Publications

Article

Private Enterprise for Public Health

By: Michael Chu and David E. Bloom

By many measures, the world today is a healthier place than ever before, yet a daunting set of deficits and disparities remains to be tackled. For various reasons, it is not clear that the traditional tandem of government and civil society are up to those challenges.... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Social Enterprise; Public Sector; Private Sector; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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October 2017 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Snap Inc. Goes Public (A)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz

Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. The case is set in early 2017 following the public availability of Snap’s IPO filing with the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

Web

OWN: The Power of Company Ownership - Course Catalog

affect how it competes? What are the strengths and weaknesses of different ownership models? When is it time to change a company’s ownership model (e.g., going from private to View Details

Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

Publications Publications Show Results For All HBS Web (120,383) Faculty Publications (37,107) Page 1 of 37,107 Results October 2025 Article Measurement and Effects of Bank... View Details

March 1999
Case

Australia's Telstra Corporation (A): Going Public

By: W. Earl Sasser, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

Frank Blount is named CEO of Telstra, Australia's state-owned telecommunications giant. In preparation for its 1997 IPO, he must reorganize the company from an inefficient public entity into a lean, customer-driven organization. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Focus and Relationships; State Ownership; Performance Effectiveness; Privatization; Telecommunications Industry; Australia

28 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Private Equity Ownership on Portfolio Firms’ Corporate Tax Planning

Keywords: by Brad Badertscher, Sharon P. Katz & Sonja Olhoft Rego; Financial Services

Web

The Ownership Project | Institute for Business in Global Society

co-founder of The Ownership Project Nien-hê Hsieh takes a comprehensive look at ownership structures beyond conventional private equity and public markets, exploring innovative... View Details

August 1985
Case

CML Group, Inc.: Going Public (C)

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of some issues confronting management of CML Group. They have decided to go public, have selected an underwriting team, and must make final decisions about the size, composition and pricing of the issue. Because stock prices have fallen since the... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Going Public; Problems and Challenges; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry

May 2001
Case

Omni Industries: Going Public

By: Carin-Isabel Knoop, Paul W. Marshall and Suma Raju

Keywords: Going Public

July 1984 (Revised September 1986)
Case

CML Group, Inc.: Going Public (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a series of decisions confronting Charles Leighton, co-founder and chairman of the CML Group. CML is a successful participant in the leisure time industry with two lines of business: specialty retailing and recreational consumer products. The key issues in... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Going Public; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Investment Banking; Financing and Loans; Planning; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry

12 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Private Sector, Public Good

Should business play a role in supporting public institutions, and perhaps addressing the world's social challenges? When Harvard Professor Rebecca Henderson asked her colleagues and business executives that question over the last few... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 1997 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Genset Initial Public Offering (B)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jeffrey M. Anapolsky

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Initial Public Offering; Genetics; Going Public; Management Teams; Biotechnology Industry; France; United States

June 1997 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Genset Initial Public Offering (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jeffrey M. Anapolsky

Pascal Brandys, founder and CEO of Genset, must decide whether to take this young biotechnology company public. If so, should he do a dual offering in both France and the U.S.? The case also explores the business models in genomics research. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Initial Public Offering; Genetics; Going Public; Management Teams; Biotechnology Industry; France; United States

1991
Chapter

Eclipse of the Public Corporation

By: Michael C. Jensen

Keywords: Public Ownership

SSRN

October 1999 (Revised July 2007)
Background Note

A Note on the Initial Public Offering Process

By: Josh Lerner

Provides an overview of the going public process. View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Going Public

February 2009 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Fannie Mae: Public or Private?

By: David A. Moss, Cole Bolton and Kimberly Hagan

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan established the President's Commission on Privatization to identify federal government functions that could be shifted to the private sector. One agency that the Commission considered was the Federal National Mortgage Association, or... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Financial Institutions; Mortgages; Government and Politics; Business History; Privatization; Private Sector; Laws and Statutes; United States

October 2017
Supplement

Snap Inc. Goes Public (B)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz

Supplements the (A) case.

Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

2022
Article

The Effects of Public and Private Equity Markets on Firm Behavior

By: Shai Bernstein

In this article, I review the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of public and private equity markets on firm behavior, emphasizing the consequences that emerge from disclosure requirements, ownership concentration, and degree of firm standardization.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance And Governance; Financing Policy; Commercialization; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Public Equity; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Cost of Capital