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Q.1)The case examines the business strategy of the US-based Aldi Inc, part of the Aldi Sd division of the Aldi Group (Aldi) based in Germany. Aldi (Short for Albrecht Discount), a discount retailer, entered the US in 1976. The discount retailer emphasized on keeping its cost low so that it could offer lower prices to its consumers. In order to fulfill its objective, Aldi selected lands for its stores in the city outskirts to take advantage of low rents. Aldi stores were smaller than a typical supermarket in the US. They were kept open only during the prime shopping time. In Aldi stores, the merchandise was displayed on pallets rather than on shelves so that less number of employees was required to arrange products on the shelves. Consumers had to carry their own shopping bags, or had to buy a reusable Aldi bag.

The case details how Aldi's cost effective operating strategy helped it to optimize profits during economic recession in the US. It also discusses a number of strategic initiatives that Aldi took to gain market share. The case ends with an analysis of whether Aldi would be able to sustain its growth in the US after recession or not.

Issues:

Understand the business model of Aldi.

Discuss the growth strategies of Aldi over the years.

Analyze the impact of recession on the US retail market.

Evaluate the business strategy of Aldi during economic recession in the US

Examine the reasons for Aldi's success in the US in a recessionary environment.

Q.2)The case discusses the acquisition of American Express Bank (AEB) by the UK-based Standard Chartered Bank. The deal marked the exit of AEB from its non-core business and for Standard Chartered it meant greater presence in the Asian countries and high net worth customers. The case also discusses how the deal was financed and the benefits both the parties expected to derive from it

Issues:

Examine the rationale behind the acquisition of AEB by Standard Chartered bank.

Understand the benefits Standard Chartered derived from the deal.

Analyze the post acquisition issues and challenges.

Q.3)In October 2007, RBS led consortium of Fortis Bank and Banco Santander had acquired ABN AMRO for US$ 100 billion after winning the bidding war with Barclays. The deal was the largest acquisition in the global banking industry till that time. RBS went ahead with the deal in spite of visible signs of looming sub-prime crisis. ABN AMRO was one of the largest financial institutions in the world and had significant presence in European nations. However, as a result of sub-prime crisis, asset values crashed and credit markets tumbled. Crash in asset valuations led to huge write downs for RBS. Acquiring ABN AMRO by paying large portion in cash severely strained RBS balance sheets. As solvency of RBS was threatened, the UK government stepped in to help it out resulting in the UK government becoming majority stake holder of RBS.

ABN AMRO's acquisition coupled with sub-prime crisis also led Fortis into trouble. Fortis customers lost confidence in the bank resulting in huge withdrawals. As Fortis was one of the biggest banks in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg, those governments came to its rescue from bankruptcy. Each government contributed certain amounts to Fortis in return for stakes in its operations in their respective countries. Later, majority stakes in Belgium and Luxemburg operations were sold to the French banking giant, BNP Paribas.

Banco Santander was the only bank in the consortium which did not incur any losses after ABN AMRO's acquisition. The bank sold some of its acquired operations within few days after announcing the acquisition which brought down its acquisition cost significantly. As Spanish banking regulator did not allow Spanish banks to indulge in risky banking practices, Banco Santander's exposure to the sub-prime related assets was lower which saved it from incurring any losses.

Issues:

Study the rationale behind the acquisition of ABN AMRO by the RBS led consortium.

Analyze the impact of subprime crisis on the consortium members after ABN AMRO's acquisition deal.

Critically examine and arrive at an appropriate valuation for ABN AMRO.

Appreciate the importance of due diligence and conservative valuation of an acquisition deal in the light of deteriorating macroeconomic environment.

Q.4)In September 2008, Maghound Enterprises, Inc., (Maghound Enterprises.) a subsidiary of Time Inc. (Time), launched a beta version of its Internet-based magazine distribution model called 'Maghound'. Maghound allowed customers to choose titles from different publishers by paying a monthly subscription fee, with the option to switch to other titles any time. The service was not limited to Time's publications but included competing publishers that chose to participate. The Maghound initiative was hailed by some industry analysts as a business model innovation in the magazine industry and an example of how traditional media providers were trying to reinvent their business models in response to new developments in the market.

With the rising popularity of the Internet, the magazine industry was facing some serious challenges and some analysts felt that models such as Maghound could give the whole industry a boost. However, others felt that the Maghound model was flawed and that it had to overcome some serious challenges if it wanted to achieve its objective. Almost one year after its launch, sales from this channel continued to be negligible. The challenge for Dave Ventresca (Ventresca), President, Maghound Enterprises, was to achieve the objective of building Maghound up as a scalable circulation source for the whole industry.

Issues:

To study the Maghound model and discuss and debate whether it is a business model innovation in the magazine industry.

To study the magazine industry and understand the issues and challenges faced by companies operating in this industry.

Discuss the pros and cons of the Maghound model.

Explore strategies that Time could follow to refine its Maghound model and build it up as a scalable circulation source for the whole industry.

Q.5)In January 2009, the US based Pfizer; the world's largest pharmaceutical company announced that it would acquire Wyeth, another leading pharmaceutical company based in the US, by paying US$ 68 billion in stock and cash. Lipitor, the world's best selling drug, developed by Pfizer would loose its patent protection in 2011. Lipitor contributed over 26% to Pfizer's revenues in 2008. However, with the patent expiry nearing and no probable block busters in pipeline, Pfizer faced risk of loosing huge part of its revenues once Lipitor is available for generic competition. Pfizer strategy to expand its product line and diversify its sources of revenue led it to acquire Wyeth.

Wyeth, on other hand, had patent expiry issues around the same time as Pfizer had. However, Wyeth had significant presence in bio-pharmaceuticals where Pfizer was lagging behind considerably. Bio-pharmaceuticals were expected to be growth engines in future and major pharma companies had started research in that area. The case examines the synergies and challenges for Pfizer after its acquisition of Wyeth.

Issues:

Evaluating the growth strategy adopted by Pfizer over the decades.

Examining the benefits to Wyeth from the acquisition deal.

Understanding the synergies and challenges arising out of Pfizer's acquisition of Wyeth.

Analyzing the deal between Pfizer and Wyeth quantitatively and qualitatively.

Appreciating the importance of intellectual property in knowledge based industries.

Understanding the dynamics of the US pharmaceutical industry.

Q.6)The case deals with Anomaly, a unique organization that claimed to be not "just an [advertising] agency, an incubator or a brand-strategy shop..." but all of these.

It describes Anomaly's business model, including the kind of solutions it provided to clients, the manner in which it earned revenues, and its emphasis on creating Intellectual Property (IP).

The case also discusses some of the different projects undertaken by Anomaly, and concludes with some information about its latest ventures and a brief overview of its future.

Issues:

Identify the forces that are changing the traditional advertising model in today's economic environment.

Understand the structure and practices of an innovative firm that is attempting to adapt to the new realities in advertising.

Q7.)This case is about Craigslist, Inc, one of the leading providers of online classified ads in the US. Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark (Newmark), Craigslist is an online community featuring free online classified advertisements related to jobs, housing, sales of a variety of products and services, gigs, resumes, discussion forums. As of May 2009, Craigslist offered local classifieds and forums for 570 cities in 50 countries worldwide. It generated over 20 billion page views per month and as many as 50 million users visited Craigslist each month. These included more than 40 million in the US alone as of March 2009.

The case discusses Craigslist's low-cost business model and the non-commercial aspects of its business that the company promoted.

The main objective of the Craigslist business model was to satisfy the users and provide a service based on trust and simplicity. The company said its goal was not to maximize profits but to offer localized service which was free as well as convenient for users. Craigslist offered free service to all its users except in certain cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York where it charged a nominal sum for recruitment ads and for brokered apartment listings in New York City. According to some analysts, Craigslist's business was non-commercial in nature and Newmark perceived it to be a community-based model rather than a for profit business. The website of the company was simple with no frills, similar to the classified section of a newspaper.

The case also discusses the criticism faced by Craigslist for promoting violence and illegal activities on its site. In particular, its erotic services category attracted a lot of criticism and scrutiny from regulators in the US. Craigslist was dogged by controversy after crimes were reported nationally following contacts made through postings on the site. After that, the company tried to closely scrutinize postings on its website and replaced the erotic services category with an adult services section. The case concludes with the future challenges for Craigslist. Experts pointed out that the biggest issue for Craigslist was controlling spammers and scammers. In order to stay in the competition, it was important for Craigslist to overcome the problems which continued to plague the site, they said.

Issues:

Analyze the online classifieds market in the US and study its effect on the newspaper classifieds business.

Evaluate the low-cost business model of Craigslist.