Publications

April 2001
Article

Earnouts: The Effects of Adverse Selection and Agency Costs on Acquisition Techniques

By: Srikant M. Datar, Richard Frankel and Mark Wolfson

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost

Find at Harvard

01 Jun 1998
News

John (“Bo”) Kemp

in New York. There, frustrated by the difficulty of learning financial procedures such as how to structure a merger or an LBO, he decided to write a 300-page manual explaining such complex processes. His how-to book proved so useful that... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry; photograph by Webb Chappell

01 Apr 2000
News

The World at a Click

two-year-old, name-your-price discount site gaining fame of late with humorous ads featuring pitchman William Shatner. Both companies have grown rapidly since entering the online market, and with consolidation already under way (Travelocity just completed its View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelly

September 1994 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (Consolidated) (A)

By: Nitin Nohria, Bharat N. Anand and Kyle F. Barnett

Describes the conditions leading to the acquisition of Cross and Trecker by Gidding & Lewis. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Negotiation; Situation or Environment; Integration; Valuation

12 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 12

Working PapersA Reference Point Theory of Mergers and Acquisitions Authors:Malcolm Baker, Xin Pan, and Jeffrey Wurgler Abstract The use of judgmental anchors or reference points in valuing corporations affects several basic aspects of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 May 2013
Blog Post

Being Uncomfortable at HBS

novelty. If curiosity killed the cat. Then, lucky I am not a cat. Therefore, it isn’t a surprise that I enjoyed my time as a consultant, because it enabled me to jump from helping to develop a strategy for a large health system to supporting the View Details

01 Sep 2015
News

Research Brief: Bankruptcy as a Better—Not Bitter—End

some have suggested. “For one out of five of these sales, the process is really just about transferring ownership of an ongoing, operating enterprise to another owner,” says Gilson. “That’s exactly what happens in the market for mergers... View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

Web

Law, Management and Entrepreneurship - Course Catalog

maximizing the value of the corporate legal function, and analyze the dynamic nature of law; Develop literacy in: basic agency, contracts, legal documentation, torts, and the dynamics of litigation; explore intellectual property (IP), View Details

Benjamin Ha

development and business development. Ben started his career as a financial analyst at Wasserstein Perella in New York, and participated in ten merger and acquisition transactions worth over $10 billion. Ben earned a B.S. in economics and... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence;#75;#Venture Capital;#64;#Software/App

July 1982 (Revised August 2006)
Background Note

Tax Factors in Business Combinations

By: Henry B. Reiling

Discusses the theory and rules governing the taxation of business combinations (mergers and acquisitions). Related information from state corporate law, federal securities law, accounting, and finance is also provided. A rewritten version of an earlier note. View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Law

01 Feb 2001
News

Drilling Down

The news last October of Chevron's proposed acquisition of Texaco for $36 billion in stock was hardly surprising to industry analysts. The planned merger — which would streamline projects and save some $1.2 billion annually — was... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Matthew R. Simmons; Oil and Gas Extraction; Mining; Natural Gas Distribution; Utilities

Web

Research Links: Records of Railroad Companies & Personal Papers - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School

Railroads Finance Management Business Analysts Mass Distribution Mergers & Syndicates Research Links Railroad Records Photographs Research Collections Secondary Sources Related Sites Research Links: Records of Railroad Companies &... View Details

Web

Investment Strategies - Course Catalog

bonds outstanding. Every day, public markets set prices for CEOs and CFOs, financial institutions, and investors, all seeking to raise and invest money in a way that drives the economy forward. A public exit - whether through an initial public offering of common stock... View Details

25 Jul 2018
News

HBS Alumni Leader, Benefactor Dies at 86

for senior executives when his son was a second-year MBA student. Spangler also chaired the Bank of North Carolina during the 1980s, playing a key role in its merger with the North Carolina National Bank Corporation (now Bank of America),... View Details

21 Oct 2020
News

Cold Calculations

where he makes his home and works as a partner at the mergers and acquisitions firm Architect Partners. A two-decade-long drought, a record-breaking heat wave, and a rare dry lightning storm had sparked 350 fires across Northern and... View Details

Keywords: April White

25 Feb 2020
News

In My Humble Opinion: Mr. Coffee

2018, Keller left his position as global president of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company to become CEO of Peet’s Coffee; in January, he was named CEO of JDE Peet’s, a merger that added a portfolio of coffee and tea brands represented in more... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

February 2017 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Rapid7

By: Mitchell Weiss, Paul Gompers and Silpa Kovvali

That Corey Thomas, vice president at Boston-based Rapid7, Inc., was about to enter his investor’s boardroom to negotiate a potential acquisition of Metasploit, LLC, was already an unlikely achievement of sorts. After all, Rapid7 was a venture-backed, corporate... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Computer Hacking; Open-source; Corey Thomas; Rapid7; Exploit Testing; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cybersecurity; Computer Industry; North and Central America; Boston

Web

Deals Q2 - Course Catalog

required. Evaluation will be on the basis of class participation and a final paper or project. Students in this course may also be interested in Mark Gordon and Meng Lu’s Mergers and Acquisitions Workshop: Boardroom Strategies and Deal... View Details

1993
Chapter

The Strategy of a Merger: Fleet and Bank of New England

By: D. B. Crane and J.C. Linder

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; New England