Publications

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August 1998
Case

Record Masters

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

Kent Dauten, a former general partner at the Chicago private equity firm of Madison Dearborn Partners, has engaged in a search to personally sponsor a buyout in which he can play an active management role. He has received a selling memorandum for Record Masters, a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Leveraged Buyouts; Valuation; Negotiation Deal; Investment

William Sahlman is a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Sahlman received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University (1972), an M.B.A. from Harvard University (1975), and a Ph.D. in Business... View Details

04 Jun 2024
Blog Post

Finding Alignment to Make Impact: Layla Ramirez (MBA 2017)

Before becoming a Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Layla Ramirez (MBA 2017) was a prospective lawyer, an investment manager, a nonprofit leader, and a tech program manager. Beyond her professional roles, Ramirez is... View Details

December 2018
Case

CIR Group: Passing Wealth through the Generations

By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Elena Corsi

Rodolfo, Marco, and Edoardo De Benedetti had received from their father his controlling shares in COFIDE, a publicly listed holding company that held 45.8% of CIR Group, another publicly listed holding. The latter held majority shares in GEDI, Italy’s largest print... View Details

Keywords: Succession Planning; Transferring Shares; Wealth Management; Holding Structures; Family Ownership; Ownership Stake; Management Succession; Governing and Advisory Boards; Policy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Health Industry; Italy

December 2003
Case

Sale of Hephaestus, Inc. to Vulcan Ventures, Inc.

Henry Hephaestus founded Hephaestus, Inc. in 1895. Its first product was a tapered roller bearing for use with horse-drawn wagons and carriages. It reduced friction on the axle and reduced the force necessary to move a heavy load, thereby enabling one horse to do the... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Family Ownership; Manufacturing Industry

21 Feb 2024
Blog Post

Hiring at HBS: How Summer Interns Make an Impact at Bridges Fund Management

For Harvard Business School students eager to make a positive impact on the world, one exciting path forward is investing in mission-centered businesses. Areas like healthcare, education, energy, and the environment attract innovative and... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity

July 2007 (Revised August 2010)
Case

JP Morgan Partners - Cabela's Inc.

JP Morgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of JP Morgan Chase, owned 15% of Cabela's, Inc., a hunting and fishing equipment retailer in the U.S. In June of 2003, founders Dick and Jim Cabela wanted to liquidate some of their holdings. However, Cabela's was not... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Ownership Stake; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

15 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 15

Analyst Recommendation and Earnings Forecast Anomaly Author:George Serafeim Publication:Chap. 3 in The Handbook of Equity Market Anomalies: Translating Market Inefficiencies into Effective Investment... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2023
Article

Political Ideology and International Capital Allocation

By: Elisabeth Kempf, Mancy Luo, Larissa Schäfer and Margarita Tsoutsoura

Does investors' political ideology shape international capital allocation? We provide evidence from two settings—syndicated corporate loans and equity mutual funds—to show ideological alignment with foreign governments affects the cross-border capital allocation by... View Details

Keywords: Capital Flows; Syndicated Loans; Mutual Funds; Partisanship; Polarization; Elections; Political Ideology; Banks and Banking; Institutional Investing; Behavioral Finance; Decision Choices and Conditions

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Hiring Organizations

Equity Partners, LLC Maximon Maya Chia MBTA McKinsey & Company MCR Hotels Medley Medtronic Meesho Megafire Action Mentmore Capital Partners Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Meridiam Infrastructure MERIT Merit America Meritic Meta... View Details

Clayton S. Rose

Clayton Rose is Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice and teaches the course Accountability in the Advanced Management Program. His case writing is focused on the how leaders consider the... View Details

Keywords: financial services

Career Coach

Whit Collier

invitation to reflect together. Whit has a deep and broad background, starting with his years within Equity Analyst and Portfolio Manager roles. He invested successfully within many market environments, and... View Details

12 May 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Financing Payouts

Keywords: by Joan Farre-Mensa, Roni Michaely & Martin C. Schmalz

June 2014 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Southeastern Asset Management Challenges Buyout at Dell

By: Paul Healy, Suraj Srinivasan and Aldo Sesia

In late 2012, Michael Dell wants to take Dell Inc., the company he founded, private. Mr. Dell believes that the successful company's transformation from a personal computer (PC) manufacturer to an enterprise solutions and services provider (ESS) is dependent on going... View Details

Snap, the disappearing message app, went public at $17 per share on March 2, 2017, making its two 20-something founders the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. Over the next three weeks, 14 analysts make investment recommendations on Snap: two with buy... View Details

March 2008 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Actis: January 2008

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Paul Feltcher, the CEO of Actis, a leading private equity investor in emerging markets, is preparing for an executive retreat at which the management team will consider how best to position the firm for the future. Actis could move in a number of different directions... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Private Equity; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation

21 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Missing the Wave in Ship Transport

Like investing in a mansion when the real-estate market is at its peak, buying a dry bulk ship in a boom time is a terrible long-term investment, according to new research that predicts cycles in the shipping industry. The contrarian... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Transportation

17 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

‘Not a Bunch of Weirdos’: Why Mainstream Investors Buy Crypto

equity market, but a growing force to be reckoned with, according to the research. "Crypto is seeing large-scale adoption," Di Maggio says. At the same time, the industry finds itself in the spotlight of regulators who are exploring ways... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

March 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Microsoft's IP Ventures

By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Microsoft's IP Ventures program, through which Microsoft spun out promising but unused technologies into new companies, is a new approach to corporate venture capital. The program provides "IP for equity" and has proven very successful in achieving its main... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Intellectual Property; Rights; Software; Washington (state, US)