Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(406)
- Faculty Publications (63)
- August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Molycorp: Issuing the 'Happy Meal' Securities (B)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the Western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expansion in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. After reporting lower than expected... View Details
Keywords: Convertible Debt; Uncertainty; Startup; Growth; Rare Earth Minerals; Mining; Hedge Funds; Short Selling; Equity Capital; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy; Valuation; Metals and Minerals; Equity; Capital; Debt Securities; Stock Shares; Financial Management; Mining Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Canada; California
- October 2013 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
NOWaccount
By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley
It was September 2013, and NOWaccount Network Corporation (NOW®) co-founders John Hayes and Lara Hodgson were putting the final touches on the presentation deck for their annual shareholders' meeting. Along with co-founder Stacey Abrams, the pair had designed NOW's... View Details
- August 2013
- Case
HgCapital and the Visma Transaction (A)
By: Paul A. Gompers, Karol Misztal and Joris Van Gool
This case concerns the negotiations of a deal by HgCapital, a UK-based private equity firm, to buy Visma, ASA, a Norwegian software company. Visma has received an offer from Sage Group, a strategic acquirer. HgCapital must determine if it wants to bid and how to outbid... View Details
- June 2013
- Article
Are There Too Many Safe Securities? Securitization and the Incentives for Information Production
By: Samuel G. Hanson and Adi Sunderam
We present a model that helps explain several past collapses of securitization markets. Originators issue too many informationally insensitive securities in good times, blunting investor incentives to become informed. The resulting endogenous scarcity of informed... View Details
- October 2012
- Case
Harrah's Entertainment
By: Paul A. Gompers, Kristin Mugford and J. Daniel Kim
This case examines the issues of establishing and managing a capital structure for the leveraged buyout of Harrah's Entertainment. View Details
- October 2012
- Case
Winfield Refuse Management, Inc.: Raising Debt vs. Equity
By: W. Carl Kester and Sunru Yong
A small, publicly traded company specializing in non-hazardous waste management considers a major acquisition in the Midwestern U.S. The acquisition can provide entry into the region, help the firm compete in a competitive industry, and improve its cost position. The... View Details
- June 2012 (Revised August 2012)
- Case
MF Global: Changing Stripes
By: Clayton Rose, Yasmin Dahya and Jenevieve Lee
Jon Corzine became the CEO of MF Global in March of 2010. Eighteen months later, and in the wake of a massive trade in European sovereign debt, the firm filed for bankruptcy, the 8th largest in U.S. history. As the firm failed it was discovered that over $1.6 billion... View Details
- September 2011
- Case
AXA Private Equity: The Diana Investment
By: Michael J. Roberts and William A. Sahlman
The case focuses on an investment made by AXA Private Equity, a French manufacturer of food ingredients. The investment is made at the height of the financial markets, and financed with significant debt. Soon thereafter, the financial crisis impacted the company's... View Details
- June 2010
- Article
A Gap-Filling Theory of Corporate Debt Maturity Choice
By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein
We argue that time-series variation in the maturity of aggregate corporate debt issues arises because firms behave as macro liquidity providers, absorbing the large supply shocks associated with changes in the maturity structure of government debt. We document that... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised November 2009)
- Case
WL Ross and Plascar
By: C. Fritz Foley and Linnea Meyer
How can distressed investors take advantage of the procedures governing an international bankruptcy? Wilbur L. Ross, chairman and CEO of the private equity firm WL Ross & Co., LLC, has the opportunity to bid for debt and equity claims on Plascar Industria e Comercio... View Details
- March 2009
- Article
Trading Restrictions and Stock Prices
By: Robin Greenwood
Firms can manipulate their stock price by limiting the ability of their investors to sell. I examine a series of corporate events in Japan in which firms actively reduced their float—the fraction of shares available to trade—for periods of one to three months, locking... View Details
- January 2008
- Background Note
Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)
By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford
This lesson integrated Merton's (1974) contingent claims model of debt and equity claims with the CAPM, which allows us to examine the risks and pricing of credit portfolios and the derivative claims issued against them. In particular, this model is used to make... View Details
- December 2007 (Revised December 2021)
- Case
The South Sea Company (A)
By: David A. Moss, Eugene Kintgen, Agnieszka Rafalska and Kimberly Hagan
In early 1720, the South Sea Company and the Bank of England were cometing for the right to issue new shares and to exchange those shares for government bons that were then in the hands of the public. The British government had already executed two such debt conversion... View Details
- November 2007 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
ISS A/S (A)
By: Clayton S. Rose
Provides the opportunity to examine the nature and extent of a company's responsibilities to its bondholders, and to develop an enhanced understanding of the challenges in managing contractual obligations, and circumstances under which business leaders might agree to... View Details
- August 2007 (Revised April 2008)
- Case
Texas Pacific Group--J. Crew
By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley
Describes Texas Pacific Group's purchase and operation of J. Crew, the catalog and specialty clothing retailer. Highlights the issues involved in financing such a transaction, and then focuses on the operational challenges of turning around the business, and of TPG's... View Details
- August 2007 (Revised February 2008)
- Case
Pinnacle Ventures
By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind
Describes a prospective "venture debt" loan to a new venture from the perspective of Patrick Lee, a principal at Pinnacle Ventures. Forces students to grapple with the nature of financial risk in the start-up firm and assess the prospective risks and returns to a... View Details
- April 2006 (Revised April 2012)
- Background Note
The Company Sale Process
Lays out the steps, the timeline, and the process by which a company is sold. Focuses on the sale of companies with enterprise values greater than $100 million. These transactions are large enough to require the help of a financial adviser and attract both strategic... View Details
- March 2006
- Case
Wells Fargo Convertible Bonds
By: Malcolm P. Baker and Elizabeth Kind
Howard Atkins, the chief financial officer of Wells Fargo, is considering issuing $3 billion in convertible debt. With an investment-grade credit rating, Wells Fargo is not the typical issuer of convertible securities, but the market conditions in 2003 are unusual.... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised June 2004)
- Case
Innovation at the Treasury: Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities (A)
By: Kenneth A. Froot, Peter A. Hecht and Christopher Edward James Payton
In 1997, the U.S. Treasury was deciding whether to proceed with a proposal to issue inflation-indexed bonds. This case explores the challenges facing innovation in the financial markets as the Treasury tries to determine whether to introduce Treasury... View Details
- November 2003
- Article
The Maturity of Debt Issues and Predictable Variation in Bond Returns
By: Malcolm Baker, Robin Greenwood and Jeffrey Wurgler
The maturity of new debt issues predicts excess bond returns. When the share of long-term debt issues in total debt issues is high, future excess bond returns are low. This predictive power comes in two parts. First, inflation, the real short-term rate, and the term... View Details