Ivey Business School (Canada)
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Blackstone Group: Dry Powder in an LBO Drought (B)
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-9B20N019-EFinanceSupplement for product 9B20N018.Starting at €5.74
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A “Compelling and Pre-emptive Offer for the Valspar Corporation
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-9B16N063-EFinanceIn May 2015, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Valspar Corporation (Valspar) contacted the CEO of an industry competitor to discuss a potential strategic combination of the two companies. As discussions continued, Valspar’s board and senior management realized that an alternative strategic collaboration might be more beneficial, so Valspar then contacted the CEO of the second-largest comparable firm in the industry, Sherwin-Williams, which...Starting at €8.20
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Betting on DraftKings
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-W27949-EAccounting and Control, FinanceARK Investment Management LLC (ARK)’s Next Generation Internet ETF (exchange traded fund) accumulated over 5 per cent of the outstanding shares of DraftKings Inc. (DraftKings), which held 24 per cent of the emerging US online sports betting market. Following the legalization of sports betting in May 2018, DraftKings faced escalating competition as competitors spent heavily on advertising and promotions to attract customers. This spending led to i...Starting at €8.20
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Insider Trading Without Cooling Off
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-W33791-EFinance, StrategyIn May 2021, the majority shareholder and chief executive officer of Ontrak Inc., a US health care services company, established two 10b5-1 trading plans to sell approximately one million shares of stock he acquired by exercising expiring warrants. Before he began the process to execute the first 10b5-1 plan, Ontrak Inc. had just lost its largest client. Three days into the process for the second 10b5-1 trading plan, the company announced that it...Starting at €8.20
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Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc.: Sum of the Parts
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-W25118-EAccounting and Control, FinanceIn 2016, US firm Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (Aerojet) had been developing and manufacturing propulsion systems for rockets and armaments for long-range weapons systems for over 70 years. It also owned 4,634 hectares of land and an investment portfoStarting at €8.20
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Blackstone Group: Dry Powder in an LBO Drought (A)
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-9B20N018-EFinanceIn late 2016, it had been three years since Blackstone Group Inc. (Blackstone) had completed its last public-to-private leveraged buyout (LBO), and it had US$45 billion of capital available for investment, called “dry powder.” Blackstone’s head of privateStarting at €8.20
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Square, Inc.: Financing a Unicorn
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-9B17N021-EEntrepreneurship, FinanceIn 2014, mobile payment company Square, Inc., based in San Francisco, California, was one of an increasing number of venture capital financed firms with valuations above US$1 billion, which had become known as unicorns. By September 2014, the company had raised $371 million over five rounds of venture capital financing. Since the first funding round had been almost five years previous, it was possible that venture funding investors would be pushi...Starting at €8.20
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London Hydro Inc.: Evaluating Different Electricity Pricing Schemes
Bissan Ghaddar; Tiffany Bayley; Jonathan Hu; Ibrahim RanaCase IVEY-W28526-EDecision AnalysisLondon Hydro, Inc. (London Hydro) must forecast the electricity demand of the firm’s clients. The Ontario Energy Board had just announced the results of a pilot program to introduce a new pricing scheme to residential energy consumers in Ontario. This was the origin of tiered pricing, which was based on overall monthly energy usage. In the past, consumers had all been on a time-of-use plan where energy was more expensive during peak hours and che...Starting at €8.20
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The WeWork SPAC
Mark SimonsonCase IVEY-W25102-EEntrepreneurship, FinanceWeWork, a fast-growing but unprofitable real estate firm headquartered in New York, which leased shared office space around the world, announced in September 2019 that it was cancelling its plans for an initial public offering (IPO). In late 2020, as theStarting at €8.20
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Choosing Neighbourhood Community Projects
Tiffany BayleyCase IVEY-9B20E011-EDecision AnalysisIn November 2019, Jean Matthews had to decide how to allocate CA$300,000 toward neighbourhood improvement ideas submitted by city residents. Each of the four neighbourhoods in the city could receive up to CA$75,000 in funding, and Matthews had to consider the number of votes for each idea in her analysis. How should she identify which community projects to pursue?Starting at €8.20