Publications

April 2018
Exercise

Stoy Foods: Role Information for Milan Stoyanovic

By: John Beshears

In this simulation exercise, four family members must negotiate over the future of the family business. Should the business be sold to a strategic buyer, or should the family retain control? If the business is sold, how should the proceeds of the sale be distributed... View Details

Keywords: Succession; Sale Of Business; Understanding Interests; Value Creation; Family Business; Business Exit or Shutdown; Negotiation; Ownership Stake; Perspective; Agreements and Arrangements

02 Aug 2017
News

The Atlantic Finds a New Home

(Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) On Friday, David Bradley (MBA 1977) announced that he would be selling the Atlantic magazine to Laurene Powell Jobs, president of the Emerson Collective and widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. In a staff memo published in the... View Details

July 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Background Note

M&A Legal Context: Standards Related to the Sale or Purchase of a Company

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Constance E. Bagley and James Quinn

Introduces students to the legal standards affecting officers and directors when selling or purchasing a company. Provides a practical understanding of the Revlon Standard, the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, Rule 10b-5, and the legal criteria for a cause of... View Details

Keywords: Laws and Statutes; Law Enforcement; Government Legislation; Acquisition; Business Exit or Shutdown; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Courts and Trials

April 1999
Case

Steve Perlman and WebTV (B)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ron Fortgang

The dynamics of a linked series of internal and external negotiations involved in launching, growing, and selling a high-tech, Internet start-up are explored. Steve Perlman unfurled an impressive new technology, recruited a top technical and management team, secured... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Process; Value Creation; Alliances; Technological Innovation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry

June 30, 2023
Article

How to Save a Stumbling Startup

By: Ranjay Gulati

Keywords: Business Startups; Small Business; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown

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February 2009 (Revised February 2011)
Case

"Lather, Rinse, Repeat": FeedBurner's Serial Founding Team

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Eric Olson

"Is this the right time or is it still too early?" Dick Costolo wondered as he reflected on the latest acquisition offer. He had been building FeedBurner with his three co-founders for almost four years and was staring at the details of an acquisition offer from... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Offer; Groups and Teams

September 2009 (Revised September 2009)
Case

The Termination of U.S. Auto Dealerships in 2009

By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Sarah Morton

The case chronicles the sudden termination of many U.S. autodealers in the wake of the economic crisis in the fall of 2008. View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Financial Crisis; Marketing; Distribution; Sales; Auto Industry; United States

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October 2000
Case

Francisco de Narvaez at Tia: Selling the Family Business

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

In January 1999, Francisco de Narvaez sold Tia, his family's retail business in Argentina. De Narvaez reflects on the decision to sell and the selling process. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Business Exit or Shutdown; Decisions; Argentina

December 1989
Supplement

People Express Decline: Interview with Don Burr, Video

By: Michael Beer

Presents an interview with Don Burr, CEO, as he reviews his account of how and why People Express failed as a corporation and was ultimately sold to Continental Airlines. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Air Transportation Industry

01 Mar 2009
News

The Case for Studying Financial History

a Big Three but with a Big One in a year or two because there’s obviously excess capacity, and it’s hard to see how all three automakers can survive. I think it’s right to avoid a complete shutdown and mass layoffs right now. But the kind... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; federal bailouts; Finance; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

July 2010
Case

Fidelity Retires in Canada

By: Robert C. Pozen and Edward Warren Scott

The head of Fidelity Canada was faced with a decision about what to do with its retirement business there. Although Fidelity as a fund manager has made some headway in Canada, the competition has been very tough for the administration of retirement plans—a separate... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Investment Funds; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Retirement; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Canada; United States

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27 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on 2010’s Biggest Business Developments

didn't happen. Big companies with cash didn't spend it. Banks with cash didn't lend it. Small businesses didn't attract capital and thus didn't help reduce unemployment. Europeans were paralyzed by debt crises and transportation shutdowns... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

The Trouble Behind Livedoor

panic selling caused an unprecedented early shutdown of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Horie, who denies wrongdoing, was arrested on January 23. What went wrong at Livedoor, and what are we to learn from its undoing? Robin Greenwood, an... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Technology

Web

Avoiding Startup Failure - Course Catalog

Avoiding ethical lapses as startups struggle Tactical steps for managing a venture’s shutdown to preserve relationships, reputations, and integrity How to learn from a venture’s failure and what to do with those learnings Addressing... View Details

January 2014
Article

The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings

By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Financing and Loans; Interests; Employment; Patents; Internet and the Web; Operations; Entrepreneurship; Business Exit or Shutdown

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March 2000 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Spec's Music (A)

By: John A. Davis and Susan Harmeling

Presents the story of a music retailer in Miami which started in the late 1940s, grew throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and went public in 1985 before experiencing a deep industry crisis in the mid-1990s. At issue in 1996 is whether the company should attempt to sell... View Details

Keywords: History; Family Business; Business Exit or Shutdown; Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Performance Improvement; Music Industry; Miami

August 1998
Case

HIMSCORP, Inc.

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

Himscorp is an industry consolidation of records storage companies providing management and retrieval services of active medical records to healthcare institutions. Kent Dauten, a former general partner at Madison Dearborn Partners with 15 years of venture capital and... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Initial Public Offering; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consolidation; Information Industry

June 1999 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Basil "Buzz" Hargrove and de Havilland, Inc. (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Angela Keros

Buzz Hargrove, national president of the Canadian Auto Workers, needs to find a way to secure an agreement from a negotiated contract with de Havilland, Inc. Local union leaders feel the deal is not good enough, but Hargrove is convinced management will close the plant... View Details

Keywords: Media; Power and Influence; Negotiation Deal; Leadership; Agreements and Arrangements; Business Exit or Shutdown; Labor Unions; Negotiation Types; Management Teams; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Canada