Publications
Publications
- May 2015
- HBS Case Collection
Venture Republic, 2011
By: W. Carl Kester and Mayuka Yamazaki
Abstract
In December 2011, the founders of Venture Republic, a Japanese developer and operator of on-line search engines for shopping and travel, faced a decison about whether or not to take the company private in a management buyout transaction just three years after an initial public offering in Japan. To arrive at a suitable recommendation, students must value the enterprise at a time when its growth was just beginning to accelerate following the financial crisis; determine an appropriate capital structure and loan package for the company; and establish a viable management buyout process (MBO) in which potential conflicts of interest between the buying owner-managers and the selling shareholders can be appropriately managed. The advantages and disadvantages of public versus private ownership are also a focal point of this case study.
Keywords
Management Buyout; MBO; Valuation Methodologies; Financing Decisions; Conflicts Of Interest; Governance; Japan; Search Engines; Going Private; Conflict of Interests; Search Technology; Valuation; Privatization; Financing and Loans; Corporate Governance; Web Services Industry; Japan
Citation
Kester, W. Carl, and Mayuka Yamazaki. "Venture Republic, 2011." Harvard Business School Case 215-076, May 2015.
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