Publications

July 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Supplement

Philip McCrea: Once an Entrepreneur... (B)

By: William W. George

Philip McCrea is dealing with the aftermath of the move of his company and family from San Francisco to New Jersey (from the (A) case). Although the move goes well from a family perspective, his business runs into challenges when he merges it into a Canadian company... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Leadership; Failure; Ownership Stake; Work-Life Balance; Canada; New Jersey

September 2006 (Revised January 2008)
Case

ABRY Partners and F+W Publications

After acquiring F+W Publications from a rival private equity firm, ABRY Partners became increasingly convinced that they had been deceived by the sellers about the profitability of the company. ABRY must determine whether they were deliberately misled, what courses of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal; Negotiation Preparation

February 2004
Case

The Making of Verizon

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Douglas A Raymond and Ryan Raffaelli

Through a series of mergers, Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, successfully shared the co-CEO title twice while building the largest telecom company in the United States. The strong and complementary cultures of the companies that Seidenberg and a key group of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Transition; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Risk Management; Telecommunications Industry; United States

August 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

New Wachovia (A), The

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Jeremy Swinson

In April 2001, First Union Corp. announced an agreement to merge with Wachovia Corp., a fellow North Carolina-based commercial bank. While the banks were preparing to consummate the merger, SunTrust Banks, Inc. of Atlanta, made a hostile offer for Wachovia, setting in... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Conflict and Resolution; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Atlanta; North Carolina

March 1997 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Gillette Singapore: Managing Global Business Integration on the Ground (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Thomas Dretler

The general manager of Gillette Singapore faces issues of managing change during the company's global integration with Parker Pen. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Integration; Retail Industry; Singapore

Article

Analysts and Information Gaps: Lessons From the UAL Buyout

By: S. C. Gilson

Keywords: Information; Learning; Leveraged Buyouts

Find at Harvard

Forthcoming
Article

Redemption Mechanisms in Poison Pills: Evidence on Pill Design and Law Firm Effects

By: Olivier Baum and Guhan Subramanian

We present the first evidence on the incidence of “trip wire” versus “last look” poison pills. Using a hand-collected data set of 130 poison pills implemented and/or amended between January 1, 2020 and March 31, 2023, we find that pills are almost evenly divided... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Negotiation Tactics; Contracts

March 2014
Supplement

Transforming Tommy Hilfiger (B)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Hanoch Feit, Vaibhav Gujral and Gerard Zouein

Keywords: Turnaround; Private Equity; Private Ownership; Diversification; Acquisition; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Europe

November 1989 (Revised December 1996)
Supplement

Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners (B): LBO Associations and Corporate Governance

By: Michael C. Jensen

Describes the resolution of the default situation. Further examines the internal control mechanisms and distinct role of the board of directors of a typical LBO association. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Leveraged Buyouts; Rail Industry

07 May 2014
News

Hopscotch Acquires Online School Supplies Retailer SkoolShop

Keywords: Retail Trade

24 Sep 2018
Blog Post

Working to Keep Pirates At-Bay: My Summer in Cyber Security

ten weeks in the company, I was able to design an online marketing strategy and create acquisition funnel metrics to test different campaigns and selling pitches to brokers. I was also able to work closely with the product team to review... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

01 Jun 2016
News

Taking Care of Business

recommended against producing sleepwear, now a highly popular line. Knock out! has been an acquisition target, but buyers always planned to offshore manufacturing—a nonstarter for the North Carolinian and mother of three whose father,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

2009
Working Paper

Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture—in the sense of shared beliefs and values—in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost vs Benefits; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Theory

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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