June '23
Tim Hortons: On the Road to Recovery?
ByteDance Ltd: Navigating the Journey from Viewership to Profit
The case describes the growth of ByteDance Technology Co Ltd (ByteDance), one of the China's largest content platforms, which was founded in 2012 and shot up the rankings to become the world's biggest startup within six years of its inception. It starts with a background note on how Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, developed the idea of a news aggregation app powered by artificial intelligence. It then talks about the way ByteDance became a giant with a news site named Jinri Toutiao and with a slew of acquisitions and strategic investments. It also discusses ByteDance's mercurial growth and popularity across the globe and talks about several issues and challenges faced by the company such as scrutiny of clips on its apps and a backlash online for inappropriate and potentially dangerous content, adding to the regulatory woes. The case ends with the move by SoftBank Group Corp., KKR & Co., and General Atlantic to make a huge investment in ByteDance, an investment which could value the company as high as $75 bn, helping it eclipse Uber Technologies Inc. as the world's largest startup. More »
GoTo - A Merger of Indonesian Digital Giants
On May 17, 2021, PT Gojek Indonesia and PT Tokopedia, two Indonesian digital giants operating in the segment of online ride-hailing services and e-commerce business respectively, decided to merge. The merger was considered to be a landmark as it resulted in two digital services companies collaborating for the first time in the history of Indonesia. The combined entity, called GoTo, went in for an initial public offering (IPO) in April 2022. The response to the IPO was positive, with a large number of retail and institutional investors showing interest. This was considered to be a positive sign for the company as the IPOs of its competitors, Sea Limited and Grab Holdings Inc, had received a lukewarm response. However, GoTo reported a net loss of $444 mn for the quarter ending March 31, 2022, and the stock price went down to IDR 302 from the listed price of IDR 338. GoTo needed to sustain the confidence of investors amidst growing inflation and interest rates in the country, and growing competition. In this context, the case can be helpful in understanding the role of technology in the socioeconomic development of a country, the business model of super apps, marketing challenges faced by technology startups, the financial risks associated with investment in technology startups, and More »
Johnson & Johnson Spin-Off
The case is about Johnson & Johnson Corporation's (J&J) spin-off of its consumer health business. The company came into existence in the year 1886 and grew significantly over the years. Over a period of 135 years, while J&J expanded its business to countries around the world, it also faced various issues related to its products, among them its baby powder. The case highlights how these issues affected the performance of the company and increased its liability to about $24 bn by the end of September 2021. To rid itself of such liabilities, J&J came up with the plan of restructuring its business and started looking for various restructuring alternatives. The company decided to spin-off its consumer health business to reduce its debt burden. With this separation, it was expected to increase its focus on each business, strengthen its financial position, and offer more products and better health products to patients and consumers. It remains to be seen whether the spin-off decision is really going to help J&J revamp its position. More »
Moonlighting Conundrum: The Indian IT Industry's Troubled Phase
Moonlighting has roiled the IT industry like no other. While the Covid-19 pandemic has ringed in remote working for employees of technology firms, there has been a marked uptick in the number of moonlighting cases, as it has become a tad easier for employees to dabble in second job or business, dodging the knowledge of the primary employer. Tech companies bristle at moonlighting owing to legitimate concerns involving serious breaches of data security and trust and productivity impairment. Employers are tightening the screws on their employees in an attempt to dissuade them from taking up a side hustle for that "extra income". They are revisiting the employment contractual provisions and deploying tools and techniques to identify and prevent any risk associated with moonlighting. As the debate on multiple employment gathers steam, questions about the ethicality and legality of moonlighting practices abound. But the law is eerily silent on moonlighting. What should the government do to remove the ambiguities in the gray area? What explains this sudden surge in the number of employees moonlighting? Why do employees take up secondary employment dodging their primary employer's knowledge? Are the employers justified in calling moonlighting unethical? Can the primary employers put a stop to this practice of moonlighting, and if so, how? Is there a case for all the IT bellwether companies to acknowledge and recognize that moonlighting cannot be such a bad thing after all? More »