Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,215)
- Faculty Publications (738)
- October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture
By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig
On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details
- October 2009 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
The University of Notre Dame Endowment
By: Andre F. Perold and Paul Michael Buser
The Endowment Model of Investing, which was based on creating high risk-adjusted performance through diversification, a long time horizon, top-notch outside managers, and illiquid investments, had served Notre Dame and other large universities well over the past... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
- Case
Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (A)
By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan
Acumen Fund is a global venture capital firm with a dual purpose: it looks for a return on its investments, and it also seeks entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. This case examines Acumen's new projects in Kenya. The organization's investment committee and its... View Details
- August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
- Supplement
Eddie Bauer (B)
By: Paul M. Healy, Sharon P. Katz and Aldo Sesia
In February 2007, shareholders of Eddie Bauer, the specialty apparel retailer, were scheduled to vote on management's proposed sale of the company to two private equity firms. More than 50% of outstanding shares in Eddie Bauer needed to be voted in favor of the deal... View Details
- 2009
- Chapter
Do Private Equity-owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from over 4,000 medium sized manufacturing firms across Asia, Europe and the US. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level performance (e.g. productivity,... View Details
- June 2009 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
Busse Place
By: Arthur I Segel, William J. Poorvu, Richard Kessler, Justin Seth Ginsburgh and Eric Fleiss
Busse Corporate Center's largest tenant recently declared bankruptcy, leaving the building 38% occupied and significantly overleveraged. In a depressed suburban Chicago office market, Hannah Sanchez, the leasing agent, has to negotiate lease proposals with three... View Details
- May 2009
- Teaching Note
Equity International: The Second Act (TN)
By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Ben Creo
Teaching Note for [209110]. View Details
- April 2009 (Revised December 2010)
- Case
Equity International: The Second Act
By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Ben Creo and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
Thomas McDonald, senior vice president of Equity International (EI), is weighing an investment in the Brazilian homebuilder Gafisa. Was this the right country? The right company? The right co-investor? The right time? McDonald would be investing alongside a Brazilian... View Details
Keywords: Private Equity; Investment; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Interests; Brazil
- April 2009
- Teaching Note
Satelite Distribuidora de Petroleo (TN)
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Andrea Minardi
Teaching Note for [808062]. View Details
- March 2009
- Teaching Note
Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.: An IPO in India (TN)
By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
Teaching Note for [807095]. 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
- February 2009 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Messer Griesheim (A)
By: Josh Lerner, Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Eva Lutz and Kerry Herman
In 2001, Allianz Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs acquired a majority stake in Messer Griesheim, a European industrial gas concern held by Hoechst. The dealmakers faced several challenges, including delicate corporate governance issues due to partial family ownership... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised March 2013)
- Supplement
Messer Griesheim (B)
By: Josh Lerner, Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Eva Lutz and Kerry Herman
In 2001, Allianz Capital Partners and Godlman Sachs acquired a majority stake in Messer Greisheim, a European industrial gas concern held by Hoeschst. The dealmakers faced several challenges, including delicate corporate governance issues due to partial family... View Details
- 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
- 2009
- Other Unpublished Work
Bridge Building in Venture Capital-Backed Acquisitions
By: Paul A. Gompers and Yuhai Xuan
We study the role of common venture capital investors in alleviating asymmetric information between public acquirers and private venture capital-backed targets. We find that acquisition announcement returns are more positive for acquisitions in which both the target... View Details
- January 2009
- Case
Berkshire Hathaway
By: Bharat N. Anand and Samhita Patwardhan Jayanti
Berkshire Hathaway describes the history and strategy of one of the best known investment firms over the last forty years. The case describes the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett, its legendary chairman and CEO, the gradual diversification of its portfolio, its... View Details
- January 2009
- Case
Xi'an International University: The Growth of Private Universities in China
By: William C. Kirby, Michael Shih-ta Chen, Keith Chi-ho Wong and Tracy Manty
Huang Teng founded Xi'an International University (XAIU) as a private institute of higher education in 1992. Throughout its ensuing years, the school filled a niche and met the demand of students who did not test into one of China's public institutions. In 2008, it was... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised May 2010)
- Case
Altoona State Investment Board: December 2008
By: Josh Lerner
Rod Calhoun, the head of the Altoona State Investment Board's private equity investment program, considered the communication he had just received. It was from Permira, the leading European buyout fund, and concerned its fourth fund, to which Altoona had made a £ 100... View Details
- Article
Investor Activism and Takeovers
By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Schor
Recent work documents large positive abnormal returns around the time that a hedge fund announces its activist intentions with a publicly listed firm. We show that these returns are largely explained by the ability of activists to force target firms into a takeover: In... View Details
- December 2008 (Revised October 2009)
- Case
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
By: David E. Bell and Brian Matthew Milder
In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined together to form a new organization, AGRA, to tackle the historic challenge of increasing agricultural production in Africa. Launched with much fanfare and led by former U.N.... View Details