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

13 Oct 2010
First Look

for Pentax into a hostile cash tender offer. A surprising sequence of events had caused a friendly merger agreement to fall apart, resulting in a boardroom coup at Pentax and the intervention of the Sparx Group, an indigenous activist... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/117110-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 117-036 Succession Planning at Samsung: The Merger Formula of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T A merger deal of two... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

SolarCity In 2016, electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that it was making an offer to acquire solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in an all-stock offer worth $2.6 billion in Tesla stock. Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believed that the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Wordle

By: Karen G. Mills, Christina Wallace, Ebehi Iyoha, Gabriella Elanbeck and Morgane Herculano

After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a... View Details

Keywords: Games; Innovation; General Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trends; Entrepreneurship; Bids and Bidding; Consumer Behavior; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Technology Industry

May 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Bharti Infratel: Unlocking Value in Mobile Infrastructure

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Prashant Salwan, Tanya Bijlani and Rachna Tahilyani

Bharti Infratel, a telecom tower company, provides shared telecom infrastructure to mobile operators in India. It is a spin off from Bharti Airtel, India's largest leading mobile services operator. Bharti Infratel partnered with its rivals, Vodafone and Idea Cellular,... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Strategic Alliances (Business); Mobile Phone Industry; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; Asia; India

February 2015 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Edyficar and Mibanco: The Emergence of M&A in Microfinance

By: Michael Chu

Mibanco, a microfinance icon, is for sale, and Edyficar, owned by Banco del Credito (BCP), Peru's largest bank, is evaluating its acquisition. Until recently, such a transaction would have been fanciful given Mibanco's preeminent role in Peruvian microfinance, which... View Details

Keywords: Base Of The Pyramid; Peru; Latin America; Microfinance; Commercial Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Banking Industry; Latin America; Peru

2009
Simulation

Finance Simulation: Blackstone/Celanese (Facilitator's Guide)

By: Nabil N. El-Hage, Timothy A. Luehrman and Heide Diener Abelli

Keywords: Bids and Bidding; Finance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Valuation; Leveraged Buyouts; Negotiation

August 2000
Case

Mannesmann AG

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick

Explores the functioning of a German supervisory board in the context of a takeover bid made by a British company. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Germany; United Kingdom

October 1996 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Eric Wood (A)

By: Myra M. Hart

Describes the early career of an MBA who went to work in a small business, bought the company, and is now contemplating an acquisition to expand the business. The issues involve personal/business finance and financial risk, as well as valuation and financial... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Risk and Uncertainty

January 2025
Supplement

Negotiating a Legacy at Sustainable Harvest (B)

By: Jillian Jordan, Julian Zlatev, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

The specialty coffee importer Sustainable Harvest was the first certified B Corp in the coffee industry due to its investments in building coffee farmers’ capacity and livelihood. But in 2022, after coffee prices plummeted and the company’s bank declined to extend its... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trust; Ethics; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Volatility; Futures and Commodity Futures; Social Enterprise; Valuation; Business Model; Credit; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Europe

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

November 2003
Case

Procter & Gamble 2000 (A): The SpinBrush and Innovation at P&G

By: William A. Sahlman and Ryland Matthew Willis

Describes a set of decisions confronting some managers in the oral care division of Procter & Gamble. They must decide whether to buy a company that has developed an inexpensive, battery-operated toothbrush. The company's product has done well in one market, but... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Innovation and Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Product Launch; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry

2007
Other Unpublished Work

Hedge Fund Investor Activism and Takeovers

By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Schor

We examine long-horizon stock returns around hedge fund activism in a comprehensive sample of 13D filings by portfolio investors between 1993 and 2006. Abnormal returns surrounding investor activism are high for the subset of targets that are acquired ex-post, but not... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance

SSRN

November 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

MedSource Technologies

By: Robert S. Huckman

Considers the issues facing Richard Effress, MedSource's chairman and CEO, as the firm approaches the Precision Cut project--the first test of MedSource's capabilities as an integrated, contract manufacturer in the medical device industry. MedSource Technologies was... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Production; Mergers and Acquisitions; Product Design; Supply Chain Management; Management Teams; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

1987
Book

Banking and Oil

By: Geoffrey Jones

This is the second of two volumes of a business history of a major British bank in the Middle East. Volume 1 traces the history of the bank from its foundation in 1889 as The Imperial Bank of Persia, through the years it was the state bank of Iran, and its... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Economics; Banks and Banking; Government and Politics; Growth and Development; Business History; Problems and Challenges; Iran; Jordan; Kuwait; Oman; Dubai