Israel-based Mellanox Technologies was a significant player in the high-performance computing space, commanding a dominant position in the InfiniBand and Ethernet NICs market. NVIDIA announced its intention to acquire Mellanox in March 2019, a move designed to deepen its presence in the data centre sector. The deal was meant to lead to significant benefits for NVIDIA and enable further growth.

Vonage was a market leader in the VoIP space, with operations spread across the US, Europe, and Asia. In the autumn of 2021, telecom giant Ericsson announced its intention to acquire Vonage in an all-cash deal of USD 6.2 billion. The deal was expected to strengthen Ericsson’s presence in the enterprise telecommunications market and lead to substantial synergies.

Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrier, finds itself at a critical juncture in 2022. Despite past restructuring efforts, the airline continues to grapple with persistent challenges, including mounting debt, high operational costs and declining revenues, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mergers and acquisitions offer great potential for strategic growth through synergies and creating efficiencies in operations, market access, and effective management of human resources. In reality, most of these fail, causing destruction of value and financial loss. Often, it’s the lack of experience and sensitivity of executives and board members that lead to unfavorable outcomes.

The case focuses on Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), a state-owned enterprise (SOE), and its decision to enter the ultra-microfinance segment. It starts with a brief history of the bank and the government’s involvement, before discussing BRI’s current position and how it engages with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Case A explores Goldman’s corporate strategy and growth, charting its history from when Marcus Goldman moved to the US and launched a commercial paper business in 1869. It follows the firm’s expansion in terms of its products/services, and its growth via acquisitions and alliances.

Case A explores Goldman’s corporate strategy and growth, charting its history from when Marcus Goldman moved to the US and launched a commercial paper business in 1869. It follows the firm’s expansion in terms of its products/services, and its growth via acquisitions and alliances.

The case describes the lead-up to the offer to acquire Baxalta Inc by Shire PLC in the summer of 2015, weeks after Baxalta was spun out of Baxter’s BioScience business. The setting is the biopharmaceutical sector – the fastest-growing in the global pharmaceutical industry in 2014, when M&As reached a record $219.4 billion.

This fictional case introduces an M&A deal structuring exercise. Two strategy consulting companies, East Coast Strategy Consultants Inc. (EAST) and West Coast Strategic Management Advisory Corp. (WEST), are contemplating acquiring a company in the accounting and advisory services sector, either Ocean & Whistle Accounting (OW) or LeDosh (LD).

The events in this case, which are fictional, provide a background for class discussion about problem-solving, critical thinking, stakeholder management and crisis management.