Publications

July 2024
Supplement

Pacific Lake Partners (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-Abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Abstract: In 2009, Coley Andrews and Jim Southern endeavored to raise a private equity fund for investment solely in search... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition; Search Fund; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Organizational Structure; United States

September 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Alexis Brownell

This case describes a new venture attempting to bring early-stage entrepreneurial financing to Finland and other Nordic countries. Entrepreneurship is taking off in Finland, an area that historically has had little venture capital or high-growth start-up activity, but... View Details

Keywords: Angels; Angel Investors; VC; Micro-VC; Accelerator; Incubator; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; Finland; Scandinavia; Europe

January 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Vivaldi Food Concepts--The Start-up of an Asian Venture (A)

Joel Silverstein needs to raise an additional $1.5 million from private investors to round out the equity financing for his new Quick Service Restaurant venture in China, Korea, and Japan. How should he pitch the opportunity? What should be the terms? View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Business Startups; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; China; South Korea

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Career Coach

Alejandro Maldonado

also spent five years as a vice-president at H.I.G. Capital, a leading US private equity firm investing in diverse industries in the middle market space. In 2012, he founded Appian Education Ventures, a fund... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity

16 Mar 2021
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Smitha Das (MBA 2018)

first worked as a legislative fellow for my Congresswomen (now Senator) Kyrsten Sinema, who had recently been elected to office. I then pivoted to work in private equity at Cube Hydro Partners - a firm... View Details

A New Way to Understand Corporate Leverage

The link between measures of risk and return within the equity market has been very weak over the past 47 years: in the United States, returns on high-risk stocks have cumulatively fallen short of the returns on low-risk stocks, during a period when the equity market... View Details

September 2016
Case

Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Management Practices and Processes; Entrepreneurship

November 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Centre Partners - American Seafoods 2003

Centre Partners, a leading private equity firm, is contemplating ways to realize liquidity from its successful investment in American Seafoods Corp., Inc. An apparently innovative solution is developed, which calls for issuing Income Deposit Securities. Does this... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Capital Structure; Financial Services Industry

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July 2024
Supplement

Pacific Lake Partners (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Keywords: Search Fund; Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Investment; North America

09 Jun 2023
Blog Post

Learning Curve

Patti Melcher (MBA 1986) never intended to open a school. After getting her start in investment banking in Houston’s energy sector after her time at HBS, Melcher became an early employee at SCF Partners, helping to invest the private... View Details

January 2000 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Dressen

By: Thomas R. Piper and Jeremy Cott

Divisional management must decide whether to support a leveraged buyout by a private equity group and, if so, what percent of ownership should go to the various partners involved. The appropriateness of the financing structure and the value of the equity depend on the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Capital Structure; Valuation; Ownership Stake; Forecasting and Prediction

Jo Tango

Jo Tango is the MBA Class of 1962 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. He helps teach "The Entrepreneurial Manager" (TEM), a required course for all 900 first-year students and of which he... View Details

March 2024
Supplement

ELCA's Series A Cap Table Exercise (Instructor Version)

By: Raymond Kluender and Anke Becker

In ELCA, the company must decide between two term sheets: one put forth by STV and one put forth by ESV.

This exercise is an analysis of the implications of these two term sheets on the ownership structure and the payouts of common and preferred... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Venture Capital; Investment; Ownership Stake

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

ABRY Fund V

By: Nabil N. El-Hage, Richard S. Ruback and Leslie Pierson

In January 2006, Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff were considering raising a 5th fund for their media-focused private equity firm, ABRY Partners. ABRY had a strong track record that the co-founders attributed to their group's deep knowledge of the media industry and... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Asset Management; Private Equity; Judgments; Competitive Strategy; Media; Corporate Finance; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Financial Services Industry