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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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Innovating into Active ETFs: Factor Funds Capital Management LLC
Froot, Kenneth A.; Cohen, Lauren H.; Waggoner, ScottCase HBS-211031-EFinanceKishore Karunakaran, President and COO of FFCM, faces a variety of challenges in launching an innovative investment management business in the rapidly evolving ETF space.Starting at €8.20
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Quadriserv and the Short Selling Market
Cohen, Lauren H.; Malloy, Christopher J.Case HBS-212021-EFinanceTo maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color. Ten years into Quadriserv's life, Greg DePetris and his company were at a crossroads. Perhaps more so than any of Greg's previous ventures, Quadriserv represented a move into an established marketplace with strong and entrenched incumbents. Greg had a tested record of startups in the trading and financial sectors, but the difference in this case was that Quadriserv would be ...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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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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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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Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry
Cohen, Lauren H.Case HBS-214011-EFinanceThe work of CMG Life Services provides a window into the life settlement industry, showing the difficulties that one young company faces in trying to solve a market failure. This case uses CMG's strategic dilemma to both illuminate the mechanics of a small, inefficient market and show how the success or failure of a market can sometimes depend on more than intrinsic value. The case lays out disagreement about the future of the industry, and even ...Starting at €8.20