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Robert K. Steel at Wachovia (A)
Mukunda, Gautam; Hsieh, Nien-he; Lane, DavidCase HBS-418055-ELeadership and People ManagementIn September 2008, Robert Steel presided over the sale of Wachovia, a top U.S. bank, less than three months after becoming its CEO. Wachovia's exposure to risky home loans led depositors and creditors to flee the bank on Friday, September 26, after the FDIC seized and sold a smaller bank with similar exposure, whose collapse nonetheless made it the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Faced with Wachovia's impending bankruptcy, the FDIC interven...Starting at €8.20
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DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome
Israeli, Ayelet; Lane, DavidCase HBS-519010-EMarketingDayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in Israel, CEO Lihi Segal and her team are devising a global go-to-market plan for the firm. The team is considering several target markets, ranging from people with diabetes to professi...Starting at €8.20
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Staging Two-sided Platforms
Eisenmann, Thomas R.; Hagiu, AndreiCase HBS-808004-EStrategyFirms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this dilemma--subsidizing users or securing their exclusive affiliation--are costly and risky. Describes less costly staged strategies for building two-sided platforms. With the "vendor to two-sided...Starting at €8.20
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Game Time Decision for AppDirect
Hagiu, Andrei; Arjona, Laura; Zhang, EmilyCase HBS-712410-EStrategyAppDirect is a start-up that offers small businesses software-as-a-service solutions through a business app marketplace and portal. Daniel Saks, cofounder and co-CEO, is faced with the key question of deciding distribution strategy: should AppDirect find channel partners or create a self-branded platform? The case describes the evolving business app market by analyzing the strategies and business models of competitors for both the marketplace and...Starting at €8.20
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Wii Encore
Hagiu, AndreiCase HBS-712416-EStrategyNintendo faced huge difficulties in July 2011. Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox had caught up with the innovative motion-sensing controllers of the original Wii. And the new Nintendo 3DS handheld console had experienced a very disappointing start. Moreover, videogame consoles (particularly handheld ones) were facing increasing substitution from online and mobile games played on social networks and/or mobile phones (e.g. Zynga's Farmville)....Starting at €8.20
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Investing in Online Marketplaces
Hagiu, Andrei; Alvarez, HermesCase HBS-714520-EStrategySimon Rothman had recently been promoted from executive-in-residence to Partner at esteemed venture capital firm Greylock Partners and placed in charge of managing a $100 million early-stage fund commitment dedicated to online marketplaces. In Greylock's view, 2014 was a special moment in time for online marketplaces, the beginning of a boom in the space that was being catalyzed by mobile technology and social identity. Rothman was the right man ...Starting at €8.20
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Ocean Tomo: Building a Market for Intellectual Property
Hagiu, Andrei; Coles, Peter A.; Wagonfeld, Alison BerkleyCase HBS-709404-EStrategyOcean Tomo's management team sought to turn the company into the leading intermediary for intellectual property. Despite its increasingly important role in the global marketplace, IP remained a notoriously illiquid asset--difficult to value, harder to trade, and often underutilized by owners. CEO Jim Malackowski and his colleagues hoped to capitalize on this inefficiency by designing and operating innovative marketplaces for intellectual property...Starting at €8.20
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Intellectual Ventures
Hagiu, Andrei; Yoffie, David B.; Wagonfeld, Alison BerkleyCase HBS-710423-EStrategyIntellectual Ventures creates and acquires intellectual property, which it then seeks to monetize through non-exclusive licensing. In early 2009, as an increasing number of companies were trying to position themselves as leading intermediaries in the market for intellectual property, IV was looking for the best business model to become such a leading intermediary. Its model was predicated on making it easy for small inventors to monetize their in...Starting at €8.20
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The Auction for Travelport (A)
Hagiu, Andrei; Sanwal, Misha R.Case HBS-710474-EStrategyA senior Blackstone director is deciding how aggressively to bid for Travelport, a travel distribution business containing several key services and platforms. Travelport's most important properties were Galileo, one of the top 3 global distribution systems (GDSs), CheapTickets and Orbitz, two online travel agencies. Blackstone was competing in an auction against several other large private equity firms with multi billion dollar investment funds...Starting at €8.20