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This case is suitable for students just beginning to learn finance principles but is also appropriate to use in courses with experienced students and executives. The challenges facing the auto industry and the unique involvement of GM makes the case rich in discussion opportunities about how best to restructure a company. In January 2008, Delphi Corporation (Delphi) had been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for more than two years but appeared to be on the brink of approving a plan of reorganization (POR) that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy with a significantly improved balance sheet. Like most such plans, Delphi's POR called for a reduction of the company's leverage by exchanging the debt of the unsecured creditors for a mixture of new debt and new equity. The resulting reduction in interest expense was projected to return Delphi to profitability and make the restructured company a viable going concern. Students take the position of various claimants to explain why that claimant class would or would not vote for the plan. The case presents the legal fundamentals of Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 11 reorganization, which play key roles in understanding the economic incentives of the various claimants.

This case forces students to examine the drivers of value, particularly growth and margins. It is also effective at drawing attention to the relationship between terminal value assumptions and value creation-assumptions that generate a large sensitivity of terminal value to growth rate are assumptions that imply that a great deal of value can still be created from investments after the planning horizon. The narrative features an analyst who is trying to make sense of a sharp one-day decline in the price of Crocs stock.