Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • April 2016 (Revised June 2017)
  • Teaching Note
  • HBS Case Collection

Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar

By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:21
ShareBar

Abstract

In spring 2015, Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling was looking ahead to retiring at year's end but worried about ensuring continued growth for the company he had built since 2008 into a market leader in the U.S. discount retail world. Dollar General operated over 11,500 stores in 40 states at the start of 2015, but had recently been rebuffed in a tender offer for its leading rival, Family Dollar. Though Dollar General had held talks with Family Dollar as early as 2013, Family Dollar shareholders chose to ignore Dollar General's more lucrative tender offer and the urging of several activist investors and sold their firm to the smaller Dollar Tree chain. Dreiling could not help but revisit some of the key decisions he and the rest of the board had made in their pursuit of Family Dollar. From a governance perspective, he was confident that the Dollar General board had fulfilled its duty to shareholders during the bidding process despite Family Dollar's decision to sell to Dollar Tree. From a strategic perspective, he wondered whether Family Dollar had been the right competitor to buy.

Keywords

Dollar General; Family Dollar; Dollar Tree; Antitrust; Board Of Directors; Activist Investors; Federal Trade Commission; Acquisition; Valuation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry

Citation

Heese, Jonas, Paula A. Price, and Suraj Srinivasan. "Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 116-052, April 2016. (Revised June 2017.)
  • Purchase

About The Authors

Jonas Heese

Accounting and Management
→More Publications

Suraj Srinivasan

Accounting and Management
→More Publications

Related Work

    • April 2016 (Revised June 2017)
    • Faculty Research

    Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar

    By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan
    • January 2019
    • Faculty Research

    Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar Spreadsheet Supplement

    By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan
Related Work
  • Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan
  • Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar Spreadsheet Supplement By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College