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May 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

TransDigm's Acquisition and Integration of Arkwin Industries

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher

In May 2013, TransDigm, a company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and civilian aircraft, announced it was buying Arkwin Industries for $286 million in cash (3 times Arkwin’s sales of $91 million). Having acquired... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Value Creation; Strategy; Acquisition; Integration; Talent and Talent Management; Aerospace Industry

January 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Tech Mahindra and the Acquisition of Satyam Computers (A)

By: Srikant M. Datar, Anjali Raina and Namrata Arora

Set in 2008, the case details Tech Mahindra, an information technology (IT) company within the Mahindra Group, an Indian multi-industry company with a diverse stable of businesses including automotives, farm equipment, and financial services, and its decision to... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Computer Industry; India

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

The Future of the Venture Capital Cycle

financial product. The supply of venture capital is also likely to continue growing. Within the past two years, numerous pension funds have invested in private equity for the first time. Many experienced... View Details

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner; Financial Services

22 Jan 2013
HBS Seminar

Robert Meyer, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

Bank Capital and the Growth of Private Credit

We show that business development companies (BDCs)—closed-end funds that provide a significant share of nonbank loans to middle market firms—are very well capitalized according to bank capital frameworks. They have median risk-based capital ratios of about 36% and,... View Details

February 2005
Article

European Integration and Corporate Restructuring: The Strategy of Unilever c1957-c1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell

This article examines the role of the large Anglo-Dutch consumer products company in promoting European integration. It shows that Unilever contributed financially to campaigns to support the creation of the European Union, and its subsequent expansion, despite a... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Organizations; Policy; Expansion; Market Transactions; Geographic Location; Restructuring; Competition; Brands and Branding; Production; Capital Structure; Value; Consumer Products Industry; European Union; United States

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15 Dec 2016
News

Trump must see that small business is the engine of America

Case: Aptiv PLC Board of Directors (A)

Aptiv's board must decide whether a joint venture with an auto maker is the right next step in the company's efforts to develop and commercialize a production-ready autonomous driving system. While many commentators believed that Aptiv's self-driving technologies... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Climate Risk and the U.S. Insurance Gap: Measurement, Drivers and Implications

By: Parinitha Sastry, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

In a world with rising risk, how much are U.S. households willing to pay for homeowners insurance, and what does their demand imply for the future of insurance markets? We provide the first estimates of household willingness to pay for homeowners insurance and the... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Mortgages

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16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Code of Change

efforts and occasional spurts of good financial performance, the company's returns to shareholders remained low and well below the cost of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria

06 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

FIN Around the World: The Contribution of Financing Activity to Profitability

Keywords: by Russell Lundholm, George Serafeim & Gwen Yu

September–October 2023
Article

The New Era of Industrial Policy Is Here

By: Willy C. Shih

Governments around the world are increasingly intervening in the private sector through industrial policies designed to help domestic sectors reach goals that markets alone are unlikely to achieve. Companies in targeted sectors—such as automakers, energy companies, and... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Research and Development; Economic Sectors

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September 2020
Teaching Note

TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 720-422. TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increase ten times,... View Details

02 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Information Risk and Fair Value: An Examination of Equity Betas and Bid-Ask Spreads

Keywords: by Edward J. Riedl & George Serafeim; Banking

January 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Diageo plc

A major U.K.-based multinational is reevaluating its leverage policy as it restructures its business. The treasury team models the tradeoffs between the benefits and costs of debt financing, using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the savings from the interest tax... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Multinational Firms and Management; Capital Structure; Restructuring; United Kingdom

15 Dec 2023
News

The Musts of 2023

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. At fall reunions, we set up shop on campus and asked alumni about what media moved them this year. What changed their minds or their hearts. And their answers ran... View Details

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

different in any way from running a private enterprise. That's your job, if you're building a happy family: to realize that they need to be motivated and that there's a clear way to motivate them." The Perils Of Assessing View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

October 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Citizens of the World: The International Legacy of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis

By: Lauren Cohen, Maximilian Form and Sophia Pan

When her husband passed away and inheritance taxes struck, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis took decisive action to preserve her family’s fortune and legacy. The Thurn und Taxis family, one of Europe’s oldest aristocratic dynasties, had built their wealth through... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Real Estate; Legacy; International Business; Family Business; Economy; Macroeconomics; Financial Crisis; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Global Strategy; Reputation; Diversification; Wealth; Taxation; Germany

2010
Dissertation

Accounting Standards and International Portfolio Holdings: Analysis of Cross-border Holdings Following Mandatory Adoption of IFRS

By: Gwen Yu

Prior literature shows that investors under-invest in foreign firms due to information asymmetry problems. I posit that differences in local accounting standards are a source of the information asymmetry among investors. Using security-level holdings of international... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Standards; Investment Portfolio; Foreign Direct Investment