Publications

January 2025
Supplement

Creating Value By Splitting Aster (B): Can One Minus One Equal Two?

By: V.G. Narayanan and Kairavi Dey

Keywords: Governance; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Leadership; Change Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Industry; Asia; India; Middle East; United Arab Emirates

July 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Equity Restructuring at Dell Technologies: Buy Out, Buy Up, Buy In (A)

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In November 2018, Dell Technologies was poised to re-enter the public markets by means of a complex recapitalization that would replace an entire class of publicly-traded “tracking stock,” with new shares that would trade publicly without the need of a formal IPO. The... View Details

Keywords: Technology; M＆A; Recapitalization; MBO; Equity Issues; Private Equity Buyouts; Public Ownership; Stock Shares; Mergers and Acquisitions; Equity; Technology Industry; United States

May 2020 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Playing the Field: Competing Bids for Anadarko Petroleum Corp

By: E. Scott Mayfield, Daniel Green and Benjamin C. Esty

On April 8, 2019, Occidental’s CEO Vicki Hollub made a private offer to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for $72 in cash and stock. Anadarko's CEO Al Walker said he would consider the offer, yet three days later, on April 11, he signed a merger agreement with Chevron... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Bids and Bidding; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits

April 2006 (Revised April 2012)
Background Note

The Company Sale Process

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Lays out the steps, the timeline, and the process by which a company is sold. Focuses on the sale of companies with enterprise values greater than $100 million. These transactions are large enough to require the help of a financial adviser and attract both strategic... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Agreements and Arrangements; Sales

February 2003 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Yahoo!: Becoming a Competitor in the Career Listings Space (B)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Nicole Nasser

After weighing the pros and cons of making an unsolicited bid for HotJobs.com (an online recruiting company already under contract to be acquired by TMP Worldwide), the executive team of Yahoo! decides to make an immediate move rather than wait for the Federal Trade... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Process; Strategy

Keywords: Legal;#19;#Digital Health;#20;#Ecommerce;#23;#Education Technology;#31;#Finance;#54;#Medical Devices & Hardware;#60;#Services;#64;#Software/App;#75;#Venture Capital;#238;#Fintech

of focus include entity structuring, founder issues, equity and debt financings, licensing agreements, commercial contracts, employment matters, mergers and acquisitions and other matters that inevitably come up during the life cycle of a... View Details

Web

Search Fund Fellowship | MBA

Through Acquisition (ETA) search. It is renewable for one year for total support of $130,000. During the fellowship period, HBS faculty will meet regularly with recipients to provide ongoing mentorship and guidance. This program is funded... View Details

05 Apr 2016
Blog Post

Summer Internships in the JD/MBA Program

LLP, a multinational corporate law firm headquartered in New York City. While there, I divided my time between their Private Equity/Mergers and Acquisitions group and their Capital Markets group. I had the opportunity to work on an IPO... View Details

May 2010
Teaching Note

Offering the Right Service in the Right Place: Growing Orthopedics at the Brigham and Women's/Faulkner (BW/F) Hospitals (TN)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Teaching Note for [108016]. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Performance Efficiency; Decisions; Competitive Advantage; Service Delivery; Health Industry

Article

Valuation Waves and Merger Activity: The Empirical Evidence

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, David Robinson and S. Viswanathan

To test recent theories suggesting that valuation errors affect merger activity, we develop a decomposition that breaks the market-to-book ratio (M/B) into three components: the firm-specific pricing deviation from short-run industry pricing; sector-wide, short-run... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Forecasting and Prediction; Price; Theory; Behavior

Find at Harvard

June 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Nextel Partners: Put Option

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Douglas Scott

Nextel Partners' shareholders have voted to exercise a put option that will require the company's largest shareholder, Sprint Nextel Corp., to purchase all the shares it does not already own. However, the put option does not stipulate a price to be paid, but rather a... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Stock Options; Price; Public Ownership; Valuation

May 2005
Supplement

GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery (B)

By: Robert S. Huckman and Eli Strick

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Operations; Performance; Research and Development; Restructuring; Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry

October 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Lehman Brothers and Peabody Coal

When Texas Utilities Company (TXU) wanted to acquire The Energy Group, the latter needed to spin-off its coal mining assets, Peabody Coal, to avoid running afoul of antitrust authorities. In this case, TXU's investment banker, Lehman Brothers, considers whether to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment Banking; Monopoly; Conflict of Interests; Mining Industry; Utilities Industry

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May 2000
Case

CMGI: Organizational and Market Innovation

By: Josh Lerner

CMGI is considering acquiring yesmail, an e-mail marketing firm. In assessing the potential acquisition, it must assess the fit with its own organization, which consists of a unique blend of venture capital investments and publicly traded subsidiaries. View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Structure; Venture Capital; Business Subsidiaries