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Hemosol is a small biotech company that is under pressure to meet its research and development targets. The company is anticipating the completion of the second phase of testing of one of its products within the next year. Before the company can move on to the next phase of testing, Hemosol must obtain more capital. The company will need to rely on the investment community for funding, however, they have been struggling with developing relationships with investors. Hemosol's president has approached the executive vice-president of the Equicom Group Inc., an investor relations firms, for assistance in putting a strategic plan together to improve the company's performance and reputation.

Bethlehem Steel's 2001 bankruptcy filing inspires an employee's daughter to evaluate her father's pension plan, weeks after September 11's tragedies exacerbated a weakening U.S. economy and just months before her father planned to retire. Battered equity markets and plummeting interest rates foretell a "pension crisis," while the daughter discovers the history and government role in U.S. private defined-benefit pension plans. She tries to apply her newly acquired finance skills as an MBA student to estimate the pension plan's true asset-liability condition and to advise her father about his upcoming retirement from a historically dominant U.S. company that has lost its competitiveness to global producers.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 202088

Discusses the differences between private and social returns and describes an economic framework for assessing a project's social return [known as the economic rate of return (ERR)]. The framework begins by analyzing the impact of a new project on private financiers [the private return known as the financial rate of return (FRR)]. The framework then identifies other stakeholders who might be affected, directly or indirectly, by the project and examines the project's impact on each group. Assumes readers have a working knowledge of cost-benefit analysis, microeconomics, and basic valuation mechanics.

In September 1998, Paul Cooper, Tate & Lyle's finance director for international investments, asked the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to consider lending up to $45 million to finance a $90 million sugar mill in northern Vietnam. Ewen Cobban, an IFC agricultural specialist, was in charge of reviewing the proposal and making a loan recommendation to senior management. Cobban's main concerns were whether the plant was commercially viable and whether it had support from the government. He also feared that world sugar prices were falling and that sugar was a protected commodity. Before he could recommend approval, he had to determine whether they were temporary or permanent problems. Cobban also knew he would have to assess the project's developmental impact. The IFC only supported projects that contributed to sustainable development, and one of the key determinants of sustainability was the degree to which the project was "fair" to all parties involved. Thus, Cobban would need to assess not only the private returns, but also the social returns as measured by the project's economic rate of return (ERR). To do so, he would have to consider the various groups affected by the project and, where possible, quantify the impact on them.

This case discusses the potential benefits and costs of issuing floating-priced convertibles, also referred to as ""death spirals"". These are convertibles where the conversion price is a discount from the market price in a look-back period. The management of Log on America is blaming investment banks and convertible investors for the stock price collapse after the convertible was issued.

In this case, Maverick Lodging, a hotel-management company, assesses the initial effectiveness of its recently implemented balanced scorecard system. The case gives students exposure to (1) determining an appropriate management-control and performance-measurement system for an organization once its strategy and structure have been established, (2) evaluating the design and implementation of a comprehensive balanced scorecard framework, (3) analyzing the usefulness of flexible budgeting as part of a balanced scorecard, and (4) assessing the performance of operating managers.

Dozier Industries was a U.S. manufacturer of electronic security systems. In 1994, it received a large order from the United Kingdom, which stipulated payment in British pounds. The company received a deposit, with the balance expected to be paid in 90 days. The contract provided a slim profit margin, which could be easily eliminated by an unfavorable change in exchange rates. The chief financial officer had to decide whether to accept the foreign exchange risk or to hedge the exposure.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 202114

This case examines the decisions of John Lynch, president and CEO of Knoll Furniture, to go public in early 1997. Knoll went private in an LBO in 1996 and Warburg Pincus, the LBO sponsor, wants Lynch to take Knoll public. Lynch needs to weigh the positive and negative issues of a public offering.

This case provides a brief introduction to the concept of minority interest and the issues that it gives rise to in valuation of firms.

Details a thinly disguised situation facing a recent Harvard MBA graduate who was forced by a prospective employer to place a dollar value on a grant of stock options. There are two objectives: 1) Serves as an introduction to option valuation, in which students have an opportunity to use market data to value an option in a realistic setting. 2) The setting permits a broader discussion of the wisdom of option-based incentive plans and the popular misconceptions of the value of option grants based on a widespread misunderstanding of how options work and how they are valued.

Spreadsheet to (9-201-068). Presents exhibits 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, and 15. Download only.

A financial analyst for Dell Computer Corporation, one of the world's largest computer systems manufacturers, has been asked by the treasurer to develop a report on the company's recent financial performance. Over the last few years, the company has realized it has lost approximately 50 per cent of its stock. Did this decline reflect industry and market wide effects or were there some emerging problems with Dell's operating performance? The financial analyst must analyse the company's financial statements and the cash flows of Dell and its competitors.

Set in May 2000, these cases reflect the separate perspectives of the CEOs as they approach the negotiations of TSE International to acquire Yeats Valves. The task for the student is to complete a valuation analysis of the target and buyer, and to negotiate a price and exchange ratio with the counterparty. Each case contains a financial forecast only for that side; therefore, an important element in the negotiation is to obtain the private information of the other side, analyze it, and successfully negotiate terms of acquisition. The cases are relatively simple, and are offered as a first exercise in the valuation of the firm, and negotiation of an acquisition. They may be taught singly in usual case-discussion fashion, or combined into a joint-negotiation exercise where students are assigned parts to play. Used in a bilateral bargaining exercise, two teams of students are designated, each team representing one side of the negotiation and receiving a case designed for that team. The bargaining exercise provides a particular opportunity for joint teaching among instructors in finance, strategy, human behavior, and negotiation.

This case examines the Fall 1998 decision of eBay management to proceed with the company's initial public offering during the quietest IPO market in twenty years. In Case A, eBay's Chief Financial Officer considers the financial and competitive implications of delaying the offering, as well as the challenge of fairly pricing the shares of an emerging unseasoned Internet stock. The case provides an excellent forum for students to discuss the costs and benefits of going public. Case B reviews the events of eBay's first trading day and the associated 160 percent return on the shares. With such a backdrop, students are exposed to one of the well-known finance anomalies--the IPO underpricing phenomenon--and are invited to critically discuss various proposed explanations.

In July 2001, a new CEO joins this small manufacturer of CD-ROMs and DVDs to discover that the firm is in the midst of a financial crisis induced by rapid growth. The CEO asks an analyst for help with five tasks: (1) review historical performance of the firm; (2) forecast financing requirements for the next two years; (3) exercise the forecasting model to identify "key driver" assumptions; (4) estimate Star River's weighted average cost of capital; and (5) analyze a proposed investment in a packaging machine. The analyst must offer insights and recommendations based on the work.