Publications

October 1996 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Eric Wood (B)

By: Myra M. Hart

Describes Eric's purchase of the much larger Shaw Co. Describes the operating and financial problems that ensue, leaving Eric considering the option of bankruptcy. Issues include the overlap of business and personal finances, as well as the mechanics and implications... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Operations; Entrepreneurship; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition

March 1998 (Revised June 1998)
Case

BCI Growth III: November 1993

By: Josh Lerner

Supplements BCI Growth III: May 1993. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Consolidation; Acquisition; Wastes and Waste Processing; Service Industry; United States

March 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

BCI Growth III: May 1993

By: Josh Lerner

A Vermont solid-waste company seeks mezzanine financing to finance its strategy of acquiring and consolidating local competitors. The mezzanine private equity group must decide whether this investment offers an attractive risk-return tradeoff. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Consolidation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Acquisition; Service Industry; Vermont

April 1991 (Revised July 1992)
Case

Koito Manufacturing Ltd.

By: W. Carl Kester and Robert W. Lightfoot

Having acquired a 26% stake in Koito Manufacturing, a Japanese automotive parts supplier in the Toyota Group, T. Boone Pickens seeks a seat on Koito's board of directors. Koito's management resists, claiming Pickens is an unhelpful greenmailer, not a true long-term... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Debates; Corporate Governance; Production; Supply Chain; Performance Efficiency; Welfare; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

October 2013
Article

Corporate Venturing

By: Josh Lerner

For decades, large companies have been wary of corporate venturing. But as R&D organizations face pressure to rein in costs and produce results, companies are investing in promising start-ups to gain knowledge and agility. The logic of corporate venturing is... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Knowledge Acquisition; Corporate Strategy; Research and Development; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention

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January 1983 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Neill Hance

Neill Hance takes advantage of all available information and resources to insure a smooth entry into a culture--an entry that would have normally been rather difficult to deal with because of stereotyping and perceived threat. View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Planning; Prejudice and Bias

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August 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Unilever's Butter-Beater: Innovation for Global Diversity

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Jorg Zobel

Unilever, one of the world's largest food product manufacturers, has achieved impressive growth in Europe, primarily by acquiring local food companies. Initially Unilever allowed each acquired company to manage its own product development in a way that was tailored to... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Mergers and Acquisitions; Local Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Food; Conflict Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Europe

March 2011
Article

Institutional Demand Pressure and the Cost of Corporate Loans

By: Victoria Ivashina and Zheng Sun

Between 2001 and 2007, annual institutional funding in highly leveraged loans went up from $32 billion to $426 billion, accounting for nearly 70% of the jump in total syndicated loan issuance over the same period. Did the inflow of institutional funding in the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Crisis; Credit; Debt Securities; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment

SSRN

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September 1995 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Argentina's YPF Sociedad Anonima (B)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

YPF, a recently privatized and restructured Argentine-based oil company now turns its attention to international expansion and faces an opportunity to acquire Maxus, a troubled U.S. oil company. The case discusses whether the company should go ahead with the proposed... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Non-Renewable Energy; Globalization; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Privatization; Natural Environment; Expansion; United States; Argentina

05 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 5

to the acquirer's directors and senior executives. In addition, we find that acquirer CEOs are more likely to receive bonuses and are more richly compensated for completing mergers with targets that are highly connected to the acquiring firms, that View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Look at Globalization Now

global share have been dispersed across an increasing number of competitors—deconcentrating effects that the recent wave of mergers and acquisitions has barely begun to reverse. Yet more than one large automaker seems to have engaged in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

18 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 18, 2018

through acquisition across activities, as well as in France or globally. By 2016, SOS Group already operated in 20 countries and was contemplating entering 10 new countries by 2020. It also considered entering new sectors, such as... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

03 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 3, 2007

Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=707027 eClinicalWorks: The Paths to Growth Harvard Business School Case 807-025 In January 2006, eClinicalWorks (eCW) had an acquisition opportunity that... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Secrets to a Successful Social Media Strategy

acquisition for AmEx drops. This is, in fact, what American Express has found to be the case." Another example is Cisco Systems, which hosts online communication platforms for IT professionals whose companies use Cisco's computer... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution

of products at low prices." As a number of other leading retailers followed suit and as data collection and computing methods became more sophisticated, once autonomous units found themselves part of an "information-integrated" channel extending from the View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Manufacturing; Retail

01 Mar 2023
News

Is AI OK?

pymetrics to help them meet their diversity goals. And the firm’s impact is likely to spread, thanks to its recent acquisition by Harver, an automated recruiting platform with global reach. Seke Ballard (MBA 2010), founder of the fintech... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

01 Jan 2006
News

William H. Donaldson, MBA 1958

News. And as soon as he graduated in 1953, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and became an officer. Fast forward to 1959. Just out of Harvard Business School, Donaldson, 28, was rooming with Dan Lufkin (MBA ’57) in New York and working in the mergers and View Details

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/715412-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 515-059 Rebranding Godiva: The Yildiz Strategy This case concerns Yildiz Holding's acquisition of Godiva Chocolatier from its... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

August 2006 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Medco Energi Internasional

In late 2004, Hilmi Panigoro, CEO of the publicly traded Indonesian oil company Medco Energi Internasional, is striving to regain majority control of the company his brother Arifin founded in 1980. The Asian financial crisis of 1999 led to a major restructuring that... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Family Business; Restructuring; Financing and Loans; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Indonesia; Singapore