Publications

June 1987 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Mebel, Doran & Co.

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

Puts the student in the position of a senior official of a major New York investment bank who discovers that information has leaked to the market on a confidential takeover plan that was being developed by a corporate client. The official has to decide how to deal with... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Crisis Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

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January 2013
Supplement

Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company's Global Strategy (B)

By: William C. Kirby, Nancy Hua Dai and Erica M. Zendell

Supplements the A Case 308-058. With an almost forty-year history as a business in China, the Wanxiang Group has navigated through the significantly different political and economic changes in China to succeed as a global leader in the auto parts industry, and to... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Global Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Vertical Integration; Goals and Objectives; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; China; United States

September 2006
Teaching Note

OfficeTiger (TN)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III

Teaching Note to (804-109). View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Service Delivery; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; India; Europe; United States; Asia

August 2006 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Duane Morris: Balancing Growth and Culture at a Law Firm

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

After nearly 100 years as a mid-size regional law firm, Duane Morris entered a period of spectacular growth led by CEO Sheldon Bonovitz. Originally founded by Quakers, the firm had a distinct organizational culture featuring a number of unique or unusual business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; San Francisco

March 2006
Teaching Note

Fred Khosravi and AccessClosure (TN)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Erin Seefeld

Teaching Note to (806-044). View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Initial Public Offering; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

01 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

How Politics Drives Business Decisions in a Polarized Nation

colleague’s politics is not always bad for business. There is some evidence that mergers and acquisitions are more likely to occur, and are more likely to be smoothly implemented, if they’re conducted by executives who share the same... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Something Ventured, Something Gained: A European View of Venture Capital

"that's where we have a distinct advantage." For Tazartes and his colleagues, in fact, the demand for the services they render has never been greater, as governments privatize state-run operations and companies consolidate in a heady period of View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Financial Services

01 Jan 2006
News

William H. Donaldson, MBA 1958

News. And as soon as he graduated in 1953, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and became an officer. Fast forward to 1959. Just out of Harvard Business School, Donaldson, 28, was rooming with Dan Lufkin (MBA ’57) in New York and working in the View Details

November 2020
Supplement

Valuing Celgene's CVR

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

When Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) acquired Celgene Corporation in November 2019, Celgene shareholders received cash, BMS stock, and a contingent value right (CVRs) that would pay $9 if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved three of Celgene’s late stage... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Value; Valuation; Judgments; Decision Making; Cash Flow; Financial Instruments; Cognition and Thinking; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Dansko, Inc.

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Victoria Winston

For the past 18 months, Mandy Cabot had worried that the shoe business she had built into a thriving operation with $90 million in annual revenue and over 110 employees might instead be a "house of cards." The management philosophy that had guided Dansko's growth,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Revenue; Experience and Expertise; Employee Relationship Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Apparel and Accessories Industry

January 2002
Case

Lycos (A): The Tripod Decision

By: Giovanni M. Gavetti, Jan W. Rivkin and Elizabeth Johnson

The Internet portal Lycos has acquired Tripod, a provider of home-page-building tools, and now must decide how to integrate the acquisition. View Details

Keywords: Integration; Organizational Structure; Situation or Environment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Internet and the Web; Decision Choices and Conditions; Web Services Industry

September 1997 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Precision Controls, Inc.

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Precision Controls is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of electronic control devices. To enhance its product line, Precision would like to establish an artificial intelligence research group, either through internal development or, preferably, by merging with or... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Valuation; Research and Development; Negotiation Process; Stock Shares; Negotiation Tactics; Mergers and Acquisitions; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Minnesota

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05 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2006

Gary Kusumi is considering. GMAC Insurance, the wholly-owned auto insurance subsidiary of General Motors, formed through the merger of two smaller insurance firms, is at a strategic cross-roads. Progressive changed the competitive... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Financing New Ideas - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

firms and SEC regulations soon emerged. In 1972, Textron submitted a merger proposal, and ARD accepted. Two years later Doriot stepped down from active management of ARD but remained a member of its board of directors. 56 "[Doriot] was... View Details

01 Feb 2000
News

The Future Is Now: 21st-Century Business Pondered at HBS Forum

there will be entities that claim they are human because they will be copies of human thinking." As humans, he said, "we will put devices in our own brains to expand our own thinking so there will be a real merger of biological and... View Details

May 1992 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Asea Brown Boveri

By: Robert L. Simons and Christopher A. Bartlett

In 1987, two European rivals--Asea AB of Sweden and BBC Brown Boveri Ltd. of Switzerland--merged to form Asea Brown Boveri. The new company employed 150,000 employees in 850 legal entities operating in 140 countries. The case describes the challenges facing Percy... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Globalization; Problems and Challenges; Leadership Style; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Structure; Reports

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

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Corporate Governance; Family Ownership; Chemical Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Europe

30 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Short-Termism, Shareholder Payouts, and Investment in the EU

Keywords: by Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Supplement

Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Cost of Capital; Corporate Finance; Value; Valuation; Industrial Products Industry; United States; Denmark; Republic of Ireland