Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,605)
- Faculty Publications (317)
- April 2004 (Revised March 2008)
- Case
Precise Software
By: Paul A. Gompers and Sara Bergson
Yossi Sela, general partner at Gemini Venture capital, considers a new investment in Precise Software. The firm is at a crisis point, and Sela needs to decide whether he will fire the firm's chief executive officer. Conflicts between the American CEO and the Israeli... View Details
- April 2004
- Case
Case Vignette: The Salesman Saga
By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
A venture capitalist faces a situation in which a struggling portfolio company has found a promising vice president of sales through a recruitment agency. The candidate would be an excellent fit for another one of the investor's companies--one that is doing much... View Details
- February 2004 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-up
By: Myra M. Hart and Kristin Lieb
The development of a new venture partnership and the challenges associated with raising its first fund are chronicled. The decision to focus on early-stage investments, the determination of the appropriate size of the fund, the fund-raising process, and the steps in... View Details
- January 2004
- Article
Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test
By: Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft
The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Dewberry Capital
In 2003, key executives of Dewberry Capital, a fast-growing, Atlanta-based real estate company, are evaluating their growth strategy and the resultant organizational issues. John Dewberry, the entrepreneurial founder of the firm, has developed a portfolio of... View Details
- October 2003
- Article
The Determinants of Board Structure at the Initial Public Offering
By: Malcolm Baker and Paul Gompers
This paper describes board size and composition and investigates the role of venture capital in a sample of 1,116 firms' initial public offerings. First, firms backed by venture capital have fewer insider and instrumental directors and more independent... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Charles River Partnership XI
Describes a situation confronting the management of a highly successful venture capital firm in April 2002. The industry has changed materially since it raised a $1.2 billion dollar fund, and the partners must decide whether to scale back the size of the fund. View Details
- July 2003 (Revised September 2003)
- Case
Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (A), The
By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen
The CFO of General Motors' joint venture in Shanghai, Shanghai General Motors (SGM), wants to refinance almost $900 million of project finance it raised to begin operations. The highest priority is improving the terms of the financing with regard to costs and specific... View Details
- July 2003 (Revised September 2003)
- Case
Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (B), The
By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen
This case provides the outcome to "The Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (A)" in which the CFO of General Motors' joint venture in Shanghai, Shanghai General Motors (SGM), wants to refinance almost $900 million of project finance it raised to begin operations. The... View Details
- 2003
- Conference Paper
Follow the Money: What Really Drives Technology Innovation in Construction
By: John D. Macomber
Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and clearly apparent improvement to the process of design and... 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 (Revised May 2003)
- Case
Accel Partners' European Launch
By: G. Felda Hardymon and Josh Lerner
In spring 2001, with the venture market crashing all around, the London office of Accel Partners, a major west coast venture capital firm, needs to make a decision about investing in an Irish software company. As the first investment of the new European operation, the... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised August 2004)
- Background Note
Note on Valuation-Compensation Tradeoff in Professional Service Firm Acquisitions
By: Ashish Nanda
This case highlights the tradeoff between valuation ascribed to professionals at the time of a professional services firm (PSF) acquisition and the postacquisition compensation of these professionals. It emphasizes how a high valuation at acquisition carries with it... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised January 2006)
- Case
AIT Group Plc
By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
A U.S. venture capital firm has just learned that the deal structure for purchasing an illiquid U.K. software firm is unacceptable to institutional investors. The group must decide if it still wants to go through with the deal. This decision hinges on whether the... 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
- January 2003 (Revised June 2003)
- Case
Adams Capital Management: March 2002
By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
In March 2002, the five partners of Adams Capital Management (ACM), a venture capital firm investing in information technology telecommunications with $700 million under management, gathered to discuss whether they should change their strategy in view of the prolonged... View Details
- 2003
- Chapter
Equity Financing
By: Paul Gompers and Joshua Lerner
Equity financing for entrepreneurial firms has attracted increasing attention in
both the popular press and academic literature. The dramatic growth in the
venture capital industry in the past two decades has been accompanied by new
academic research that explores... View Details
- May 2002
- Case
Venture Capital Fund Restructuring Vignettes (Abridged)
By: Paul A. Gompers
This case examines the changes in fund structures proposed by four venture capital firms in 2002: Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The venture capital market has experienced a major downturn, and these... View Details
- 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
- February 2002 (Revised March 2002)
- Case
Battery Ventures
By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon, Ann Leamon, Nitin Gupta and Sameer Bharadwaj
Todd Dagres, general partner of Battery Ventures, reflects on his firm's organization and its effectiveness in one particular deal. One of the perennial challenges of venture capital is the scaling of the firm. Usually regarded as a craft industry, venture firms tend... View Details