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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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Divided We Stand: Gay Marriage Rulings and Official Disobedience
Winig, Laura; Robichaud, ChristopherCase HBS-KS1199-EOn June, 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the federal Defense of Marriage Act violated the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection of equal liberty, effectively overturning the law. Pennsylvania, however, banned same-sex marriage. Despite the state law, D. Bruce Hanes, a register of wills in Pennsylvania, agreed to honor a request from two women seeking a same-sex marriage license-an act of official disobedience that immedi...Starting at €8.20
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Money & Morals: The Minimum Wage and the American South
Varley, Pamela; Robichaud, ChristopherCase HBS-KS1233-EEconomicsIn 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10. To the surprise of no one, Congressional Republicans blocked the move, as they had a similar proposal the year before. Seeing little hope of federal action, wage activists turned their sights on state and local governments. Riding a tide of popular support, dozens of jurisdictions voted in hikes in their own state and city mini...Starting at €8.20
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Hero or Traitor Edward Snowden and the NSA Spying Program
Winig, Laura; Robichaud, ChristopherCase HBS-HKS798-EEconomicsOn June 5, 2013, a London newspaper reported that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers in the U.S. The story was the first of many top secret revelations about the NSA's spying programs, leaked by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor. The case examines Snowden's actions and motivations and asks students to consider the repercussions of whistleblowing/leaking on t...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