Students will gain a critical understanding of advanced topics in corporate finance, such as mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and venture capital investment. They will become familiar with the techniques used by practitioners and the institutional framework involved in these transactions; while gaining a sound theoretical background that will allow them to evaluate the appropriateness of "commonly used" practices for their own purposes.
Course Description: this course is divided in two parts. The purpose of the first part is twofold. First, the goal is to understand how Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) can create or destroy value for the different stakeholders. And second, the goal is to study how the design of the process of corporate finance transactions (M&A and IPOs) determine the outcome as much as valuation itself. The goal of the second part of the course is to gain a deep undesrtanding of the concepts and institutions involved in the venture capital and private equity industry, learn about the incentive problems faced by the different parties, and special emphasis will be put in understanding how each party is compensated and how to value venture capital deals.