Publications

January 2006 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Endo Pharmaceuticals (A): From LBO to...?

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Brian DeLacey

Endo Pharmaceuticals was formed in 1997 as a leveraged buyout spin-off from DuPont Merck. In 1999, it must decide whether to do an IPO or merge with a smaller company. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

November 2011
Article

Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors

By: Feng Li and Suraj Srinivasan

We examine CEO compensation, CEO retention policies, and M&A decisions in firms where founders serve as a director with a non-founder CEO (founder-director firms). We find that founder-director firms offer a different mix of incentives to their CEOs than other firms.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Retention; Policy; Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Wages; United States

SSRN

Find at Harvard

08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

market, with only a modest net impact on employment. The creative destruction response mainly involves a more rapid reallocation of jobs across establishments within target firms. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-033.pdf The Impact of Horizontal... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Sep 2019
News

In My Humble Opinion: Status Update

celebrities, developers, and news publishers. She also leads mergers and acquisitions. “Facebook’s mission is about giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together,” she says. “In the short time I’ve been in... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

26 May 2016
News

W. James McNerney Jr., MBA 1975

find its way forward after a series of mergers and acquisitions, high-profile ethical missteps, and some tough business challenges. His job was to build on strengths, connecting what was good with what could be better. “Boeing had... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Air Transportation; Transportation

16 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 16

measurement and analytics in translating TD-Canada Trust's service model of "comfortable banking" into operational terms. In 2000, in a banking market where consumers and regulators were typically hostile to mergers and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2006
Case

Bumble and bumble: Building a Successful Business in Beauty and Fashion

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Erica Helms

Explores the creation and subsequent rise of Bumble and bumble, a trend-setting hair-care company. Analyzes the vision and achievements of the founding entrepreneur, Michael Gordon, and charts the evolution of the company within the $230 billion global beauty industry.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Financial Condition; Business Growth and Maturation; Success; Distribution; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Fashion Industry

February 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Ross Perot and General Motors

By: Jay W. Lorsch

In December, 1986 the General Motors Board of Directors must decide whether to accept the buyout agreement between GM and Ross Perot, a director of GM and its largest stockholder. The agreement called for GM to purchase all of Perot's GM shares in exchange for his... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Stock Shares; Resignation and Termination; Business or Company Management; Agreements and Arrangements

23 Feb 2016
First Look

February 23, 2016

paid. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50623 Harvard Business School Case 516-058 BRF In 2015, BRF's new leadership team is transforming several aspects of the Brazilian protein giant, which had grown sluggish after the 2011 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Aug 2012
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs Worry About ‘Too Big to Succeed?’

cause the lack of sufficient organic growth as opposed to the growth by mergers and acquisitions. As he put it, "Toobigs are enormously complex, with massive, self defeating strategies at war within, producing a lower return."... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Financial Services

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 Jan 2003
News

Daniel L. Vasella, M.D.

primarily based on a narrow definition of 'good business,'" says Vasella. "If you can improve the way medicine is practiced, I believe you will also make money." With sales up 21 percent to $5.7 billion in the first quarter of 2003, Novartis-the Basel-based... View Details

February 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Marlin & Associates and the Sale of Riverview Technologies

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Riverview Technologies was a Stockholm, Sweden-based company that had developed software hedge funds. After spending more than a year in an organized sale process, the winning bidder had become increasingly difficult to work with and the closing had been substantially... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Deal; Negotiation Offer; Negotiation Process; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

March 2008
Supplement

Patel Food and Chemicals Private Limited (C)

By: Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Alok Patel, the founder and chairman of a Gujarat-based, privately held edible oils processor, is considering long-term liquidity opportunities for the company and its investors. He could list the company on one of the Indian exchanges, opt for a trade sale, or acquire... View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Opportunities; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Gujarat

Find at Harvard

August 2021
Case

Livongo: Scaling a Purpose-Driven Organization in Healthcare

By: Ranjay Gulati, Aseem Shukla and Reva Nohria

When seasoned entrepreneur Glen Tullman founded the chronic health care startup Livongo in 2014, it was personal. His son lived with diabetes, and Tullman knew firsthand how taxing it could be to manage such an unrelenting disease. Livongo set out to empower people... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Industry; Scaling; Telehealth; Health Care and Treatment; Small Business; Internet and the Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Opportunities; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Industry

December 2019
Supplement

Mãe Terra and Unilever (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Mariana Cal

Unilever is making strides to integrate the operations of Mãe Terra—one of Brazil's leading brands for packaged organic foods—into its own structures, after acquiring the company in 2017. Mãe Terra’s CEO, Alexandre Borges, must decide whether to implement his original... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil; Latin America

January 2025
Case

GE Appliances 2025: Energizing Change

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

At the turn of 2025, Kevin Nolan, CEO of GE Appliances following its acquisition by Chinese appliance giant Haier in 2016, is reviewing progress toward his net zero carbon vision for homes, which would otherwise exacerbate the global warming climate crisis. An... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Product Development; Organizational Culture

April 1998 (Revised May 2001)
Supplement

Acquisition of Consolidated Rail Corporation (B), The

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Lori A. Flees and Mathew M Millett

Eight days after CSX announced it was going to buy Consolidated Rail (Conrail) for $88.65 per share, Norfolk Southern made a hostile $100 per share bid for Conrail. Over the next several months, the potential acquirers upped their bids while exchanging criticism in the... View Details

Keywords: Law; Valuation; Rail Transportation; Bids and Bidding; Governance Controls; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Rail Industry; United States

January 2013 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Affinity Labs: Valuing Customer Growth

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology