In 2011 Katrina Lake launched a new type of online retailing, Stitch Fix, a personal styling service based on a mix of human creativity and artificial intelligence, and grew it into a $3.6B company. Like many other successful retail businesses, it rapidly caught Jeff Bezos’s eye. And nothing good comes when Jeff Bezos notices you and decides to compete.

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).