Publications

July 2002
Article

The Sale of Ideas: Strategic Disclosure, Property Rights, and Contracting

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

Ideas are difficult to sell when buyers cannot assess an idea's value before it is revealed and sellers cannot protect a revealed idea. These problems exist in a variety of intellectual property sales ranging from pure ideas to poorly protected inventions and reflect... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Contracts; Strategy; Valuation

August 2024
Technical Note

Is Concentrated Ownership Good?

By: Christina R. Wing, Everett Alexander and Justin Huang

This note provides an overview of factors to consider when valuing a closely held, private business. View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Valuation

July 1983 (Revised March 1986)
Case

Fred Johnson's Adjustable Rate Convertible Note

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Valuation

Web

The Formula - Option Pricing in Theory & Practice: The Nobel Prize Research of Robert C. Merton - Exhibits - Historical Collections

member of the finance faculty. It was in this small group that the complex theories of option pricing and corporate liability valuation were developed and expanded upon. Though Fischer Black was not a member of the MIT faculty, he was a... View Details

15 Dec 2024
News

Skydeck: Reddit’s Rise

Jen Wong (MBA 2004), COO of Reddit (Illustration by John S. Dykes) “I met Steve [Huffman] at SFO, I think at like 6:00 AM. We were sort of ships passing and had a great meeting and I got really excited because it’s really rare that you get to work on an asset that is,... View Details

Web

Company databases: which database to choose? | Baker Library

Availability: HarvardKey Strengths/Unique Features: Coverage of early stage companies/deals. Strong valuation information. Morningstar equity research and cash flow models available within the 'Research Center' module. Preqin... View Details

2024
Working Paper

The Retail Habitat

By: Toomas Laarits and Marco Sammon

Retail investors trade hard-to-value stocks. Controlling for size, stocks with a high share of retail-initiated trades are composed of more intangible capital, have longer duration cash-flows and a higher likelihood of being mispriced. Consistent with retail-heavy... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Retail Trade; Intangible Capital; Mispricing; Investment; Valuation; Business Earnings

SSRN

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June 1999 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Sirona

By: Walter Kuemmerle and Chad S Ellis

Sirona, the dental systems business of Siemans AG is being sold through an auction. In September 1997, buyout firm Schroder Ventures has to decide whether to make a binding offer for the business. Schroder has done extensive due diligence with support from a team of... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Valuation; Health Industry; Germany

03 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

flavijus For the first time, a link has been drawn between public sentiment about a company’s sustainability practices and how that company is valued in the market. The results are important both for investors searching for under-valued, socially responsible companies,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

August 2000 (Revised July 2002)
Background Note

Fundamental Enterprise Valuation: Invested Capital

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

A technical note that defines invested capital (IC). View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Valuation; Capital

25 Aug 2022
News

Full Stream Ahead

Picasso you can’t put a price on these songs.” By 2016, when Sony purchased Jackson’s share of ATV, the figure had ballooned to a staggering $750 million. Music has been raking in top-dollar valuations ever since, in part because of the... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

26 Mar 2025
Blog Post

How to Approach Your Equity Compensation

What is the vest schedule? Most new hire equity grants come with a four-year vest schedule, meaning that you can only earn your equity over time. But data also shows that most employees leave their companies after just two years. That may be worth broader... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Measuring the Cost of Corporate Water Usage

By: DG Park, George Serafeim and T. Robert Zochowski

We develop a methodology that calculates the impact that organizations have on the environment through their water consumption relating to water stress risk. Using the methodology, we derive estimates for four companies that show how assumptions on the geographic... View Details

Keywords: Water; Water Management; Environment; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Impact-Weighted Accounts; IWAI; Organizations; Environmental Sustainability; Valuation

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January 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Supplement

Fair Value Accounting at Noble Group (B)

By: Siko Sikochi, Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

Following a series of reports by Iceberg Research alleging that Noble Group was too aggressive in its fair value accounting for contracts and investments in producers, Noble’s stock price continued to fall and stakeholders began to call for improved transparency in... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Contracts; Valuation

2012
Chapter

Valuing Financial Literacy

By: Shawn Cole, Thomas Sampson and Bilal Zia

Keywords: Financial Literacy; Valuation; Finance; Knowledge Use and Leverage

December 1973 (Revised June 1982)
Case

MRC, Inc. (A)

MRC must place a value on an acquisition prospect and also decide whether a deal makes sense from strategic and organizational perspectives. An updated version of and earlier case by W.E. Fruhan, Jr. and J.H. McArthur. View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Valuation; Acquisition

February 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Bidding for Finansbank

By: David Scharfstein and Esel Çekin

Because of the deepening Greek crisis, in October 2015, National Bank of Greece (NBG) was required to sell one of its most valuable assets, Finansbank, the eighth largest Turkish bank. There were three potential buyers: Garanti Bank, Turkey's second largest private... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Acquisitions; International Acquisition; Cross-border Investment; Bidding; Bidders; Regulations; ROE; Cost Synergies; Regional Growth; Emerging Market; Sales Process; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Banking Industry; Turkey; Europe