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Description of the class "International Business (M&A)"
2019 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. 20th to Oct.
11th 2019. It is a one comma class. Lecturer is from Kobe University, Research Institutefor Economics and Business Administration, Ralf Bebenroth, rbeben@rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp.
For this class, facilities will be used at Umeda campus.
2. Topic and aim
Topic of this class is International Business and especially but not only the area ofMergers and Acquisitions and the aim of this class is to globalize Kobe university MBAstudents. The lecturer himself is German and living in Japan for around 20 years and isfully aware of language difficulties. This class will be an active class, where students will
receive opportunity to express their opinions. The popular topic on Mergers andAcquisitions 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 the following textbook: International Business Mergers andAcquisitions in Japan. Textbook, Springer 2015, 230 pages.
In addition to this textbook, the lecturer has written many other articles in the meantime
and since then (2015) many new acquisitions occurred. The lecture will be based on newand relevant topics. Students, therefore, do not have to read articles before coming toclass. Important is that students are capable in understanding 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 have 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

2that 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 and evidence that Kobe MBA students need to be globalized.
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 , Friday.
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. 20th, Friday, 18.20 – 19.50
Content: The lecturer brings evidence of the importance for Kobe MBA students to beable to keep up with the globalized world. We will discuss in class what globalized leadermeans and there will be evidence presented that Japan needs to globalize. That said, theword “globalized” does not only mean to speak some English. It is about communication
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.
Lecture 2 on Sept. 20th, 20.00 – 21.30

3Content: The content is on basics of International Business. We will discuss about: Whoowns corporate Japan. We will further have conversation about foreign firms in Japanand about foreigners in general in Japan. The last part of the class, we will talk about
the contrast of Western to Japanese management structures
Lecture 3 on Sept. 27th 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 Sept. 27th, 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. 4th, 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. 4th, 20.00 – 21.30
Content: This lecture deals with so called unfriendly takeover market in Japan. Thesedeals 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. 11th, 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. 11th, 20.00 – 21.30
Content: This last lecture deals about banking relevant M&A. We start our journey fromthe time after the bubble economy and non-performing loans to the takeover of Lehmann
Brothers Asia and Europe by Nomura shouken. Besides globalized expectations of thebig three banking corporations, we also discuss recent trend of melting together local
banks from Kansai area.