1

Course Title

International Business (Mergers &Acquisitions)Lecturecategory

Instructor
Ralf BebenrothCredit(s)1Course theme International Business (Merger and Acquisition in Japan)
Aim of this class is to provide Kobe MBA students knowledge aboutCourse
International Business in general and especially about Mergers andobjective
Acquisitions in a globalized world.
1. Introduction and motivation to become international, Friday, Sept.
24th 18.20-19.50
2. Basics of International Business, 20.00 – 21.30
3. Basics of M&A , Friday, Oct. 1st 18.20-19.50
Course outline 4. Others than M&A: Joint Ventures or Conglomerations, 20.00 –and schedule 21.30
5. Japanese M&A Market, Friday, Oct. 8th, 18.20-19.50
6. Unfriendly Takeover Bid situation in Japan, 20.00 – 21.30
7. Department stores and M&A, Friday, Oct. 15th, 18.20-19.50
8. Banking and M&A, 20.00 – 21.30
Evaluation
Report in English 80%; Participation in class 20%
MethodEvaluation
baseline

Evaluation baseline of this class is a report about an M&A topic
written in English language. As for participation, the lecturer
understands that some students speak English very well and others
not yet. The lecturer attempts to provide an open atmosphere, thateveryone can participate at the class.

Registration
information
Review andpreparation

There is no review or preparation for this class necessary. However,
if students want to prepare and to get ready to the topic, there aremany papers to read about that fascinating topic at the following
page: http://bebenroth.eu/publications/Contact
Information

rbeben@rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp

Message tostudents

The purpose of this class is to internationalize Kobe MBA students.
For Japanese managers there are many opportunities to conductbusiness in non-Japanese environment.
The lecturer wants Japanese firms not only to be world champion inproduction processes (monotsukuri) but also to sell these great
advancements in all over the world.
The lecturer is German and also not “perfect” in English.

Textbook

International Business Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan. Textbook,Springer 2015, 230 pages.

Reference
Materials

More than 100 papers written by the lecturer on that topic, at:
http://bebenroth.eu/publications/

Language

EnglishKeywords

Mergers and Acquisitions, Globalizing Japan

Reference URL http://bebenroth.eu2

Description of the class "International Business (M&A)"
2021 Class Autumn, Kobe University, Research Institute for Economics and Business
Administration, Lecture for MBA students.
1. Syllabus for “International Business (Mergers & Acquisitions)”
This class is provided four times on a Friday evening, starting from Sept. 24th to Oct.
15th 2019. It is a one comma class. Lecturer is Ralf Bebenroth, Kobe University,
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, rbeben@rieb.u-ac.jp.
Facilities will be used at Umeda campus.
2. Topic and aim
Topic of this class is International Business and especially the area of Mergers andAcquisitions. The aim of this class is to globalize Kobe university MBA students. The
lecturer himself is German and living in Japan for around 20 years. He is fully aware oflanguage difficulties. This class will be an active class, where students will receive
opportunity to express their opinions. The popular topic on Mergers and Acquisitions
should be a fruitful area to globalize MBA-Kobe students to make them global leaders.
3. Textbook and material used in class
The lecture is based on research articles written in the last years. There is also a textbook
available: International Business Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan. Textbook,Springer 2015, 230 pages.
The lecture will be based on new and relevant topics. Students, therefore, do not have toread articles before coming to class. Important is that students are capable inunderstanding and willing to participate in class on each Friday evening.
4. Grading
Grading of this class is split into a report what counts 80% and class participation (20%).
The lecturer is aware that some students might be more outspoken and better inarticulating themselves in English and others are not. However, the lecturer himself isGerman and fully understands that English as a foreign language has its difficulties.
Also, the class grading is not about English language proficiency but about how
globalized the students think in terms of International Business. This counts for thecontent of their report at the end of the term as well as for participation in class.
5. Report
Report has to be written in English about a relevant topic in the field of Mergers andAcquisitions. The length of the report should be around 10 pages. The size of lettersshould be 12 and as a scientific report, it should provide some citations and somereferences. The lecturer will talk about the assignment in class. For further questions on3
that topic, students should consult with the lecturer after class or to have a look intosome English speaking blind reviewed journals.
6. Teaching module
1. Introduction of the class and ongoing internationalization.
Keywords: Gloablization; Internationalization; Language and Communication
2. Basics of International Business.
Keywords: Corporate Japan; Foreign Firms in Japan; Foreigners in Japan
3. Basics of M&A ,Keywords: Definition of M&A, Theory of takeovers; Difference of strategic and financial
M&A
4. Others than M&A: Joint Ventures or Conglomerations.
Keywords: Joint Ventures; Conglomerations
5. Japanese M&A Market.
Keywords: Japanese Acquisition market, Importance of Japanese acquisitions
6. Unfriendly Takeover Bid situation in Japan.
Keywords: Unfriendly takeovers; Prevention measures
7. Department stores and M&A.
Keywords: History of department stores; Challenges, Japanese department store M&As
8. Banking and M&A.
Keywords: Non performing loan problems; Japanese Banking M&As

7. Lecture schedule
Lecture 1 on Sept. 24th, Friday, 18.20 – 19.50
Content: The lecturer discusses material showing importance for Kobe MBA students tobe able to keep up with the globalized world. We will discuss in class what globalized
leader means and there will be evidence presented that Japan needs to globalize. Thatsaid, the word “globalized” does not only mean to speak some English. It is aboutcommunication skills and to understand people from other countries.
Japanese leaders, and that almost ends with MBA education, here from Kobe University,
have to be able to understand people from other countries in order to outperform and tocompete against foreign firms from other countries.

4Lecture 2 on Sept. 24th 20.00 – 21.30
Content: The content is on the basics of International Business. We will discuss about:
Who owns corporate Japan. We will further have conversation about foreign firms inJapan and about foreigners in general in Japan. The last part of the class, we will talkabout the contrast of Western to Japanese management structures
Lecture 3 on Oct. 1st 18.20-19.50
Content: We will discuss intensively about basics of M&A. In this, we will elaborate on
theories and on reasons why mergers and acquisitions became also in Japan lately a very
popular topic.
Lecture 4 on Oct. 1st 20.00 – 21.30
Content: Besides M&As, we focus in this class on other constellations of firms, especiallyon Joint Ventures and will talk about the disadvantages but also about the strategic
advantages of Joint Ventures. In the second part of this class, we will focus onconglomerations. The latter part is especially in Japan an important aspect of business.
Lecture 5 on Friday, Oct. 8th, 18.20-19.50
Content: This lecture will deal especially with the Japanese M&A Market. Tendencies ofthe last years will be discussed and timely cases will be reported. These cases coverdomestic deals but also foreign firms coming into Japan and Japanese firms investingoutside of Japan. We will also talk about overpayment of Japanese firms taking over USfirms.
Lecture 6. on Friday, Oct. 8th, 20.00 – 21.30
Content: This lecture deals with so called unfriendly takeover market in Japan. These
deals pushed by the bidder firms against the will of the target management werepreviously unknown in Japan. However, lately they become popular. We discuss reasonsfor changes and some recent cases.
Lecture 7. on Friday, Oct. 15th, 18.20-19.50
Content: We will study about the general dilemma of department stores in Japan but
also all over the world. Problems of department stores are not only visible in Japan but
also at other countries. We will talk especially about Japanese department stores andwill discuss some specific cases of M&A.
Lecture 8. on Friday, Oct. 15th, 20.00 – 21.30
Content: This last lecture deals about banking relevant issues in M&A. We start ourjourney from the time after the bubble economy and non-performing loans to thetakeover of Lehmann Brothers Asia and Europe by Nomura shouken. At the end, wehave a round-up discussion about the whole course.