Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,442)
- Faculty Publications (361)
- 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
- Article
What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?
By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
We survey 79 private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over $750 billion about their practices in firm valuation, capital structure, governance, and value creation. Investors rely primarily on internal rate of return (IRR) and multiples to... View Details
- June 2016
- Case
Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency
By: Boris Groysberg and Matthew G. Preble
This case discusses the evolution of Big Spaceship, an advertising and marketing agency, from a product-focused business to a relationship-oriented one as clients seek deeper and more meaningful long-term partnerships. The 15-year-old company had already evolved... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Management as a Technology?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
Are some management practices akin to a technology that can explain firm and national productivity, or do they simply reflect contingent management styles? We collect data on core management practices from over 11,000 firms in 34 countries. We find large cross-country... View Details
- May 2016 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
Canadian Pacific's Bid for Norfolk Southern
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
In December 2015, Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) has just made its third bid to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), one of the largest railroads in the United States. Having rejected the prior offers, NSC’s CEO James Squires and the NSC board must now value... View Details
- May 2016 (Revised August 2019)
- Teaching Note
Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade
James Tallest analyzed the opportunity to invest in a distressed portfolio of high quality properties in Germany by acquiring one or more non-performing loans from Deutschland Bank. While he considers the many aspects of the deal that is about to unfold, he must decide... View Details
- April 2016
- Supplement
Canadian Pacific's Bid for Norfolk Southern Spreadsheet Supplement
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Scott Mayfield
In December 2015, Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) has just made its third bid to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), one of the largest railroads in the United States. Having rejected the prior offers, NSC’s CEO James Squires and the NSC board must now value... View Details
- April 2016 (Revised January 2018)
- Supplement
Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade
- March 2016 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade
James Tallest analyzed the opportunity to invest in a distressed portfolio of high quality properties in Germany by acquiring one or more non-performing loans from Deutschland Bank. While he considers the many aspects of the deal that is about to unfold, he must decide... View Details
- March 2016 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
Michael Milken: The Junk Bond King
By: Tom Nicholas and Matthew G. Preble
Michael Milken, an investment banker who dominated the junk bond market in the 1980s, was sentenced to jail in 1990 after pleading guilty to a number of securities and tax-related felonies. In the preceding decade, Milken had helped usher in a new wave of leveraged buy... View Details
Keywords: Junk Bonds; High-yield Bonds; Financial Innovation; Shareholder Value; Bonds; Capital; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Finance; Investment Banking; Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Ownership; Private Equity; Restructuring; United States
- February 2016 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Bankruptcy at Caesars Entertainment
By: Kristin Mugford and David Chan
Caesars Entertainment was a large casino operator in the United States that had been purchased in a 2008 leveraged buyout by Apollo and TPG. In January 2015, Caesars Entertainment Operating Company (CEOC), its largest subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11. This set up a... View Details
Keywords: Gaming; Chapter 11; Fraudulent Conveyance; Apollo; TPG; Bankruptcy; Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Private Equity; Financial Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Negotiation; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Las Vegas
- Article
The Ownership and Trading of Debt Claims in Chapter 11 Restructurings
By: Victoria Ivashina, Benjamin Iverson and David C. Smith
What is the ownership structure of bankrupt debt claims? How does the ownership evolve though bankruptcy? And how does debt ownership influence Chapter 11 outcomes? To answer these questions, we construct a data set that identifies the entire capital structure for 136... View Details
- January 2016 (Revised October 2016)
- Case
Saudi Aramco and Corporate Venture Capital
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank
Saudi Aramco launched an internal venture capital arm in 2011, which promptly became the world's largest investor in energy related startups. In choosing to proceed, the company's New Business Development unit (NPD) wrestled with a number of challenges. How should the... View Details
- December 2015
- Article
Introduction: New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structure
By: Viral Acharya, Heitor Almeida and Malcolm Baker
The National Bureau of Economic Research held a symposium titled "New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structures" on April 5–6, 2013 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In its call for the submission of theoretical and empirical papers for the symposium, the NBER noted that... View Details
- October 2015
- Teaching Note
Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details
Keywords: Convertible Debt; Uncertainty; Competition; Startup; China; Supply ＆ Demand; Growth; Rare Earth Minerals; Discounted Cash Flows; Mining; Payoff Diagrams; Option Pricing; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Financial Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Vertical Integration; Valuation; Metals and Minerals; Mining Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Canada; California
- 2015
- Chapter
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy
By: Ramana Nanda, Ken Younge and Lee Fleming
We document three facts related to innovation and entrepreneurship in renewable energy. Using data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, we first show that patenting in renewable energy remains highly concentrated in a few large energy firms. In 2009, the top 20... View Details
- May 2015
- Case
Venture Republic, 2011
By: W. Carl Kester and Mayuka Yamazaki
In December 2011, the founders of Venture Republic, a Japanese developer and operator of on-line search engines for shopping and travel, faced a decison about whether or not to take the company private in a management buyout transaction just three years after an... View Details
- Article
Do Strict Capital Requirements Raise the Cost of Capital? Bank Regulation, Capital Structure and the Low Risk Anomaly
By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler
Traditional capital structure theory predicts that reducing banks' leverage reduces the risk and cost of equity but does not change the weighted average cost of capital, and thus the rates for borrowers. We confirm that the equity of better-capitalized banks has lower... View Details
- Article
Real Effects of Relational Contracts
By: Steven Blader, Claudine Gartenberg, Rebecca Henderson and Andrea Pratt
How important are factors such as "firm culture" and "employee engagement" in driving firm performance? Increasing evidence from a wide range of fields suggests that productivity differs widely across firms, even after the inclusion of careful controls for factors such... View Details
- April 2015 (Revised October 2017)
- Teaching Note
Buffett's Bid for Media General's Newspapers
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Annelena Lobb
On May 12, 2012, BH Media Group, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, announced an offer to buy Media General's (MEG) newspaper division for $142 million in cash and provide debt financing to the struggling firm. Reactions from investors and industry... View Details
Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Bankruptcy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Valuation; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Strategy; Risk Management; Executive Compensation; Cash Flow; Business Exit or Shutdown; Media; Advertising; Restructuring; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Publishing Industry; United States