Publications

09 Apr 2025
HBS Seminar

Marc Rysman, Boston University

15 Apr 2013
News

Solving the Search vs. Display Advertising Quandary

18 Oct 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Venture Capital’s Disconnect with Clean Tech

green businesses. "They tend to think clean-tech investing is like Internet investing," he says. "They think, 'It's gonna happen fast, and it's just gonna happen.' And the answer is no, it's not gonna be fast, and it might... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities; Financial Services

November 2001
Case

Sigma Networks, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Christina L. Darwall

Sigma Networks, a venture capital-based telecommunications start-up, provides metropolitan area networks (MANs) that use fiberoptic lines to connect local Internet service providers (e.g., ISPs, hosting firms) with a long-haul ("backbone") network. MANs represent a... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customers; Capital Budgeting; Venture Capital; Strategic Planning; Technology Networks; Telecommunications Industry

Find at Harvard

April 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Livedoor

By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Schor

The president of Fuji Television must decide how to respond to a competing bid for the shares of Nippon Broadcasting Systems (NBS). Livedoor, the other bidder, is a highly valued Internet company that has been accused of financial wizardry to keep its stock price high. View Details

Keywords: Stock Shares; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Television Entertainment; Behavioral Finance; Corporate Finance; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Japan

November 1997 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Interactive Minds (A)

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Christina L. Darwall

The efforts of two recent Harvard Business School graduates to start a venture capital/consulting firm focused on opportunities related to the Internet are recounted. Raises the question of what the nature of this opportunity is, how well-positioned the protagonists... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Consulting Industry

June 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Eckerd Corporation

By: Michael E. Porter and John E. Kelleher

Describes the history and current situation in the retail pharmacy industry, including competition from new merchants and Internet drugstores. Eckerd, one of the top four drug chains, must decide how to position itself for the future. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Alignment; Supply and Industry; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

December 2001
Case

Sarah Vickers-Willis: Career Decisions (A)

By: Myra M. Hart, Lynda M. Applegate, Sarah Harden and Susan Saltrick

Sarah Vickers-Willis, HBS MBA 1999, faces a critical career decision: Does she redirect the Internet start-up she helped found or join in shaping a for-profit firm with a social mission? Sarah, a young Australian business executive, has always strived to "find space"... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Business Startups

12 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

‘Let the Buyer Beware’ Doesn’t Protect Investors

leading investment banker during the bubble. About him Forbes wrote: "...in Quattrone's shop research was expected to serve the bankers' interests. The Internet craze had led analysts at every investment bank to issue glowing reports... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Return Logic, Inc. (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Michele Lutz

Follows three graduating HBS students as they build a business-to-business Internet venture and highlights the challenges they confront in structuring financing terms with venture capitalists. Requires students to carefully read a six-page term sheet to identify which... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Private Equity; Internet and the Web; Negotiation Deal; Entrepreneurship

2001
Case

Encyclopedia Britannica (C)

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Praveen Kopalle

In October of 1999, EBI offered a new Internet service at www.britannica.com. EBI provided access to the entire text and graphics of Encyclopedia Britannica absolutely free of charge. Its revenues came from on-line advertising, sponsorships, and a percentage of goods... View Details

Keywords: Online Technology; Online Advertising; Business Strategy; Information Publishing; Web Services Industry

Read Now

01 Dec 2010
News

Google bids for Groupon

15 Feb 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

Delivering Information Services: A 30-Year Perspective

Internet to market its products or services? Nolan: I do, albeit it's a different experience for the consumer to buy a book from Amazon.com, let's say, than it is from a retailer such as Barnes & Noble. The value added by the View Details

Keywords: by Staff

January 1998 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Chemdex.com

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

An Internet start-up company is developing an online marketplace for specialty chemicals and reagents. David Perry has been named a runner-up in the 1st annual HBS Business Plan contest and now faces seed-stage financing questions--how much money to raise, at what... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Internet and the Web; Chemicals; Business Startups; Capital; Chemical Industry

20 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 20

relationship between the diffusion of advanced internet technology and the geographic concentration of invention, as measured by patents. First, we show that patenting became more concentrated from the early 1990s to the early 2000s and,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Background Note

Web and IT Hosting Facilities: Technology Note

Introduces students to the data centers where IT infrastructure is increasingly physically housed. These centralized hosting facilities represent in the information age the equivalent of power utilities in the industrial age. Students are introduced to issues of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Web Services Industry

August 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Strategic Capital Management, LLC (A)

By: Mark L. Mitchell, Erik Stafford and Todd Pulvino

Strategic Capital Management, LLC, is a hedge fund that is planning to make financial investments in Creative Computers and Ubid. Creative Computers recently sold approximately 20% of its Internet auction subsidiary, Ubid, to the public at $15 per share. Ubid's stock... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Subsidiaries; Internet and the Web; Investment Funds; Price; Performance Efficiency; Capital Markets; Auctions; Investment Return; Equity; Planning; Financial Services Industry

August 2000
Case

AMVESCAP in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kathleen E. E Danoher

Deals with the problems faced by a major mutual fund company as it attempts to respond to the threats and opportunities posed by the explosion of the Internet and the changing landscape of retail financial services. View Details

Keywords: Trends; Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Problems and Challenges; Alignment; Internet; Financial Services Industry

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July 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Private Communications Corporation (A)

Ann Meceda is a soon-to-be MBA graduate. She has been working as the director of marketing in an Internet start-up, and now the founder wants her to become CEO. She must weigh the personal and business risks and assess her own objectives and tolerance for risks. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Internet and the Web; Management Succession; Marketing; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Service Industry