Private equity buyouts - Sunday Times supplement

Private Equity hasn’t really featured very strongly in the Business Studies syllabus before, but may come more to the fore this year in the study of mergers and takeovers. A supplement in yesterday’s Sunday Times which examines ‘private equity backed firms with the fastest growing profits’ is worth getting hold of, as it gives some help on the role of private equity in the M&A market.

Articles in the supplement look at the ten biggest buyouts with the fastest growing profits, how acquisitions have driven profit growth for a third of the companies listed, as well as the role that ‘supportive lenders’ can play in making acquisitions in a downturn and the ‘flight to quality’ amongst buyers. There are also references to other aspects of the syllabus with 39 of the companies having boosted their profits by expanding overseas, and more of them relying on innovation through increased spending on R&D. Overall I think this will give some interesting additions to BUSS4 research.

Copycats and ‘Me Too’ products [25 May 2012]
Epic fail: how to do really badly [15 May 2012]
Takeovers and Mergers - the failed takeover behind Clinton Cards’ Collapse [9 May 2012]
Technological change - manufacturing and innovation [20 Apr 2012]
Strategy - How Nokia was overtaken by Apple and Samsung [17 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Business & the Technological Environment [9 Apr 2012]
The Main Motives Behind Takeovers and Mergers [26 Mar 2012]
Apple’s new CEO and a new iPad - A Change in Leadership [9 Mar 2012]
Start-ups - the Wooden Smartphone? [4 Mar 2012]
Pink bricks for girls?  Lego builds a new strategy [2 Mar 2012]
VW targets growth markets [26 Feb 2012]
Ideas not Hierarchy Makes a Business - Steve Jobs on Teamwork & Culture [13 Feb 2012]
Innovation in Business - Perspectives from Stephen Elop (CEO of Nokia) [12 Feb 2012]
Product innovation - extending the humble cupcake [10 Feb 2012]
The history of Apple’s product innovation - in 30 seconds [10 Feb 2012]
The 7p Valentines Day Card [1 Feb 2012]
How to turn threats into an opportunity at Ryanair [31 Jan 2012]
Success for the Daily Mail’s online strategy [30 Jan 2012]
Leadership - Howard Schultz on the importance of leading an innovative culture [29 Jan 2012]
Strategic choice: What should Apple do for its investors? [29 Jan 2012]
Technological change: 3-D printing promises a new industrial revolution [28 Jan 2012]
Technological change: now you can have your own factory! [28 Jan 2012]
External influences: the threat that is China [22 Jan 2012]
What’s gone wrong for Kodak? [19 Jan 2012]
Business size and the innovation debate [11 Jan 2012]
Revision Presentation - Innovation [2 Jan 2012]
Business Innovation - where do good ideas come from? [2 Jan 2012]
Investment in People - Google and Human Capital [26 Dec 2011]
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Gerald Ratner [27 Nov 2011]
A trip down memory lane for a great business studies resource [3 Nov 2011]
Technology and Business - Microsoft’s vision of the mobile future is astounding (video) [28 Oct 2011]
Strategy case study - does Microsoft have a long-term strategy? [21 Oct 2011]
How PepsiCo are trying to control diseconomies of scale [18 Oct 2011]
Pining for Success - Heston’s mince pie innovation [13 Oct 2011]
Ansoff and the Boston Matrix can’t help Kodak [6 Oct 2011]
Messy Contributions…. recipe for success? [29 Sep 2011]
Invention in a Bottle [28 Sep 2011]
Insights on invention from Trevor Bayliss [14 Sep 2011]
Can investment in R&D provide a competitive advantage? [31 Aug 2011]
Luke Johnson on sources of finance for a startup [29 Aug 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
Innovation and Persistence holds the Key for King of Shaves [4 Jul 2011]
Evan Davis ‘Made in Britain’ - and a new trade data tool to play with [21 Jun 2011]
The Chocolate Business Angel’s Views on Entrepreneurs [21 Jun 2011]
Technology & innovation - extending the humble contact lense [9 Jun 2011]
Organic growth strategy - the benefits if firms “believe in better” [24 May 2011]
Jaguar goes for NPD investment with £5bn plan [10 May 2011]
Michael Porter - Shared Value and the Limitations of CSR [15 Feb 2011]
An idea that’s a lot of hot air…. [11 Jan 2011]
Innovation and ideas - what makes a successful business concept? [8 Jan 2011]
Video case study - Harris Tweed prospers through innovation and international expansion [29 Dec 2010]
Innovation and Invention - the Toy Story [23 Dec 2010]
Innovative ice breakers to fill a market gap [2 Dec 2010]
Dominos Pizza - Growth & Strategy (Part 2) - Innovation, Service and Smart Operations [26 Nov 2010]
Dominos Pizza - Growth & Strategy (Part 1) - Driving Competitive Advantage [26 Nov 2010]
Strategy - The Challenges Facing Nokia [21 Oct 2010]
Google on the changing face of advertising [8 Oct 2010]
The technological wave in television - who will win the 3D battle? [30 Jul 2010]
Does Nokia’s Strategy Need An Upgraded CEO? [30 Jul 2010]
Retail banking through the ages - a pictoral guide [29 Jul 2010]
Sony’s Product Development Timeline [13 Jul 2010]
BUSS4 Recession Strategies - The Crucial Role of the Business Model [6 Jun 2010]
Some facinating data on research & development data at Apple, Google & Microsoft [25 May 2010]
Profit seeking paradoxes in an oblique world [15 May 2010]
Container shipping: the greatest business innovation of the 20th Century? [11 May 2010]
Book wars! [5 May 2010]
Starbucks - the Famous Strategic Change Memo from 2007 [21 Apr 2010]
Strategy in a recession - global innovators keep investing [25 Feb 2010]
Strategic reaction to the UK recession - notes and observations [9 Feb 2010]
Innovation - Is Entertainment Letting Us Down? [2 Jan 2010]
Revision Presentation - Innovation & Invention for New Businesses [1 Jan 2010]
Innovation & Protecting a Business Idea - Classroom Video [30 Oct 2009]
Entrepreneur takes advantage of the postal strike [24 Oct 2009]
The Jenson Button Business Lesson [21 Oct 2009]
Corporate culture: how a huge firm like Google tries to foster innovation [23 Sep 2009]
Can you spot the next ‘disruptive technology’? [7 Sep 2009]
A dramatic fall in business investment [27 Aug 2009]
Is Friends Reunited in freefall? [2 Aug 2009]
Innovation helps firm buck the recession [9 Jul 2009]
Microsoft and Google compete head-to-head [9 Jul 2009]
Spare capacity prompts a fall in business investment [4 Jul 2009]
Q&A - Outline the main costs and benefits of inflation [1 Jul 2009]
Q&A - Should a start-up raise investment from outside investors? [27 May 2009]
Business strategy video - two interviews with CEO of Virgin Atlantic [26 May 2009]
Q&A - Why are start-ups vulnerable to cash flow problems? [26 May 2009]
Q&A - How is profit used by a business? [26 May 2009]
M&S suffers a fall in profits and cuts dividend [23 May 2009]
Q&A - What is meant by Social Enterprise? [22 May 2009]
Q&A -  What is share capital [2 May 2009]
Q&A - What is profit-sharing? [1 May 2009]
Q&A - What are retained profits? [1 May 2009]
Q&A - What causes an exchange rate to change? [1 May 2009]
Q&A - What is a sole trader? [1 May 2009]
Q&A - What is a cash flow forecast? [1 Apr 2009]
Q&A - What is profit and why is it important? [1 Mar 2009]
Q&A - What are the advantages to a start-up of being a franchise? [1 Mar 2009]
The business with an interest bill of £2.2m per day [30 Jan 2009]
A good example of over-optimistic sales forecasting [10 Jan 2009]
Bracing ourselves for a series of retail business failures? [21 Dec 2008]
Rapstrap becomes Dragons Den’s Biggest Success to-date [17 Sep 2008]

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