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This case examines a proposed $2 billion asset-backed securitization offering that is to be supported by Formula One's television broadcasting rights. The case is written from the perspective of Steve Din, executive director of Securitization for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, who is responsible for placing the securities in September 1998. The proposed Eurobond issuance for Formula One (F1) follows a delayed initial public offering (IPO) in 1997 that failed to materialize owing to disputes with the Formula One teams. In the wake of the delayed IPO, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter replaced Salomon Brothers as the adviser to Bernie Ecclestone, the eccentric billionaire owner of the F1 trademarks, and became the lead manager for the $2 billion structured finance placement meant to bridge Formula One to an eventual IPO. Students are asked to recommend a course of action to meet the challenges of marketing the new issue. The case is designed for use in finance electives focusing on financing methods, investment banking, securitization, or other advanced topics in corporate finance.

The largest state pension fund continues the evolution of its approach to corporate governance contemplating "relationship investing" and other new approaches.

The owner of a shop specializing in the creation and sale of Celtic art was faced with the challenge of finding a way to rejuvenate sales; customer traffic was declining due to the closing of a local market. He was determined to develop a strategy that would better insulate his business in the future. Limited resources meant that maximizing the returns on his efforts would be critical to the survival of the business. He had to examine his marketing strategy and product mix, consider his options and generate solutions to improve and secure his short-term and long-term profitability.

Apax Partners is considering a complex buyout of a semiconductor manufacturer. The firms must assess in a compressed timeframe the complex technological, financial, and operational risks that the proposed transaction poses.

Analyzes Marshall Field's efforts to develop a market for mass retailing in late 19th-century Chicago. Examines Chicago's expansion in the 1860s and, within this context, how Field struck out on his own to, build a wholesale and retail business. Concentrates on the efforts of Field and his partner Levi Leiter to build a large regional and, later, a national market for their distribution business and the significant financial, managerial, and strategic challenges they faced. This case analyzes how Field and his partners built a strong, meaningful brand for the company.

Describes the attempt of Texas Pacific Group (TPG), a buyout firm, to purchase a controlling stake in Ducati Motor, the world's leading high-performance motorcycle company, based in Bologna, Italy. Ducati is part of Cagiva Group, a family-controlled industrial group. Cagiva has fallen on hard times and Ducati is the crown jewel in the group. Yet even Ducati is under great financial pressure and short on working capital. Abel Halpern, a partner at TPG, is frustrated because a deal with the owners seems to be an ever-moving target. Although TPG has negotiated with the seller for almost a year. In spite of costly due diligence efforts by TPG, Abel Halpern is now ready to walk away from the deal. In his decision he needs to consider not only valuation and the feasibility of hiring new management to turn the company around but also the feasibility of an eventual exit via the public markets in Italy.

Outlines many of the supply-side innovations, such as improved transportation, communication, and technological developments, that greatly expanded the productive capacity of the United States in the late 19th century. Explores a range of demand-side shifts, including rising incomes, population growth, and urbanization, that changed consumers' wants and needs. These developments, taken together with those on the supply side, altered the nature of the American economy, ushering in widespread industrialization, markets of unprecedented size, and consumption on an entirely new scale. Investigates how, within this context, H.J. Heinz created a successful food-processing business in the last three decades of the 19th century.

Provides a rigorous description of the economic dynamics that may produce inherent advantages for large and/or first-mover firms within an industry, as well as those factors that may result in disadvantages for such leading firms. The leader advantages discussed include both size advantages, such as economies of scale and scope, network effects, and learning effect, as well as timing advantages, such as preemption, reputation effects, buyer switching costs, and patents or institutional barriers. The leader disadvantages analyzed include pioneering costs, demand uncertainty, technological uncertainty, and incumbent inertia. Throughout the note, the experiences of Intel Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors, are used to provide specific examples of the causes and consequences of leader advantages and disadvantages.

At the end of 1998, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ponders the next moves for his company. Having secured the leadership position as the leading online book seller in the United States, Amazon.com has now moved into the product categories of CDs and videos by year's end. Having expanded into the United Kingdom and Germany and having 6.2 million members, what new product categories should Amazon.com expand into during 1999? Consumer electronics? Travel? Toys? Software? The possibilities are endless, but Bezos knows the company needs to focus on choosing a few categories and performing well in those picked.

At the end of 1999, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos--just named Time Magazine's Man of the Year--ponders the next moves for his company. Having expanded into numerous categories in 1999, ranging from Z-shops to Auctions to E-cards as well as increasing the number of distribution sites to seven, Amazon.com is quickly transforming itself as an electronic retailer. But does Amazon.com's strategy make sense? Critics worry that Bezos may be stretching the Amazon.com brand too far instead of focusing on a few retail categories. Bezos sees the opportunity to dominate various retail categories online--leveraging off its base of 16.9 million customers--before the brick-and-mortar retailers do.

At the end of 1998, Jonathan Bulkeley, the newly-named CEO of barnesandnoble.com, is faced with a challenge. As the second leading online bookseller behind Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com must build its market share. With Forrester Research predicting that the online bookselling market would grow to $3 billion in 2003, how could barnesandnoble.com attract more of the "newbies" coming onto the web to its site and become the leading online bookseller--as it was in the bricks-and-mortar world--over the long run?

At the end of 1999, Steve Riggio, the vice chairman and acting CEO of barnesandnoble.com, wonders what his company should do next against Amazon.com, the online retailer who is the leading online book seller in the United States. While barnesandnoble.com has been careful to expand into new categories related to media--such as magazines, CDs, and posters--Amazon.com has expanded into a variety of seemingly unrelated categories--such as Z-shops, auctions, and power tools. While some see this expansion as a weakness in Amazon.com's branding strategy, how could Riggio and barnesandnoble.com best exploit this so that they become the leading online bookseller over the long run in terms of market share and mind share?

Your crucial new product is on the fast track, when suddenly a problem develops that threatens to derail it. Time to bring in the cheetah team.

Through an innovative new policy forged with a single insurer, Honeywell is consolidating risks as diverse as fire protection and currency fluctuations--and saving a bundle.

The value of the Internet lies in its connections, but some connections are more valuable than others. Which matter most? Reed's Law can tell you.

The Internet was supposed to make it possible for anybody anywhere to get anything anytime. Instead, it's magnified suppliers' miscalculations into global shortages. But if the Net caused these supply chain woes, it's also the solution, says the CEO of a supply-chain software manufacturer.

Outside directors account for less than a third of the board members on a typical Internet start-up. That's bad business in the long run. Here's why.