In this note, we cover how bond prices change as yields change. Students are shown that the price of a bond is a function of its promised payments and the prevailing required rate of return by investors: the bond's yield. Since the promised payments are generally fixed, changes in the price of a bond relate to changes in its yield. The note introduces the most common measures of interest-rate risk (the sensitivity of bond prices to changes in yield), the Macauley duration and modified duration, and it guides students through calculating their value for two bonds issued by Amazon.com. At the Darden School of Business, this technical note is taught in the first-year "Valuation in Financial Markets" class; it would also be suitable in a module covering bond pricing and interest rates within the first-year core finance course of an MBA program, or to introduce the pricing of bonds in an investment course.
This case considers a simple buy-versus-rent decision in the context of an individual family home. In mid-2022, the rise in real estate prices in the Washington, DC, metro area has resulted in a dramatic increase in the rental rates for a young working couple. They must compare paying the higher rent with an opportunity to buy their friends' house on Ramsay Street. This decision elicits a discounted-cash-flow analysis that serves as an introduction to valuation based on equity residual cash flow. The mortgage financing required with the house purchase invites a discussion of leverage and its effect on the risk of their equity stake as well as the appropriate risk premium to be used in the discount rate. At the Darden School of Business, this case is used in the elective courses "Managerial Finance" and "Valuation in Financial Markets," as an introduction to equity-residual-cash-flow valuation and financial risk.
This technical note introduces the concept of equity cash flow or equity residual cash flow. The note provides an explicit comparison between free cash flow and equity residual cash flow in the context of an acquisition of a fictional veterinary practice. At the Darden School of Business, this note is used in the elective course "Valuation in Financial Markets" and as an introduction to valuation based on equity cash flow.
This case examines the July 2016 decision by Israeli pharmaceutical Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited (Teva) to raise USD19.5 billion in cash through a multicurrency bond offering to finance an acquisition that would firmly solidify Teva's position as the largest generic pharmaceuticals manufacturer in the world. In light of a pending acquisition of Actavis, the generic drug manufacturing arm of Irish-US pharmaceutical Allergen Inc. (Allergen), Teva management planned to sell USD19.5 billion in bonds at various maturities from 2 years to 30 years and in three different currencies (US dollar, euro, and Swiss franc). In the context of a significant cross-border acquisition, students are introduced to the pricing of corporate bonds with the invitation to price (specify the coupon rate) on Teva's bold global offering. This case is taught at Darden in the core finance curriculum of the MBA program in order to introduce the concept of the risk premium, risk, and the mechanics of pricing of corporate bonds.
This case explores the common cash-flow challenges that start-up businesses face as they straddle the conflicting objectives of business growth and cash preservation. In August 2022, Alex French, the CEO and cofounder of Bizzy Coffee (Bizzy), an emerging business in the rapidly growing cold-brew coffee market, prepares for a meeting with potential investors. His preparation requires a diagnosis of why Bizzy is burning so much cash, a proposal for getting the business to positive cash flow, and an assessment of the amount of financing required to get there. Students complete these tasks and build an understanding of cash flow and its importance to business stakeholders. It is designed for use in the core finance curriculum at Darden as part of a module covering financial modeling and analysis.
This case examines the 2020 pricing decision for the master recordings of Taylor Swift's first six albums in consideration of a sale of the recordings by music executive Scooter Braun to Shamrock Capital (Shamrock), an investment company owned by the Roy E. Disney family. Swift, the most listened-to musician in the world, had expressed displeasure with Braun's ownership of her masters and a desire to own the recordings herself-even threatening to rerecord new versions of the master recordings. Inez Reynolds, an analyst at Shamrock, has been tasked with estimating the value of the masters and recommending how to advise the partners at Shamrock regarding a bid to Braun. The case provides a context for introducing students to firm valuation using discounted-cash-flow (DCF), market multiples, and the perpetuity model for terminal value estimation. The case is intended to provide a bridge between project valuation and firm valuation in a corporate finance course. This case is designed to be taught at Darden in the core finance curriculum as an introduction to firm valuation.
Facing strong pressure from investors to improve financial performance and preserve capital, senior management at Euroland Foods must select which projects to fund across a slate of major investment proposals for 2021. While the board of directors has imposed a limit of EUR120 million for the company budget, various managers have proposed projects totaling EUR316 million. The task for students is to evaluate each proposal's financial attributes and qualitative factors (mainly strategic considerations and internal company politics), then choose the projects to be approved. This case presents two alternative modes of delivery: (1) a standard case discussion; or (2) a role-play exercise with a debriefing. The teaching note includes role-playing character descriptions for distribution to students and describes both modes of delivery. The different viewpoints of the company managers featured in these character descriptions is a unique aspect of this case, which affords students the opportunity to grapple with some aspects of capital budgeting that they don't normally encounter. The multifunctional aspect of this case affords an opportunity for a finance instructor to coteach it with an organizational behavior instructor. Points of linkage are in the areas of group leadership and the assessment and management of group decision-making processes. The case is suitable for intermediate corporate finance courses.
This case set considers the acquisition of American jewelry icon Tiffany & Co. (Tiffany) by French luxury goods manufacturer LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH). While this case can effectively be taught in isolation in a traditional case format, it is designed to be taught in tandem with the B case, "LVMH: The Tiffany Acquisition" (UVA-F-2013) in a merger negotiation format where students work in small groups, taking the perspective of either the acquirer or the target to negotiate the terms of a merger. Set in 2019, the cases invite students to consider the strong revenue-generating and operational-efficiency gains that LVMH and Tiffany share by combining the two businesses. Each of the cases provides a different perspective on the deal, including variation in the pro forma financial forecasts. Through the experience, students are challenged to realize the merger gains by completing a deal in an environment of uncertainty in valuation methodology and ambiguity in negotiation strategy. The negotiation is supported by a multimedia application that facilitates student distribution of the case materials, collection of the negotiation results, and the creation of custom slides for the student debrief. The merger negotiation format is most effectively taught over two class sessions. The cases are designed to be discussed late in an introductory MBA finance course or an advanced undergraduate corporate finance class. Especially when used in the negotiation format, the cases serve as an effective capstone experience in a corporate finance curriculum.
This case set considers the acquisition of American jewelry icon Tiffany & Co. (Tiffany) by French luxury goods manufacturer LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH). While this case can effectively be taught in isolation in a traditional case format, it is designed to be taught in tandem with the A case, "Tiffany & Co.: The LVMH Proposal" (UVA-F-2012) in a merger negotiation format where students work in small groups, taking the perspective of either the acquirer or the target to negotiate the terms of a merger. Set in 2019, the cases invite students to consider the strong revenue-generating and operational-efficiency gains that LVMH and Tiffany share by combining the two businesses. Each of the cases provides a different perspective on the deal, including variation in the pro forma financial forecasts. Through the experience, students are challenged to realize the merger gains by completing a deal in an environment of uncertainty in valuation methodology and ambiguity in negotiation strategy. The negotiation is supported by a multimedia application that facilitates student distribution of the case materials, collection of the negotiation results, and the creation of custom slides for the student debrief. The merger negotiation format is most effectively taught over two class sessions. The cases are designed to be discussed late in an introductory MBA finance course or an advanced undergraduate corporate finance class. Especially when used in the negotiation format, the cases serve as an effective capstone experience in a corporate finance curriculum.
The cases "Tiffany & Co.: The LVMH Proposal" (UVA-F-2012) and "LVMH: The Tiffany Acquisition" (UVA-F-2013) serve as two sides of a merger negotiation exercise set in October 2019. Students are asked to represent either LVMH, the acquirer, or Tiffany & Co. (Tiffany), the target company. This multimedia application allows the instructor to collect and analyze the intermediate and final negotiation results and automatically creates a slide deck for final debrief.
This short fictional case considers an investment decision in a new business concept, Carly's Car Clinic. The investment choice entails two similar stores with correlated outcomes and an option to sequence the opening of one after the other. Student analysis highlights the value of the optionality to delay the opening of one of the stores and then not make the subsequent investment if the outcome on the first one is poor. An instructor should anticipate about 30 to 40 minutes of a class session to discuss this case. At the Darden School, the case is taught in the second-year elective ""Managerial Finance,"" but it is suitable for any module covering more advanced topics in capital budgeting, such as optionality. The teaching note provides suggestions for how to pair the case.
After a period of poor stock-market performance, conglomerate Chestnut Foods (Chestnut) faces the acquisition of its stock by an activist investor. The new investor demands the sale of Chestnut's high-growth division, which contrasts with the CFO's turnaround plan to expand this same division. To disentangle the way forward for Chestnut, students are invited to grapple with the risk-adjusted performance of each division and the estimation of division-specific hurdle rates. Students learn to appreciate the importance of using risk-adjusted hurdle rates in establishing appropriate investment policy. This B case is typically taught after having discussed the A case (UVA-F-1736), but this is not necessary. At the Darden School of Business, they are taught in separate years, as independent cases, and the A case has a separate teaching note (UVA-F-1736TN). The B case is set one month after the A case and focuses on the performance of product groups within Chestnut's poorly performing Instruments division. The case is designed as an opportunity to hone skills in performance evaluation.