Objective The purpose of this assignment is to write a report about a case of a partnership alliance you will need to make critic about the situation, mentioning the positive and negative issues related with the partnership and making a formal proposal for avoid the negative issues for taking into consideration in future opportunities. You can use any type of information source like: Annual reports Magazines, or articles in specialized means Internet sources including company corporate web, etc. Remember this is a real case

Case - An investigation prompts an acrimonious and lengthy partnership dispute

In 2008, after three years of an acrimonious dispute with a partner, the French beverage and yogurt producer Groupe Danone was facing major losses associated with its investment in China. Danone had established a joint venture with a Chinese company, the Wahaha group, in the 1980s. The joint venture sold beverages under the Wahaha brand, and all indications were that the venture was very successful, with increasing market share in China. However, in 2005 executives at Danone noticed that the financial figures sent to them from the Wahaha Group seemed inconsistent and started an internal investigation. Danone investigators concluded that Wahaha's chairman, Zong Qinghou, had established companies outside the joint venture that were copying the products produced by the joint venture. This was causing potential losses of millions of dollars. Danone started negotiations with Wahaha to try and solve this problem. The negotiations centered on a dispute as to who owned the Wahaha brand. In 2007, after two years of acrimonious negotiations, Danone filed a lawsuit in California against a company set up by ong' s relatives.

IBM 210Fall 2021 Prepared by Dr. Eduardo M. V. Jasson When the lawsuit was filed, Zong, who originally founded Wahaha, resigned as chairman, stating that he did not want to deal with Danone's lies about secret companies any longer. Shortly after, Wahaha, which was 51 percent owned by Danone, released communications to all employees accusing Danone of bullying tactics and evil deeds. In August 2008, Danone suffered a major setback when a Chinese court ruled that the Wahaha group owned the copyright of the Wahaha brand, and not Danone. "This is not a message that you can't do business in China. But if you come to China and let the Chinese run the business without supervision, they can do this kind of thing." Steve Dickinson, Harris and Moure law firm said.