This note introduces the concept of risk or merger arbitrage. Risk arbitrage is an investing method that attempts to capitalize on announced transactions pertaining ti mergers, spin-off, takeovers, liquidations and corporate restructuring. The arbitrageur attempts to create riskless profit by simultaneous purchase and/or sales of assets that are part of the announced transaction. In the the note we outline the basics types of deals and methods .....more

The case illustrates a sports betting product offered by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission. The particular game involved has odds that favour the bettor over the game provider under certain settings. The supplement B case, product 9B09E015, summarizes the results from a series of bets made and provides an email response from the game provider following the discontinuation of this particular game. The case provides an interesting introduction .....more

This supplement to OLGC Finds Its Match (A), product # 9B09E014, summarizes the results from a series of bets and provides the email response from the game provider following the discontinuation of this particular game.

After the successful Apollo series NASA formulated a new vision for the space program, incorporating a space station and guaranteeing routine access to space via a reusable space shuttle. In 1986, the space shuttle design included two solid-rocket launchers which required the use of O-rings to seal the joints. After each launch the launchers were retrieved, inspected and possibly reused is they did not display evidence of O-ring distress. The space .....more

Schering Plough is a large pharmaceutical company with over 22,000 employees worldwide, and over $6.8 billion in sales worldwide. The company is considering two options to replace its flagship drug, Claritin (an antihistamine), as Claritin's patent is soon to expire. One drug is targeted toward nasal congestion, the other towards asthma; however, each drug is at a different stage in the development process, one has greater market potential but .....more

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTAG) is considering offering a price guarantee to entice consumers to use their web site. Students will be introduced to break-even analysis and general spreadsheet modeling. This is an abridged version of Online Low Price Guarantees - Dollar.com, product # 9B04E016.

This case presents some information on the NCAA college basketball tournament and suggests a method for estimating the outcomes of games. The probability of winning is modeled as a normal distribution where the mean is based on a team's ratings. Students will be introduced to the normal distribution, sums of normal random variables and event simulations.

A business consultant at a large bank must determine if a report indicating that more than half the bank's credit card holders are unprofitable is true. This case contains a dataset that enables students to utilize some of the built in data functions in Excel and provides a basis for discussion of data-mining tools, products 7B04E017A and 7B04E017B.

The issue before the directors meeting of LanCo Catalogue Sales was the high level of product returns that the company was experiencing. These product returns were eroding profitability at a remarkable rate, however the directors were split into two camps over what to do about the problem. One camp believed that speeding up shipments would reduce the returned merchandise, while the other camp believed that this would merely increase shipping costs .....more

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group is an automobile rental service and has just launched its latest marketing campaign. The campaign is designed to entice customers to book car rental reservations on their website versus booking on more expensive online channels. The campaign hinges on a low price guarantee: book on Dollar's website, if rates go down Dollar will rebate you. A cost out for the low price guarantee can be determined using both historical .....more