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A direct-selling cosmetics company involved in emerging markets exhibits significant foreign exchange risk exposure and profitability swings in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Students must review the company's use of derivative instruments and other hedging techniques to establish whether it pursues the right FX risk mitigation strategy.

Exercise for recording derivative hedging transactions, accompanied by a technical note on IFRS derivative accounting.

Notes from Oriflame's 2009 annual report relevant to the assessment of the monetary impact of Oriflame's FX risk management actions.

Overview of Spans of Control and Accountability.

Students have to identify the acquirer in a business combination structured as a reverse merger.

Worksheet exercise to illustrate the accounting for the Merck/Schering-Plough reverse merger.

It is 2010 and Guillermo Araoz, the equity research director at Morgan Asset Management (MAM), is considering his research budget for the year. Due to recent declines in the equity markets and MAM's sale of its mutual funds business, MAM has seen a decline in its assets under management, and consequently, in its research budget. The case describes the investment process at MAM, including how stocks are selected and portfolios are constructed, and discusses the way in which the research budget supports this process. Araoz is faced with the challenge of how best to allocate this smaller research budget without negatively impacting the firm's investment process and investment performance.

In spring 2009, Chrysler entered a prepackaged bankruptcy and exited 40 days later in a deal with Fiat, the U.S. Treasury, and the UAW that kept the automaker alive. Looking forward, what was necessary for Chrysler to move beyond the life support it had received? What was possible? Looking back, how should the company's restructuring be assessed?

Given recent changes in market conditions and ongoing market uncertainty, an internal financial analyst at Heinz must estimate the company's weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Data for both Heinz and comparable firms are provided. The case provides opportunities for students to learn or practice a WACC calculation while exploring the economic meaning of inputs to the calculation.

Kishore Karunakaran, President and COO of FFCM, faces a variety of challenges in launching an innovative investment management business in the rapidly evolving ETF space.

Magna International, Inc., a Canadian-based automotive parts manufacturer, is considering whether and how to unwind its dual-class ownership structure. A family trust controlled by the founder owns a 0.65% economic interest in the company but has 66% of the votes via a super-voting class of shares. Officers of the company are considering how to fashion a transaction that will end the family's control and win the approval of both classes of shareholders. The Magna (A) case asks the students to weigh the costs and benefits of dual-class ownership and the best way to convert to single-class. The Magna (B) case describes the proposal that Magna's board put to a shareholder vote. Students are asked to evaluate it and decide whether they would approve it.

Magna International, Inc., a Canadian-based automotive parts manufacturer, is considering whether and how to unwind its dual-class ownership structure. A family trust controlled by the founder owns a 0.65% economic interest in the company but has 66% of the votes via a super-voting class of shares. Officers of the company are considering how to fashion a transaction that will end the family's control and win the approval of both classes of shareholders. The Magna (A) case asks the students to weigh the costs and benefits of dual-class ownership and the best way to convert to single-class. The Magna (B) case describes the proposal that Magna's board put to a shareholder vote. Students are asked to evaluate it and decide whether they would approve it.

Magna International, Inc., a Canadian-based automotive parts manufacturer, is considering whether and how to unwind its dual-class ownership structure. A family trust controlled by the founder owns a 0.65% economic interest in the company but has 66% of the votes via a super-voting class of shares. Officers of the company are considering how to fashion a transaction that will end the family's control and win the approval of both classes of shareholders. The Magna (A) case asks the students to weigh the costs and benefits of dual-class ownership and the best way to convert to single-class. The Magna (B) case describes the proposal that Magna's board put to a shareholder vote. Students are asked to evaluate it and decide whether they would approve it. Spreadsheet to (211044).

Eric Giler, WiTricity CEO, must decide how to grow a company based around an untested but potentially ground-breaking technology for wireless electricity transmission.

On May 7, 1998, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, chaired by Brooksley Born, issued a "Concept Release," inviting public comment on the relevance and appropriateness of existing regulation of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market, a market with a notional value of $29 trillion dollars. The CFTC Concept Release, often a precursor to regulatory proposals, sought analysis of "the benefits and burdens of any potential regulatory modifications in light of current market realities." The Release was not welcomed by other regulators or by the Clinton administration. Just hours after it was published, U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt announced their "grave concerns" about it in an unusual joint press release that minced no words. This case explores the battle between Born, on the one hand, and a large number of policymakers, regulators, legislators and industry representatives, on the other, over whether and how greater regulatory oversight should be applied to the OTC derivative market. Born was defeated in her efforts; OTC derivatives played a central role in the 2008-09 financial crisis.

This (B) case provides the 2009 reflections of former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt on CFTC Chairman Brooksley Born's 1998 efforts to consider regulating the OTC derivative market. It also provides a summary of the aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that regulate these derivatives.

Russian and German energy firms initiated the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline project with strong political support from their home governments but encountered resistance from other states. Although the pipeline would connect Russia with Germany directly, the project was not simply a bilateral matter. First, a need to secure construction permits in multiple jurisdictions around the Baltic Sea involved other countries. And second, Germany's membership in the European Union entailed compliance with goals and values of the entire union, which stressed the imperative of collective action in energy matters and dangers of succumbing to "national reflexes." Thus the implications of the project became a matter of concern to the entire European Union but Europeans struggled to articulate the meaning of Nord Stream: was it a "separate peace" between Russia and Germany to the detriment of the rest, or was it a pan-European deal to the benefit of all? As the case chronicles, the success of Nord Stream depended on the ability of its creators to ensure that latter view prevailed over the former.

Nabucco natural gas pipeline, initiated by a group of European energy companies, was intended to connect the broad gas-rich region of the Middle East and Central Asia to Europe for the first time, which would diversify supply sources. At the same time, an Italian-Russian consortium announced South Stream natural gas pipeline, which would diversify transport routes for the delivery of Russian gas to Europe. To win support, backers of Nabucco and South Stream insisted that their projects were aimed at fulfilling goals of the energy policy of the EU (reduction of use of fossil fuels to combat climate change and guaranteed physical availability and affordability of imported fossil fuels). But, as the case demonstrates, both projects progressed slowly, encountering many technological and commercial challenges, which, however, were eclipsed by the extreme politicization of Nabucco and South Stream: pipelines became a factor in domestic politics of several European nations and figured prominently in relations between the EU, EU states, Russia, Turkey, former Soviet republics in Caucasus and Central Asia, and the United States. Although they would comprise only a small part in the overall architecture of Europe's energy security, the case of Nabucco and South Stream reveals the limits of the ambitious energy policy of the EU.

This case describes a real scenario in which an elderly couple's vehicle is stranded in a remote location, causing emergency services to be dispatched at significant effort and cost, whereas an inexpensive tow truck dispatch would have completely resolved the problem. To prevent these kinds of false alarm situations, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has developed a free iPhone application called CAA Roadside, which takes advantage of location-based technology that is built into the iPhone. Discussion questions invite students to consider the business benefits of developing mobile apps, tradeoffs involved in choosing one development platform over another, and long-term positive and negative impacts of the diffusion of mobile location-based technologies.

This note seeks to provide an overview of farmland investing; the investment thesis behind investing in agriculture, how and why investors would choose farmland, and the general risks and return characteristics of this asset class. In recent years, a growing number of individual and institutional investors have allocated a portion of their capital into agricultural farmland. Private investors, public companies, and sovereign wealth funds are now all currently purchasing and selling large amounts of farmland for profit.