Publications

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December 1999
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A6): Enterprise 250: Mark Canepa on the Newcomer as Change Agent

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

Coming to Sun Microsystems after 20 years with Hewlett-Packard (HP), Mark Canepa brought a highly organized leadership style more characteristic of HP than Sun. His goal was to use the development of a new workstation product to build a disciplined, process-oriented,... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Cost Management; Leadership Style; Product Development; Technology Industry; Computer Industry

January 1999 (Revised March 2004)
Case

AMB Consolidation, The

By: William J. Poorvu and Daniel J. Rudd

Anne Shea, assistant vice president at the Curators' Fund (The Fund), is responsible for investing roughly $80 million in real-estate assets. Less than three years ago, Anne invested $40 million into a commingled fund run by AMB Institutional Realty Advisors, Inc., a... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Conflict of Interests; Industry Structures; Property; Investment; Public Ownership; Real Estate Industry

24 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 24, 2017

levels of poverty. One common challenge is that farmers only have access to one channel, often an auction, in which to sell their crops. Recently, e-intermediaries have emerged as alternate, technology-driven posted-price channels. We aim to develop insights into the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2009 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Sustainability at Millipore

By: Michael W. Toffel and Katharine Lee

This case describes Millipore Corporation's approach to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company. As he prepared for his quarterly meeting with the CEO, the Director of Sustainability needed to develop positions on several issues. Tactically, he needed to... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Disclosure; Operations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants

April 2010
Supplement

The Auction for Travelport (B)

By: Andrei Hagiu and Misha Sanwal

This short case presents the epilogue of The Auction for Travelport (A). Blackstone decided to bid on its own, acquired Travelport for $4.3 billion and subsequently went on to acquire another GDS, Travelspan, for $1.4 billion. It then merged the two GDSs and partially... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Private Equity; Mergers and Acquisitions; Industry Structures; Initial Public Offering; Capital Markets; Market Transactions; Change; Auctions; Travel Industry

March 2011
Teaching Note

Valuation of AirThread Connections (Brief Case)

By: Erik Stafford and Joel L. Heilprin

Teaching note for case #4263. View Details

Keywords: Present Value; Tax Accounting; Capital Costs; Synergy; Telephony; Wireless Technologies; Assets; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Communication; Taxation; Accounting; Wireless Technology

Profile

Dana Hoffmann

She thrived at Apple, working on new product introduction finances for such smash hit offerings as the new iPad, and from the outside Hoffmann seemingly had it made. But after three years, a twinge of dissatisfaction turned into an... View Details

18 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

GM’s IPO: Back to the Future

requires careful structuring of the transaction, cautious pricing of the shares, and wide diversification of the pockets of demand by the underwriters. These elements explain the concurrent convertible preferred stock offering, the... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

24 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 24, 2018

that normative or preconceived beliefs about the functioning of the social world may guide social behavior in children. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54387 Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2005 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Arch Wireless, Inc.

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Perry L. Fagan

The largest wireless paging company in the United States has to restructure its debt in response to the collapse of its market. The restructuring faces formidable challenges. Valuing the company is extremely difficult because Arch's public competitors are also severely... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Organizational Structure; Valuation

10 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 10, 2018

assurances and guarantees were hard to come by, difficult to negotiate, and project inception could take decades. In this context could pension funds or private equity-type structures be viable alternative sources of View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Loewen Group Inc., The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jose Camacho

A publiclytraded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Debt Securities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Crisis Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Service Industry

2009
Working Paper

Industry Equilibrium with Open Source and Proprietary Firms

By: Gaston Llanes and Ramiro de Elejalde

We present a model of industry equilibrium to study the coexistence of Open Source (OS) and Proprietary (P) firms. Two novel aspects of the model are: (1) participation in OS arises as the optimal decision of profit-maximizing firms, and (2) OS and P firms may (or may... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Industry Structures; Open Source Distribution; Research and Development

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October 2019
Case

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Acquisitions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

23 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 23

reputations, or the banks' prominence in structured financing markets. Banks' involvement in private equity investments provides significant cross-selling opportunities. Collectively, this evidence is... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

that allocates capacity efficiently. Although downstream firms have symmetric production technologies, we show that industry structure is symmetric only if capacity is sufficiently scarce. Otherwise it is asymmetric, with one large,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2016
Article

Disproportional Control Rights and the Bonding Role of Debt

By: Aiyesha Dey, Valeri Nikolaev and Xue Wang

We examine the governance role of debt in the context of U.S.-based dual class ownership structures. We hypothesize that the use of debt alleviates the conflict between shareholder classes by balancing the power of controlling insiders. We document that dual class... View Details

Keywords: Dual Class; Private Debt; Debt Covenants; Bonding Mechanisms; Ownership Type; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt