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Assessing Private Equity Performance
Chaplinsky, SusanTechnical Note DARDEN-F-1895-EFinanceAssessing the performance of private equity (PE) investments is a challenging task. It starts with the fact that the assets are privately held and illiquid. By contrast, public equity valuations are determined in a vast open market populated largely by disinterested investors acting on publicly available information. Therefore, to make an informed assessment about PE performance, investors should be aware of the areas where general partners’ disc...Starting at €8.20
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Convertible Notes: A Form of Early-Stage Financing
Chaplinsky, Susan; Becker, Joseph M.Technical Note DARDEN-F-1925-EFinanceConvertible notes are often used to raise early-stage financing for start-up companies, frequently due to their advantages related to delayed valuation, greater speed, and lower cost of completion compared to venture capital financing. As a result, there has been a large increase in the number of early-stage companies raising capital through convertible notes over the past decade. Investors have made this form of financing more available, believi...Starting at €8.20
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Resolving Trade-Offs: From Simple Heuristics to Multicriteria Analysis
Baucells, ManelTechnical Note DARDEN-QA-0914-EDecision AnalysisThis note discusses a variety of methods to assist intuition in complex situations with multiple objectives and a potentially large set of alternatives. It begins with heuristic rules, which are relatively simple ways to sort out alternatives without thinking too much about trade-offs. After discussing the reliability of such rules, it moves to multicriteria analysis, which is a more rational method of balancing conflicting objectives.Starting at €8.20
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CSR Bonus at CapTech
Baucells, Manel; Ellis, ShawnCase DARDEN-QA-0918-EDecision AnalysisThis case follows Anisha Anderson, who has had three of her customer service representatives (CSRs) quit. Her job is to think about how she can adjust the CSR training and bonus program to promote retention in the department, which has been a cause of concern for a while.Starting at €8.20
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Investure, LLC, and Smith College
Chaplinsky, Susan; Harris, Robert S.; Kelly, Dorothy C.Case DARDEN-F-1537-EFinanceAlice Handy, an investment professional with 30 years' experience as head of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company, has opened a new asset management firm targeted at midsize endowments and nonprofit institutions in January 2004. Her business, Investure, LLC, offered outsourced investment services to institutions with $150 million to $1 billion in assets and access to top-performing managers at lower cost than a fund of funds (...Starting at €8.20
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TRX, Inc.: Initial Public Offering
Chaplinsky, Susan; Morita, Kensei; Zeng, XingCase DARDEN-F-1568-EFinanceThis case provides comprehensive coverage of a firm’s decision to undertake an IPO and the process of going public. The case follows the sequence of events from the company’s incorporation in 1999 through the completion of an IPO in September 2005. In addition to raising capital, the TRX IPO case also includes consideration of another motivation for going public. At the time of its incorporation in November 1999, TRX attempted to go public but in...Starting at €8.20
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The Pelayo Family Plays Roulette: The Prequel
Pfeifer, Phillip E.; Bodily, Samuel E.; Baucells, ManelCase DARDEN-QA-0847-EDecision AnalysisThe case presents data from 70,340 spins of four roulette wheels: three of which are real ("imperfect") and one of which is simulated ("perfect"). The challenge posed is to identify which of the four is the simulated wheel. After weeks spent recording spin results at their local casino, the members of the Pelayo family think they have identified three imperfect wheels. Before they start betting, they want to be certain that the three wheels they ...Starting at €8.20
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A GLUM Primer: The Risk-Adjusted Expected Value
Pfeifer, Phillip E.; Bodily, Samuel E.; Baucells, ManelTechnical Note DARDEN-QA-0849-EDecision AnalysisThe purpose of this note is to improve on the expected value criterion by incorporating the willingness and capability to take risk of a rational decision maker. First, this note will review the concept of expected net present value (ENPV) and demonstrate its limitations. Next, we introduce the notion of play capital, or the most one is willing to put at risk in view of one’s life circumstances, goals, and resources. Then, we introduce the genera...Starting at €8.20
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Vitaliy’s Purchase Decision
Baucells, Manel; Dydyshka, VitaliyExercise DARDEN-QA-0861-EDecision AnalysisThis short case presents the trade-offs that Vitaliy faces before purchasing a car. The case contains a consequence table showing five different cars and how they fare on six attributes, including price, user ratings, torque, fuel consumption, and engine power. The case is ideal to introduce the multiattribute methodology.Starting at €8.20
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To LED or Not to LED?
Baucells, Manel; Yemen, GerryCase DARDEN-QA-0862-EDecision AnalysisA director of marketing at a major big-box retailer in the United States finds herself overhearing a customer and a lighting specialist discuss the replacement of incandescent and halogen lightbulbs with LEDs in his house. The case provides sufficient data to perform the economic analysis of which lightbulb is more cost effective in terms of net present value. The results are at odds with the student’s intuitions. This case uses a durable consume...Starting at €8.20