offering (IPO). We compare the signaling value to young firms of having ties with two types of interorganizational partnerships: endorsement... View Details
- October 2002 (Revised October 2005)
- Case
United Parcel Service's IPO
By: Paul M. Healy, Brett Laschinger and Ajay Shroff
Examines the valuation of United Parcel Service (UPS) at the time of its IPO in mid-1999. Offers students the opportunity to assess UPS's current performance relative to its major competitor, Federal Express (FedEx), and to judge whether that performance is... View Details
- April 2002
- Case
Knoll Furniture: Going Public
By: Paul A. Gompers and Jon Asher Daniels
This case examines the decisions of John Lynch, president and CEO of Knoll Furniture, to go public in early 1997. Knoll went private in an LBO in 1996 and Warburg Pincus, the LBO sponsor, wants Lynch to take Knoll public. Lynch needs to weigh the positive and negative... View Details
- February 2002
- Case
Free Internet Initiative in LaGrange, Georgia
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Garrett W. Meader
LaGrange, GA was the first city in the world to offer free Internet access to citizens. The city manager and mayor must assess the project and decide whether to continue. This case chronicles the city's efforts to build a telecommunications infrastructure and offer... View Details
- January 2002
- Case
Intrinsix: Managing Growth at an Electronic Design Service Company
By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington
Intrinsix is a 15-year-old semiconductor design services company that wants to continue its growth and market reach and appears to be ready for an initial public offering (IPO). This case leads up to this strategic decision point by tracing the growth of Intrinsix from... View Details
- January 2002 (Revised July 2002)
- Case
Vialog Corporation
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Michele Lutz
Traces the origin of Vialog Corp.--from its founding in 1996 through a roll-up of several independent teleconferencing companies in 1997 and its initial public offering (1999) and eventually to a potential merger or acquisition in June 2000. The company has grown... View Details
- December 2001 (Revised July 2005)
- Case
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company: The Conoco Split-off (A)
By: Stuart C. Gilson and Perry Fagan
After taking 30% of its Conoco oil and gas subsidiary public in the largest domestic initial public offering (IPO) in U.S. history, management of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DuPont) is considering divesting its remaining interest in Conoco. This goal is to be... View Details
- December 2001
- Case
IntellectExchange, Inc.
By: James I. Cash Jr. and Janis L Gogan
A start-up intellect exchange initially offered a public expertise exchange, connecting experts with clients. Now management wonders whether a new, more focused strategy will succeed. View Details
- September 2001 (Revised December 2003)
- Case
Eskimo Pie Corporation (Abridged)
In early 1991, Reynolds Metals, the makers of aluminum products, decided to sell its holding of Eskimo Pie, a marketer of branded frozen novelties. Reynolds had an offer from Nestle to acquire Eskimo Pie. However, Reynolds decided instead to make an initial public... View Details
- April 2001 (Revised November 2001)
- Case
AvantGo
By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman
Richard Owen, CEO of AvantGo, is preparing for a meeting in which he will set the human resource policy for the firm going forward. It has been three months since the company's IPO, and given the tremendous cramp in hiring over the six months prior to the IPO, he knows... View Details
- November 2000
- Case
Geocast Network Systems, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Christina L. Darwall and Elizabeth Kind
Geocast, a venture-backed start-up, had developed innovative technology for "datacasting" broadband information and entertainment content to an external hard drive, where it was cached for later retrieval by a Web-enabled PC. By using terrestrial TV, direct broadcast... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised November 2000)
- Case
Handspring
By: Myra M. Hart and Mary Rotelli
Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, founders of Palm Computing, have launched a new venture--Handspring. They are preparing for an IPO in the spring of 2000. When the markets begin to collapse and their investment bankers suggest a significantly lower price, they must... View Details
- September 2000 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Netflix (2000)
The CEO of a successful Internet start-up must decide whether to delay the company's initial public offering following a significant decline in the NASDAQ market during the spring of 2000. The company's CFO is asked to reevaluate the company's projected cash flow needs... View Details
- July 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Sycamore Networks
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Daniel J. Green
Founders Desh Deshpande and Dan Smith reflect on Sycamore's sales strategies and consider how going public might affect the morale of its key employees. In the optical networking sector, technological change and exploding demand has created a market for talent in which... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
- Case
Kendle International Inc.
By: Dwight B. Crane, Paul W. Marshall and Indra Reinbergs
Candace Kendle and Christopher Bergen, the CEO and COO of Kendle International, Inc., are reviewing ways to finance the growth of their privately-owned company. Kendle is a contract research organization that conducts clinical drug trials for pharmaceutical and... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised November 2000)
- Case
Women.com
By: Myra M. Hart and Sarah S. Khetani
Entrepreneurs Ellen Pack and Marleen McDaniel have founded a women's online network and watched it grow from an online subscription service in 1992 to one of the best known, widely visited women's networks on the web in 1999. While the company's vision has remained... View Details
- 1999
- Other Unpublished Work
Executive Ownership and Control in Newly Public Firms: The Role of Venture Capitalists
By: Malcolm Baker and Paul Gompers
We study the implications of CEO equity ownership for incentives and control in a sample of 1,011 newly public firms. Before an initial public offering, equity investments by venture capitalists reduce CEO ownership by about half, from an average of 35 percent to 19... View Details
- October 1999 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
W. R. Hambrecht & Co: OpenIPO
By: Andre F. Perold and Gunjan D. Bhow
OpenIPO is a new mechanism for pricing and distributing initial public offerings. The system, which is based on a Dutch auction, represents an attempt by the investment bank W.R. Hambrecht + Co. to change the manner in which IPOs are underwritten. The case provides a... View Details