Publications

October 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

BC Partners: Acuris

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

This case follows Nikos Stathopoulos, Managing Partner of BC Partners, as he and his team evaluate the potential sale of one of BC Partners’ portfolio companies, Acuris. Acuris was a global financial intelligence, news, and data company that had been acquired by BC... View Details

Keywords: Fund Management; Fund Raising; Leveraged Buyout; Buyout; Portfolio Management; Operations Improvement; Exit; Exit Strategy; Valuation Ratios; Finance; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Operations; Performance Improvement; Acquisition; Valuation

23 Apr 2024
Cold Call Podcast

Amazon in Seattle: The Role of Business in Causing and Solving a Housing Crisis

Keywords: Re: Paul M. Healy; Technology

Jeffrey J. Bussgang

General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners

Former entrepreneur turned VC, HBS Senior Lecturer, author, dad of three, husband of one, civic leader, Cross Fitter and fan of all Boston sports.

Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a Senior... View Details

June 2016
Case

The Redevelopment of Palazzo Tornabuoni (B)

By: Sid Yog, Arthur I Segel and Ricardo Andrade

On December 16, 2010, Byrne Murphy received a call from his Italian partner at Fingen Group. The recently renovated Palazzo Tornabuoni, an iconic 15th century palace in the heart of Florence, Italy, had been seized by the local police. While Murphy tries to understand... View Details

Keywords: Palazzo Tornabuoni; Private Residence Club; Florence; Italy; Timeshare; Fractional Ownership; Property; Real Estate Industry; Italy; Europe

Article

The Re-Industrialization of the United States?

By: Willy C. Shih

Talk of "re-industrialization" in the United States has been supported by a seeming resurgence in manufacturing, but this is driven more by the end of labor arbitrage and increasing coordination costs of offshore manufacturing. Aggressive restructurings and significant... View Details

August 2012
Case

Messer Griesheim (A) (Abridged)

By: Josh Lerner, 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... View Details

Keywords: Germany; Energy; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; European Union

March 2005 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Actis & CDC: A New Partnership

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

The senior managing partner of Actis, a leading private equity investor in emerging markets, must decide whether to go into the market to raise money. Actis was spun out of CDC, a 50-year-old division of the U.K.'s Department for International Development, and is... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

July 2012 (Revised June 2018)
Case

MC Tool

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Two partners acquired MC Tool in October 2007 for $5 million. The company was a machine shop that manufactured parts for a wide variety of applications in the energy, automotive, and industrial equipment industries. In their first year of ownership, the partners... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Problems and Challenges; Transformation; Production; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; United States

June 2023
Article

Are You Listening to Me? The Negative Link between Extraversion and Perceived Listening

By: Francis J Flynn, Hanne Collins and Julian Zlatev

Extraverts are often characterized as highly social individuals who are highly invested in their interpersonal interactions. We propose that extraverts' interaction partners hold a different view-that extraverts are highly social, but not highly invested. Across six... View Details

Keywords: Extraversion; Listening; Self-monitoring; Sociability; Interaction; Interpersonal Communication; Perception

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March 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Village Ventures

By: Noam T. Wasserman, G. Felda Hardymon, Christopher Rogers and Ann Leamon

Matt Harris, general partner and founder of Village Ventures, a nationwide umbrella organization for VC firms in secondary cities, is about to negotiate with the general partner of one of the organization's most successful funds. Describes the costs and benefits of the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Relationships; United States

October 2017
Case

LeBron James: Building a Hollywood Empire

By: Anita Elberse

It is June 2016. Superstar basketball player LeBron James and his childhood friend and business partner Maverick Carter are celebrating James’ third NBA championship. The duo will soon have to decide on a strategy for their media businesses—their film and television... View Details

June 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Platinum Capital

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

How should a venture capital firm divide compensation and decision rights between its founders and its next-generation partners? Platinum Capital faced this decision in July 2020. Platinum’s younger partners had just requested a piece of the firm’s highly lucrative... View Details

Keywords: Decision Rights; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Compensation and Benefits; Governance; Retention; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships

Kevin P. Mohan joined the Negotiation unit at Harvard Business School in 2012. He teaches Negotiation and Deals in the MBA program, in the Owners, Presidents, and Managers program, and in a number of other Executive Education programs at Harvard. He also... View Details

November 2020
Case

Axis My India

By: Ananth Raman, Ann Winslow and Kairavi Dey

Pradeep Gupta founded Axis My India (AMI) as a printing and publishing company in 1998. In 2013, AMI expanded into consumer research and election forecasting. Although a relatively unknown entity, AMI predicted several election results accurately. Gupta describes AMI’s... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Operations; Management; Infrastructure; Logistics; Service Operations; Political Elections; Forecasting and Prediction; Asia; India