Publications

20 Apr 2010
First Look

company's, and his, legacy will be after declaring bankruptcy despite a cultural turnaround and successful operations. Purchase this supplement:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/610061-PDF-ENG The Last DVD Format War? Andrei... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2006 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Providian Financial Corporation

By: John R. Wells

On October 3, 2005, Washington Mutual acquired Providian Financial Corporation, the ninth-largest credit card issuer in the U.S., for $6.5 billion. At the time, Providian had approximately 10 million customer relationships and a balance of $18.6 billion. For some... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Customer Relationship Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Credit Cards; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; United States

April 2023
Case

Burning the Sails to Save the Ship: The Pilati Family Dilemma

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Jiawei Ye and Grace Headinger

Octavian Graf Pilati, rising generation member of an Austrian princely family, prepared to sell the palace his family had held for over three hundred years. In recent years, the Pilati family lands had been leveraged as loan collateral for an international venture that... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Family; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Agribusiness; Family Business; Property; Identity; Culture; Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governance; Crisis Management; Family and Family Relationships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Real Estate Industry; Austria

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

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Private Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries

05 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 5

case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/812111-PDF-ENG Georges Doriot and American Venture Capital Tom Nicholas and David ChenHarvard Business School Case 812-110 Following the lean years of the Great Depression when bankruptcies... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The case examines the economics of the off-balance sheet transactions Lehman undertook prior to the collapse and highlights the corporate governance... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

April 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Case

The Barber of Buenos Aires: Argentina's Debt Renegotiation

By: Noel Maurer and Aldo Musacchio

Tells the story of Argentina's aggressive strategy for renegotiating its sovereign debt from 2003 to 2005. Most creditors accepted the offer to swap their debt for new securities worth 35 cents on the dollar, with no recognition of all past-due interest. Many holdouts,... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Sovereign Finance; Government and Politics; Negotiation Tactics; Outcome or Result; Situation or Environment; Argentina

02 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 2

in the north of Spain, physically separated from it by the Pyrenees Mountains. Presents the history of the region-highly prosperous at the turn of the 20th century but nearing bankruptcy by the 1950s. By 2001, the Basque GDP per capita... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Lehman Brothers Plus Five: Have We Learned from Our Mistakes?

In September 2008, Lehman Brothers went under—the largest bankruptcy in American history. But that was just the beginning of the story. What followed was the Great Recession, a gargantuan financial crisis that affected the entire world... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Banking; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

01 Mar 2009
News

Damon Silvers

congressional bailout than Wall Street? No. The reason Congress voted in October to allot $700 billion for financial institutions was the risk that multiple bankruptcies would place the economy in jeopardy. Let’s apply that reasoning to... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Transportation

September 2023
Case

The Rise and Fall of FTX

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and Max Hancock

In November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried's multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed, wiping out investors and throwing the crypto industry into disarray. As FTX's founder and CEO, Bankman-Fried developed a reputation for his unerring business sense and... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Crime and Corruption; Financial Statements; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Failure; Restructuring; United States; Hong Kong; Bahamas

August 2011 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Lind Equipment

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Lind Equipment failed to meet its loan covenants with its senior bank lender in the summer of 2008, just six months after it was acquired. While the senior bank debt comprised only 6% of the capital used in the acquisition and was fully secured, it exercised its right... View Details

Keywords: Financial Condition; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Revenue; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Financial Management; Acquisition; Financial Crisis; Currency Exchange Rate; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry

February 2019 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Scandal at Steinhoff

By: Kristin Mugford and Phil Caruso

Keywords: Volatility; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Liquidity; Bonds; Corporate Accountability; Failure; International Finance; Restructuring; Business Conglomerates; Crime and Corruption; Retail Industry; South Africa; Austria; Netherlands

01 Jun 2020
News

Unleashed

Culture carries its guidance to the farthest corners of the organization to places you may never go and people you may never meet. There’s a story about the salvation of FedEx that Michael Basch, one of the company’s founding officers, likes to tell. In 1973, FedEx was... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/515072-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 213-046 W.R. Grace & Co.: Dealing with Asbestos Torts A manufacturer of building products and specialty chemicals, W.R. Grace & Co. filed for Chapter 11 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

customer value propositions. However, this proved difficult to sustain over the long run, and the business ultimately went into bankruptcy in 2001. How did Polaroid rise to a position of such preeminence, and was its downfall inevitable?... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Stuart Gilson

the process. In the U.S., bankruptcy can also be used to revitalize the business—for example, by allowing companies to reject unfavorable leases, or sell unwanted assets in a competitive auction. The second reason to restructure is to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Teaching Note

Lind Equipment

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS No. 212-012. Lind Equipment, a Canadian manufacturer and distributor of industrial electrical safety equipment, was purchased in December 2007 by Brian Astl (HBS 2006) and Sean Van Doorselaer. Lind’s performance was negatively impacted by the... View Details

Keywords: Recession; Seller Debt; Equity; Financial Condition; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Revenue; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Financial Management; Acquisition; Financial Crisis; Currency Exchange Rate; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry

2010
Working Paper

When Do Analysts Add Value? Evidence from Corporate Spinoffs

By: Emilie Rose Feldman, Stuart Gilson and Belen Villalonga

We investigate the information content and forecast accuracy of 1,793 analyst reports written around 62 spinoffs—a setting in which analysts' ability to inform investors is potentially very high. We find that analysts pay little attention to subsidiaries about to be... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Subsidiaries; Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Initial Public Offering; Price; Reports; Research