A daughter teaches her mother how to handle her finances by creating a budget.
In October 2018, Mike Bogan, CEO of LandCare USA, LLC (LandCare), a national landscape service company, reflected on the increasing challenges he faced in staffing his landscaping crews. Throughout his 30-year career, Bogan had witnessed dramatic changes in both the landscaping industry and the US workforce profile: hourly labor was more scarce and unreliable than he had ever seen it. These change
This technical note outlines the differences between financial accounting standards and tax law that affect the valuation of potential targets depending on the deal structure employed. Valuation models typically rely on financial accounting information to estimate the value of the deal; but tax laws, not financial accounting standards, affect the after-tax cash flows attributable to the deal. The
Central to a firm's long-term success, is allocating capital so that it generates economic value. The two most common decision rules based on economic value are to (i) accept proposals that have a positive net present value (NPV) when discounted at the appropriate hurdle rate or (ii) to accept proposals whose internal rate of return (IRR) exceeds the appropriate hurdle rate. Key to both rules, in
Family businesses are unique and complex; they have aspects and layers to them that are unlike any other organizations because at the root of family businesses' identities are the aspirations of both the business and the family's members, which could be at odds with one another. This note?a meta-analysis drawn from many authors' work?explores an approach that identifies ways to unify family and bu
This brief, one-page note provides multiple definitions of Lean. The purpose is to show that Lean programs can and should be addressed on multiple levels, including detailed operations, the entire value stream, and the entire organization.
For the past three months, Willy Fuller has been working as a fry cook at Hal's Café. He has no car, and due to the unpredictability of the bus service, Willy has been late to work several days. His boss has told him that if he is late again, he will be fired. Willy can't afford to lose his job. His family relies on him to pitch in $500 a month for food and household expenses, as well as $200 a mo
Christine Angelo was going to be released from prison soon, after serving a combined three-year sentence for grand larceny and a probation violation. She was nervous and sometimes overwhelmed by all the things she knew she had to do when she went home, including dealing with her probation officer, finding a job, taking care of her two small children, and paying her court fines and restitution. Man
Matthew Andrews and Elizabeth (Liz) Graham had recently graduated college and planned to get married soon. They had both accepted jobs in Washington, DC, and would be moving to Gainesville, Virginia. Matthew would be working as a software engineer with both medical and life insurance, and Liz was taking a job as an advertising agent with no benefits. Until they started their jobs, neither Matthew
Rose is a single, 35-year-old social worker from Virginia who has decided to foster two small boys, with the goal of eventually adopting them. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment, which she knows does not provide the space she needs to accommodate the boys. She has been thinking about buying a house for a while, and her decision to take in the boys is the catalyst that causes her to take the next
Marsha Alstone was fascinated with mergers and acquisitions. She had been following the news of Preferred Airline Group Corporation's (PAG's) interest in, offer for, and 100% acquisition of West Coastal Air, Inc. (WCA). When the deal closed on December 2, 2018, just a few weeks before PAG's fiscal year-end, she found herself wanting to develop, on her own, the consolidated statement of cash flows
This technical note outlines the consequences to the acquirer, target, and the target's shareholders from a basic taxable acquisition of C corporations. Specifically, asset acquisitions, stock acquisitions, and 338(g) elections are covered. A numerical example illustrates the calculation of the after-tax proceeds to the target's shareholders and the after-tax cost to the acquirer.
This technical notes discusses three basic deal structures used to acquire another corporation. Asset acquisitions, stock acquisitions, and mergers under state law are the three common legal forms discussed.
Ryan and Robert Rosen, brothers and co-owners of BootsUnlimited.com (BU) are approaching the end of their three-week experiment in testing keywords for their Google AdWords campaign, eliminating poor-performing keywords and occasionally adding new ones. Will their campaign be a success, or will they have to find some other way to market BU's boots?
Robert Rosen and his brother, Ryan, took a look at the slow pace at which the budget for their family-owned company, BootsUnlimited.com (BU), was being spent. Many of the keywords they had chosen for their Google AdWords campaign in the hopes of boosting online sales at BU, were not being clicked on. What changes did they need to make?
BootsUnlimited.com (BU) is a website offering custom-made footwear. Customers can choose from a wide variety of styles and can also create new styles based on their exact specifications. The company instructs customers on how to provide 20 different foot and calf measurements, and from those measurements, the footwear is made in a Thai production facility. BU products cater to the custom boot mark
This technical note outlines the general judicial requirements an acquisition must meet to qualify as a tax-deferred reorganization. The variation in the specific requirements that must be met to qualify for different types of tax-deferred ("A," Forward Triangular "A," Reverse Triangular "A," "B," and "C") reorganizations are addressed. Finally, the specific tax consequences to the target's shareh
Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a holding company that invests in many diverse businesses. The most significant of those are property and casualty insurance businesses, although the company owns businesses in the railroad, utilities, energy, and finance industries as well. The case focuses on accounting for investments at Berkshire Hathaway. The company adopted the new US guid
This technical note helps explain what leadership really is, explores some of the factors that influence leader effectiveness, and introduces the basics of how people can begin to develop as leaders. It is an introduction to a very big topic area, but provides simple definitions and explanations of complicated concepts.
This case follows Nate Jamison as he determines which business entity to form for his growing City Moving Company (City Moving) in Washington, DC. From the start, Jamison operated City Moving as a sole proprietorship while he bootstrapped the business. Eventually he was able to get his own truck and hire two steady employees, and the three hope to formalize a business partnership to expand City Mo
This case represents an amalgam of commonly reported experiences people have when interacting with others from different social class backgrounds and positions of power. The A case takes the perspective of Dan Marlow, who grew up with access to financial and cultural resources and has built his own construction company. He has just fired Robby Gomez, an otherwise great worker, for chronic lateness
This case represents an amalgam of commonly reported experiences people have when interacting with others from different social class backgrounds and positions of power. The A case takes the perspective of Dan Marlow, who grew up with access to financial and cultural resources and has built his own construction company. He has just fired Robby Gomez, an otherwise great worker, for chronic lateness
This case asks students to review 10 columns of financial data drawn from 10 different companies and to match each with an industry in a list of 10 industries.
Readers are given specific steps to take when digging themselves out from under the frustrating experience of identity theft.
This case provides instructors with an opportunity to discuss some of the fundamental aspects of a typical public company's shareholders' equity financial reporting and financial disclosures. As such, students are provided with information pertaining to PepsiCo's common stock, preferred stock, stock repurchases, cash dividends, stock splits, and GAAP earnings per share (EPS) versus non-GAAP EPS. I
An investor, Janice Zhuk, examines Tesla's quarterly safety data that includes the number of miles it took to register one accident among Tesla cars driving with autopilot versus those without autopilot. The data set is small, so the validity of any statistical analysis may be compromised. The data allow one to run a simple t-test comparison of means. Because of the small sample size, the case inv
This is a Spanish translation of the May 11, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1085. This case deals with the means by which a company's board assess its strengths and weaknesses, identifies the skills and experience it needs, derives a list of suitable candidates, conducts "due diligence" in the process of narrowing in the list, and invites desirable candidates to join the board.
This is a Spanish translation of the May 10, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1083. This is the first case study of 12 in the Jack Wright series of cases on corporate governance. This first case describes the process by which Wright came to be asked to join the board of Mega Corporation. The case requires students to consider the pros and cons of board membership and decide whether they would recommend Wri
This is a Spanish translation of the May 13, 2011, version of UVA-OM- 1090. This case deals with the issues of the corporation's organizational structure and capital structure. Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board must consider a proposal to eliminate a large number of subsidiary companies to simplify the organization and another proposal to issue corporate bonds, the proceeds of which would
This is a Spanish translation of the May 16, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1093. This case finds Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board having to deal with a conflict situation involving a director and a "sticky situation" that has emerged from another board on which the director sits. The discussion must deal with both the director's dilemma on the other board and Jack's responsibilities as chair o
This is a Spanish translation of the May 13, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1089. There are many aspects of relationships between the board and management that are determined on a best effort basis. That is, the rules and by-laws of the company cannot prespecify the detailed workings of the intersecting interests. Our system of capitalism depends on the good faith efforts of all concerned to derive effec
This is a Spanish translation of the May 16, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1091. In this case, for which case 10 in the series provides a coda, Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board must deal with external pressures regarding the company's recent poor financial performance and the threat that a large amount of cash on hand might lead to a hostile takeover.
This is a Spanish translation of the May 11, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1086. This case study augments the chapter on board meetings. The purpose of meetings are illustrated as are Jack Wright's reactions to the flow of his first board meeting with Mega Corporation.
Rachel Moore was an optimistic, cheerful, friendly woman who had recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in business management. She had used scholarships and grants while working 30 hours a week to make up the difference in tuition, and had graduated debt free?becoming the first in her family to earn a college education.
After moving to start a full-time job a marketing manager at a marketin
Cecilia and Luke were recently married and were beginning to build a life together. Although they were complete opposites, they had been able to work through their differences and have a good relationship.
Luke was a musician who did not have a day job. Although his music was able to provide him with an income, it was not steady or reliable. Cecilia, on the other hand, had a steady job working as
Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan are widely regarded as two of the greatest basketball players in NBA history. Both led their teams to championships, and both were named MVP and All-Star multiple times. But Bryant, the "Black Mamba," and Duncan, the "Big Fundamental," had very different styles of play and ways of interacting with their teammates, coaches, and fans. This case offers an overview of these
Tessa Lyons was a rising star at Facebook. She had been the project manager in charge of news feed integrity for a little over a year, stationed at the front lines in the battle against misinformation and "fake news." However, in early 2019, she faced an ethical dilemma that could define her tenure at the company and perhaps her career: whether to ban Alex Jones and the content from his platform,
This case covers the initial public offering (IPO) of the Siemens subsidiary Healthineers. The March 2018 offering of the health care technology firm was heavily anticipated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and was Germany's largest IPO in more than 20 years.
Healthineers was one of Siemens' most successful businesses, and its management board had a keen interest in its long-term success and in th
