Massmart acquired Game in September 1998. Unlike its own mass retailer, Dion, which had experienced difficulties since 1993, Game had enjoyed great historical success. The merger of the two businesses was an obvious decision, but Massmart was haunted by the fact that its attempt to merge Dion and Makro five years previously had proven to be a disaster. This case examines the complexities of mergers and acquisitions by comparing and contrasting Massmart’s Dion/Makro merger with the Dion/Game merger.

No. Pages: 23 

In September 2014, Calum McCracken, chief executive officer (CEO) of Next Generation Network Telecommunications (Pty) Ltd (NGN Telecoms), met with his partners to discuss the company’s Kenyan dilemma.

It was 21 February 2006. Maria Ramos, CEO of Transnet, one of the largest parastatals in South Africa, was facing a strike by the unions, representing more than 85 000 people. After consulting government and key customers, the Transnet board had chosen to cut away those of its businesses not associated with freight transport after the government, its sole shareholder, had given it a mandate to reduce the cost of doing business.

This case is about competing bids from AngloGold in South Africa and Newmont in America for the control of Normandy, Australia's largest gold producer. The choices facing AngloGold in its strategy to acquire Normandy and ward off the competing Newmont bid are presented. The vagaries of national perceptions and loyalties, exchange rates, media and investor relations and the key role of arbitrageurs and hedge funds are introduced.  A platform to analyse and compare strategies for bidding and target companies to respectively gain and resist control, is created..

No of Pages: 8

Marketing manager at South African Breweries, Trevor Hughes, investigated how best, to meet the needs of both an established, sophisticated market and, at the same time, the markets in townships and rural areas. He had hired a consultancy firm which had not produced results. He wanted to prevent a repeat failure. A number of dilemmas had to be addressed to ensure ‘value for money’. Hughes pondered over which firm he should hire, wondering whether he should give preference to a local firm, or an international one that had a long working history with SAB. How could he measure success?

Against a background of intense merger and acquisition activity in the brewing industry, Chief Executive of South African Breweries (SAB) Graham Mackay, faced a difficult decision in early 2002. By this time talks about the possible acquisition of the USA’s second largest beer producer, Miller Brewing, by SAB, were well advanced. The proposed deal would reshape the top tier of the global brewing industry, catapulting the fourth and seventh largest brewers in the world to the number two position.

In mid-2017, David Gluckman, director of Lumkani, contemplated the company’s next strategic move. Lumkani, a South African start-up company, manufactured an early-warning fire detection system designed for shack-dwellers in informal settlements, with the aim of reducing deaths and damage due to fire in those communities.

No of pages: 11 pages

With many years of experience as an entrepreneur and businessman, Alan Reeves, chief operating officer (COO) of Legendary Retail Brands (LRB), which was the shareholder and administrator of the Mica, DIY Depot and House of Paint and Décor voluntary buying group (VBG) brands, was continuously thinking about the next step for the group. Member profitability was good, despite a tough economic environment, but Reeves was aware that this could change easily.

It was June 2006 and Shaun Matisonn, CEO of PruHealth plc – a 50/50 joint venture formed in late 2004 between Discovery Holdings in South Africa and Prudential plc in the United Kingdom (UK) – was about to relocate his office from Johannesburg to London. As he contemplated his move, Matisonn wondered how he was going to make the joint venture work. While PruHealth was showing early signs of success, Matisonn knew that joint ventures were notoriously difficult to manage, especially across two different continents.

In September 2016, Wits Business School MBA student, Rishka Reddy was reviewing the information she had gathered for a proposal she was considering putting to Andreas Joehle, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Paul Hartmann Group, a leading international supplier of medical, hygiene and healthcare products. The proposal, which she hoped would result in an internship opportunity at Hartmann, presented Reddy’s strategy on how Hartmann could best expand into sub-Saharan Africa.