Publications

February 2009 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Publicis Groupe 2009: Toward a Digital Transformation

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

After a series of acquisitions, Maurice Levy, the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, had created the fourth largest marketing and communications company in the world. His next major challenge was managing the firm's digital transformation. In December 2006, the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Information Technology; Advertising Industry; Communications Industry

June 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Lazard LLC

By: Guhan Subramanian and Eliot Sherman

Describes Lazard's situation in 2001, and supplies context for the subsequent negotiation between its Chairman and his hand-picked successor. In 2001 Lazard, the last of the great investment houses to remain both private and in the control of its founding family, is in... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Family Business; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; Management Succession; Negotiation Tactics; Financial Services Industry

2005
Other Unpublished Work

Corporate Financing Decisions When Investors Take the Path of Least Resistance

By: Malcolm Baker, Joshua Coval and Jeremy Stein

We explore the consequences for corporate financial policy that arise when investors exhibit inertial behavior. One implication of investor inertia is that, all else equal, a firm pursuing a strategy of equity-financed growth will prefer a stock-for-stock merger to... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Behavior; Stocks; Mergers and Acquisitions; Policy; Investment; Financial Institutions; Equity; Corporate Finance

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June 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Cementos Argos in the U.S.: Go Big or Go Home?

By: Jorge Tamayo, Ruth Costas, Pedro Levindo and Karina Souza

In April 2011, Colombian group Cementos Argos had to decide on whether to double down its business in the U.S., amidst the U.S. cement industry’s lowest performance in 30 years. Argos— Colombia’s leading cement producer and one of the “jewels” of Grupo GEA, the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Organization; Business Subsidiaries; Talent and Talent Management; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Crisis; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Business Strategy; Construction Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Latin America; South America; North and Central America; United States; Colombia

2010
Working Paper

When Do Analysts Add Value? Evidence from Corporate Spinoffs

By: Emilie Rose Feldman, Stuart Gilson and Belen Villalonga

We investigate the information content and forecast accuracy of 1,793 analyst reports written around 62 spinoffs—a setting in which analysts' ability to inform investors is potentially very high. We find that analysts pay little attention to subsidiaries about to be... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Subsidiaries; Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Initial Public Offering; Price; Reports; Research

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September 2009
Teaching Note

Odyssey Healthcare (TN)

By: Robert F. Higgins

Teaching Note for [809052]. View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Initial Public Offering; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Service Operations; Revenue; Business Exit or Shutdown; Health Industry

May 2008 (Revised September 2014)
Teaching Note

TD Canada Trust (A), (B), and (C)

By: Dennis Campbell

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Banks and Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Balanced Scorecard; Service Delivery; Announcements; Compensation and Benefits; Canada

December 2004
Article

Market Valuation and Merger Waves

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and S. Viswanathan

Does valuation affect mergers? Data suggest that periods of stock merger activity are correlated with high market valuations. The naïve explanation that overvalued bidders wish to use stock is incomplete because targets should not be eager to accept stock. However, we... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Valuation; Market Transactions; Value; Cash; Stocks; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Bids and Bidding; Market Design; Stock Shares; Accounting Audits; Performance Evaluation

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02 Nov 2020
News

The First Five Years: Julianne White (MBA 2017)

Julianne White (MBA 2017) is vice president for food acquisition at the Greater Boston Food Bank. How did you become interested in the food industry? “I grew up with a lot of ties to agriculture. I was raised in a small community where... View Details

23 Jan 2017
News

The CEO Who is Perking Up Peet’s Coffee

piece goes on to detail some of Burwick’s recent moves, including a new $58 million roasting facility, acquisition of smaller coffee roastersto build capacity, and pushing sales to retailers. The Times notes that the company’s geography... View Details

Profile

Evan Rachlin

New therapies, especially those in biotechnology, are very exciting to Evan Rachlin. In his first business-related internship, Evan examined the economic side of life science at Pfizer in New York City. There, he cooperated with the portfolio and decision analysis... View Details

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

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Work, Family, Private Life: Why Not All Three?

In the ancient world, the acquisition of celebrity was all about acquiring dignity. Today the acquisition of celebrity or wealth is at the expense of our dignity, Boteach said. Boteach agreed that both men... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2001
News

BOOK: Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring

proceeded when faced with multiple options. Those options — from mergers and acquisitions to leveraged buyouts and asset divestitures to "vulture" investing and tracking stock — are also explored. Gilson reminds readers that the devil is... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-012.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsArrow Electronics—The Apollo Acquisition Harvard Business School Case 607-007 Having already made 10 acquisitions of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2017
News

The End of the Noncompete Clause

full-fledged union in its midst, Johnson says. EARN’s first test run came during EMC’s recent acquisition by Dell. Johnson orchestrated a pop-up union for EMC’s employees. While the company didn’t publicly acknowledge EARN’s efforts,... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos

12 Jan 2016
First Look

January 12, 2016

funding in these environments. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50237 Harvard Business School Case 616-032 Integrating Avocent Corporation into Emerson Network Power This case reviews Emerson Electric’s proposed View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

March 2010 (Revised February 2013)
Supplement

Baltic Beverages Holding: Competing in a Globalizing World (B)

By: Juan Alcacer, Rasmus Karl Gustaf Molander and Rakeen Mabud

In 1991, Hartwall and Pripps made the decision to found Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) and invest in the former USSR by buying Estonia's biggest brewery, Saku. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment; Globalized Economies and Regions; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Estonia; Finland; Sweden

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Exercise

The Elcer Products Transaction: Confidential Information for Euro Elektrische Keramische Vorrichtungen (Euro EKV), GmbH

By: James K. Sebenius

In a six-party negotiation exercise, the TNDA Corp. plans to sell the Elcer Products Division to one of four potential buyers (industrial, financial, U.S., German). This case contains confidential information for the Euro Elektrische Keramische Vorrichtungen, GmbH... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Managerial Roles; Negotiation Deal; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics