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The CEO of Strong Tie received the draft 2008 financial statements for the company, which was a manufacturer of structural connectors used in the building industry. He began to question the company’s performance when he compared the statements to those of previous years. How were profits holding up given the intense price competition in the industry? Were attempts to lower costs through more automation paying off? Were the current problems in the U.S. housing market going to continue to reduce demand for connectors? How would lenders react to this poor performance? Was the company’s financing in danger?<br><br><br><br>After discussing the matter extensively with Strong Tie’s CFO, it was decided that an outside consultant should be hired to provide an independent analysis of the company’s recent performance and to provide suggestions for future action.

Accountant Sarah McIvor, a junior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been selected to conduct a financial review of Gemini Electronics Ltd. Gemini is an up-start American electronics company that recently went public and now wants to expand its business to rival the major Korean and Japanese producers. Before the company finalizes any expansion plans, Dr. Wang, the founder, feels it is prudent to conduct an independent evaluation of Gemini’s financial condition.

An investment banking analyst seeks to reconstruct which financial ratios go with which companies.

Bain Capital had purchased Outback Steakhouse in 2007 and despite the myriad initiatives to improve operations, the financial collapse in 2008 threatened the company's ability to meet its loan covenants. Outback's performance steadily declined throughout the year. How should Bain Capital manage the company's debt while improving Outback's performance?

Global electrical products company assesses growth and market demands in India. Company must decide between a products acquisition or developing a service business. Students need to be aware of different country conditions, demands on implementation of different strategies, impact on culture. Also discusses energy performance contracting in the context of making India energy generation capability more efficient.

This case provides an opportunity to review Groupon Inc’s S1 filing made prior to an initial public offering. Groupon’s financial statements attracted a great deal of controversy due to revenue recognition policies that produced substantially higher revenues for the corporation, as well as non-GAAP earnings measures, especially ACSOI — an invention of the firm that served to exclude certain marketing expenses from the calculation of profit. Since marketing expenses were a very material expense for Groupon at a stage at which it was building its business, the effect of the use of ACSOI was as substantial as the effect of aggressive revenue recognition policies. Groupon backed down on both revenue recognition and the use of ACSOI following SEC inquiries into the corporation’s accounting policies.

The case is a very simple, short case based on the author's general experience, to introduce financial analysis and to discuss the pressure introduced by growth in a risky business (high R&D).

Quick reference guide of various terms related to the United States Bankruptcy Code. Outline of some of the important technical terms related to the bankruptcy process in the United States. Covers both Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 with a brief definition of both and a summary of the legal process. Bankruptcy terms related to the US Bankruptcy Code.

The president of Image Pipeline Services, a pipeline flushing and inspection firm, is taking a step back from the past few weeks, where he has spent virtually all his waking time working on his new business in Edmonton's oil sands industry. A few months after starting his business, he controls virtually the entire market, but competitors will be encroaching soon. One competitor has offered to purchase his business and the president wants to weigh his options before agreeing to sell or continuing to compete.

A commercial landlord analyzes options for funding and accomplishing energy efficiency retrofit. The situation is complicated by lease terms and uncertain effectiveness of the intervention. Students must grapple with obstacles including changing energy prices, variations in energy needed in different climate scenarios, issues in net and gross lease responsibilities, and issues in finding adequate cash flow and security to satisfy a range of possible third party funders. The business opportunity for third party funders is also discussed.

Saks Fifth Avenue, a luxury department store chain, has been hard hit by the 2008 financial crisis and stock market crash. Speculation about impending bankruptcy is rampant in the press. The CEO, Stephen Sadove, must decide how to respond.

Sarah McIvor, CA, a junior partner with Price Waterhouse Coopers, has been selected to conduct a financial review of Gemini Electronics Ltd. Gemini is an "up-start" American electronics company who recently went public and now wants to expand its business to rival the major Korean and Japanese producers. Before the company finalizes any expansion plans, Dr. Wang, the founder, feels it is prudent to conduct an independent evaluation of Gemini's financial condition.

The CEO received the draft 2008 financial statements for Strong Tie, a manufacturer of structural connectors used in the building industry. He began to question the company's performance when he compared them to previous years. How were profits holding up given the intense price competition in the industry? Were attempts to lower costs through more automation paying off? Where the current problems in the U.S. housing market going to continue to reduce demand for connectors? How would lenders react to this poor performance? Was the company's financing in danger? After discussing the matter extensively with Strong Tie's CFO, it was decided that an outside consultant should be hired to provide an independent analysis of the company's recent performance and to provide suggestions for future action.

The subject of the case is a socially-responsible hedge fund. The options valued are written on two firms AstraZeneca plc and Medco Health Solutions, Inc. with documented and recognized social responsibility practices.

Powerful technological, regulatory, and economic forces compel the senior executives of multinational corporations (MNCs) to repeatedly re-evaluate and reconfigure value chains in the search for ongoing competitive advantage. However, releasing assets from existing activities and redeploying them to new opportunities is a challenging and poorly understood task. In particular, the standard strategic management concepts of use- and firm- flexibility overlook the crucial international dimension of location. Utilizing examples from GM, Qantas, and a mining MNC, this article argues that strategic flexibility should be consciously measured along all three dimensions. By using the decision tool set out in this article, MNC executives can map their worldwide footprint of strategic roadblocks and opportunities to expand into new markets, divest redundant businesses, and build flexibility to adapt to future challenges.

In a search for Schumpeterian solutions, the Obama Administration has made venture capital a cornerstone of its Clean Technology policy, adopting a strategy of providing large loan guarantees to a few venture capital-financed firms. This article argues that three key conditions are necessary for venture capital to successfully open new economic spaces and then it applies them to assess the viability of venture capital investment in clean technology. The article concludes that large loan guarantees are unlikely to be effective. Other government policies such as SBIR grants, university R&D support, certain (de)regulatory actions, large-scale demonstration projects, and/or procurement decisions can better encourage both incremental and Schumpeterian innovation without distorting the turbulent dynamics of newmarket creation. This analysis can also be applied to other sector- and market-specific innovation policies.

Noel Biderman was the president of Avid Life Media, a profitable Canadian growth company whose main businesses were various online social networks for groups seeking sexual partners and romance. Biderman was seeking to raise $60 million via a private placement offering to acquire a privately held online advertising sales company, merge the companies, and take the new and improved entity to the TSX Venture Exchange or the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Avid Life offering represented a legal and potentially lucrative investment. Nevertheless, only one investment bank (GMP Capital) was willing to help Biderman raise capital — because among the various social networks Avid Life owned the notorious Ashley Madison online community for married people seeking to commit adultery. GMP’s relationship was short-lived; after media coverage of the Avid Life offering started to focus on the bank’s willingness to service Biderman’s company, GMP withdrew its support. Possibly it was the bank’s desire to avoid being linked to someone known, rightly or wrongly, as the king of infidelity, that led to GMP’s withdrawn support, leaving Biderman unable to take a potentially lucrative investment opportunity to market.

This case is a supplement to Avid Life (A).

The Global Financial Crisis (2007-2009) has provided fertile ground for careful consideration of how the financial services industry operates. For many years it had been asserted that markets can self-police so that regulation and careful oversight are not required. The events from the crisis have caused many of the strongest proponents of this view, such as Alan Greenspan (former chairman of the Federal Reserve), to publicly acknowledge the problems with this belief. This case considers the events leading up to and following the bailout of AIG to allow for a discussion of how different internal and external factors contributed to the crisis at AIG, and the importance of studying each of them more carefully to avoid such problems in the future.