Set in November 2007, the case is about a soon-to-launch social networking website (Yumcha) in Australia intended for the country's significant Asian population and diaspora. The case describes the process that Yumcha's founder went through in establishing the entity, including her initial motivations and business rationale. The case goes on to describe the dilemma facing the founder in choosing a web developer for the site, including whether to source the developer from new online bidding platforms. The challenges involved in this relatively new means of sourcing and bidding for technical talent are presented. The case also outlines the strategy questions facing the founder concerning expanding the social networking venture in an external environment that has seen the rapid development and expansion of numerous other social networking websites.
This note introduces the basic motivation behind Islamic finance and how it is implemented in practice. The note contains background regarding the religious principles underlying the practice of Islamic finance as well as a discussion of several products designed to be Shariah compliant and the means by which these products achieve this compliance.
A commercial property company evaluates water risks including the government's ability to remedy, the company's operating exposure and mitigation, and whether to relocate because of water risk. A real estate fund manager assesses investment prospects in Mexico City in the context of a major water supply and distribution crisis facing one of the world's largest cities. Can the investment manager understand the water problems so she can make a decision whether to invest in Mexico City? What will she learn about how water is sourced and distributed in Mexico City? And how might the potential public-private partnerships being discussed affect her investment prospects? The fund's investors are seeking real estate exposure in major world cities, particularly Mexico City. How can they assess and mitigate this exposure? How can they extend this thinking to other cities and countries?
In 2009, ParticipACTION was a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that had a storied history of inspiring and supporting active and healthy living for Canadians. Led by CEO Kelly Murumets, ParticipACTION was to lead a steering committee of representatives of the not-for-profit sector and the private sector, as well as academics, towards developing a set of 'how-to' guidelines for not-for-profit sport and physical activity organizations on forming effective partnerships with the private sector. Due to decreasing government support, the need to secure alternate resources and funding, and the proliferation of competition, sports and health organizations were extremely interested in such partnerships. Recent successes made ParticipACTION realize that it and other sports advocate organizations around the globe, needed to become more strategic and innovative in engaging private companies. Coming off of a successful internal restructuring and partnership with Coca Cola, ParticipACTION received an opportunity to be involved with the upcoming 3rd International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health Conference (ICPAPH ). ICPAPH would attract over 1000 leaders from dozens of countries and would be an ideal forum for sharing guidelines for responsible partnerships. This case surveys sports and healthy living advocacy and explores how ParticipACTION went about leading the process to develop guidelines for private sector partnerships.
Corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a field as complex in law as it is in finance. The environment is heavily regulated: it draws on corporate, securities, antitrust and national security law involving obligations at the federal, provincial and self-regulatory levels. This note is designed to introduce non-lawyer managers and finance professionals to the technical securities law issues related to changes of corporate control. While this note deals primarily with the legal aspects of M&A in Canada, deals involving Canadian companies will often involve foreign counterparts. The topic of cross-border M&A is beyond the scope of this note, but, where relevant, distinctions will be drawn throughout between legal terminology, processes and approaches as they differ across the border - most often with the United States.
On December 22, 2008, Bank of America (BofA) chairman and CEO Ken Lewis convened a special board of directors meeting to review his company's pending acquisition of investment bank Merrill Lynch. Negotiations for the acquisition had begun a few months earlier, during the disastrous week in September in which Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Initially both Merrill and BofA viewed their agreement favorably, but in the intervening months, as Merrill's anticipated losses ballooned and the government stepped in with such programs as the TARP, BofA found itself tied to a financial anchor with a hard-line from the government that prevented BofA from abandoning ship. This case provides background on the financial crisis and the chain of events between September and December of 2008 in which Merrill, BofA, and the government attempted to negotiate the acquisition. This case focuses class discussion on several decisions-whether BofA should have initially agreed to buy Merrill Lynch, whether it should have accepted capital contributions from the Treasury, and how it should have responded to the deterioration in Merrill Lynch's position in the first quarter.
In March of 2009, Lincoln Financial Group's CEO Dennis Glass was facing a difficult decision as to how he would replenish his company's capital, which could quickly fall to dangerously low levels as a result of the financial crisis. Though the cost of raising capital in the private sector was much higher than a government bailout, the latter also came with strings attached, including restrictions on executive compensation, limitations on dividends and potential damage to the company's brand among its stakeholders. Glass needed to weigh the pros and cons of private capital versus federal assistance, or somehow combine the two. This case reviews the impact of the financial crisis on the life insurance and annuity industry by analyzing the options available to Glass at Lincoln Financial.
In 2010, Friend Bank was entering the fifth year of Hope Harris Johnson's ambitious 20-year growth plan to transform her family's one branch community bank into an institution with a substantial presence in southeastern Alabama. Harris Johnson was pleased, so far, with the results. Strategically they had exceeded expectations in opening a second office and execution of the plan was going well. And while the financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 had affected the financial results, it also presented Friend with competitive opportunities. Nonetheless, realizing her ultimate goals for Friend would not come easily.
Kent Thiry, CEO of dialysis provider DaVita, is considering how to integrate employees from recently acquired Gambro Healthcare without damaging DaVita's robust, unconventional internal culture. When Thiry joined DaVita in 1999, breaking an important promise to his family in order to do so, he was determined to create a differentiated company with a community-like culture. Over six years, he had engineered an impressive financial turnaround and successfully developed the strong culture he had envisioned. In late 2004, DaVita acquired arch-rival Gambro Healthcare, whose 12,000 employees would nearly double DaVita in size once the integration is completed in fall 2005. Confident that the deal makes business sense but worried about potential adverse impacts of the integration-especially in light of rumors that Gambro employees are suspicious of Thiry's authenticity and critical of DaVita's arguably eccentric culture-Thiry is considering whether to impose DaVita's culture on the new arrivals, or just allow Gambro to operate independently for a period of time.
Darlarna is a manufacturer of high-end Swedish-style furniture. It has grown rapidly since its formation in 2005 and is currently attempting to expand into the U.S. market. In early 2009, after releasing the financial statements from the accountants, the owner became very concerned about a dramatic decrease in profits and all the bad news relating to the financial crisis in the United States. A chartered accountant was hired to conduct an analysis of Darlarna's operations and to make recommendations for future actions within the week.
The president of production at Hanson Productions, an off-Broadway production company, was faced with the same situation for every Broadway production: where to locate, how many seats, what to charge and how to promote and market the production. There are three separate venues, with three separate value propositions to the studio, case and audience. While bigger means more seats and more revenue for each show, there is a capacity percentage that must be factored in to the decision due to the increased rental costs. Smaller venues may lead to higher capacity percentages, but ultimately leave money on the table. The ticket prices must be set for advance sales; any change in price after this period will effectively hurt future sales - more so if the price is discounted. Determining a promotion partner may lessen the risk of a potential failure, yet cost more profit and affect the recoup schedule.
MusicJuice.net is a new website designed to bring together musicians and a fan-base in order to raise finance for new bands. It enables musicians to bypass the large established record companies and their high royalty takes, while giving fans direct contact and involvement with exciting new acts. It is an example of a venture idea transported from one country (the Netherlands) and applied in a new and larger geographical setting (North America). The case illustrates the novel crowd-sourcing business model, which is designed to raise finance from customers rather than the entrepreneur. Most importantly, the case illustrates the challenges of starting new Internet ventures and the early stage founding issues that are involved. After a long and costly delay in establishing their website, the two founders of MusicJuice.net have struggled to generate any interest or even awareness amongst online musicians and fans, despite only limited competition from other players in the marketplace - a situation, which is already beginning to change. Students are asked what the entrepreneurs behind MusicJuice.net can do to raise awareness of their service and to generate enough customers to survive.
The president of Unimicron must evaluate the degree to which the company's information systems support its business strategy. The case provides an extensive review of the company's history, its strategy and its key competitive and organizational moves. The case reviews the way in which information systems are used in the company, and challenges students to assess the degree of fit between strategy, organization and technology.
The owner of Monforte Dairy Company Ltd. in Stratford, Ontario, was torn between two alternatives for the future of the company. She depended on the company for her livelihood, but she also wanted to use the company to further several culinary movements. All major growth options under consideration would require debt financing, and the owner wondered what affect this would have on her company.
The case describes the challenges faced by Ford and other automobile manufacturers in an era of declining oil reserves and volatile fuel prices. The Ford diesel decision seems to reflect classic thinking constrained by mental models that were developed in a different world. Diesels constitute over 50 per cent of automobile sales in Europe, because fuel is extremely expensive there. If fuel gets extremely expensive in the United States, one would expect diesels to become more attractive. Yet Ford seems to be stuck in the old mental model that says Americans don't like diesels. Ford can't prove in a PowerPoint presentation that there is a big market for small diesels mostly because there are few small diesels available to U.S. consumers. But that traps them into a position where they will never lead the industry or innovate outside of current market and technology conditions.
Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co. (SZLN) is a Chinese company that is contemplating the purchase of an Australian mining company. The management of SZLN must assess the merits of the acquisition, the offer to be made, how it is to be financed and the political implications of the purchase for both the governments of China and Australia.
Corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a field as complex in law as it is in finance. The environment is heavily regulated: it draws on corporate, securities, antitrust and national security law involving obligations at the federal, provincial and self-regulatory levels. This note is designed to introduce non-lawyer managers and finance professionals to the technical securities law issues related to changes of corporate control. While this note deals primarily with the legal aspects of M&A in Canada, deals involving Canadian companies will often involve foreign counterparts. The topic of cross-border M&A is beyond the scope of this note, but, where relevant, distinctions will be drawn throughout between legal terminology, processes and approaches as they differ across the border most often with the United States.