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 about
CourseInternational Business in general and especially about Mergers andobjective
Acquisitions in a globalized world.
1. Introduction and overview, Friday, March 8th 18.20-19.50
2. Basics of International Business, March 8th 20.00 – 21.30
3. Basics of M&A , Friday, March 15th 18.20-19.50
4. Others than M&A: Joint Ventures or Conglomerations, March 15thCourse outline 20.00 – 21.30
and schedule 5. Japanese M&A Market, Friday, March 22nd 18.20-19.50
6. Unfriendly Takeover Bid situation in Japan, March 22nd 20.00 –21.30
7. Department stores and M&A, Friday, March 29th 18.20-19.50
8. Banking and M&A, March 29th 20.00 – 21.30
Evaluation
Report in English 80%; Participation in class 20%
MethodEvaluation
baseline

Evaluation baseline of this class is a 5-page 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 necessary for attending this class.
However, if students want to be prepared and to get ready to thetopic, there are many 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 provide Kobe MBA students apossibility to articulate in English about business. English speaking
Japanese managers have opportunities to conduct business in nonJapanese environment and to make a career.
The lecturer wants Japanese firms not only to be world champion inproduction processes (monotsukuri) but also to sell these great
achievements all over the world. The lecturer is German and also not“perfect” in the use of English language.

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, some of it
to download at: http://bebenroth.eu/publications/Language

English (only in case of difficulties Japanese)

Keywords

Mergers and Acquisitions, Globalizing Japan

Reference URL http://www.bebenroth.eu

2Description of the class "International Business (Merger and Acquisition in Japan)"March 2024 Class: Kobe University, Research Institute for Economics and Business
Administration.
1. Syllabus for “International Business (Mergers & Acquisitions)”
This class is provided four times on a Friday evening, starting from March 8th to March
29th 2024. It is a one comma class. Lecturer is Ralf Bebenroth, professor at Kobe
University,ResearchInstituteforEconomicsandBusiness

Administration,

rbeben@rieb.u-ac.jp. This class will be given via Zoom online.
2. Topic and aim
Topic of this class is International Business and especially diving into Mergers andAcquisitions. The aim of this class is to globalize Kobe university MBA students to atleast make them understand English on a context based lecture. The lecturer himself isGerman and living in Japan for more than 20 years. He is fully aware of language
difficulties. This class will be an active class, where students will receive opportunity toexpress their opinions. The popular topic on Mergers and Acquisitions should be a
fruitful area to globalize MBA-Kobe students to make them even better global leaders inbusiness.
3. Textbook and material used in class
The lecture is based on research articles the lecturer wrote in the last years. There isalso an older textbook available: International Business Mergers and Acquisitions inJapan. 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. And thelecturer himself knows that a Friday evening – especially online via Zoom – is a difficult
challenge to keep attention.
4. Grading
Grading of this class is split into a report what counts 80% and class participation (20%)
of students. The lecturer is aware that some students might be more outspoken andbetter in articulating themselves in English, while others are not. However, the lecturer
himself is German and fully understands that English as a foreign language has itsdifficulties. Also, the class grading is not about English language proficiency but abouthow globalized the students think in terms of International Business. This applies to thecontent of the report at the end of the term as well as for participation in class. Everystudent is encouraged to participate actively in this class.

35. Report
A 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 5 pages plus an abstract andsome references. The size of letters should be 12 and as a scientific report, it should
provide some citations and some references. The lecturer will talk about the assignment
in class. For further questions on that topic, students should consult with the lecturer
after class or to have a look into some English speaking blind reviewed journals tounderstand how scientific reports are written.
6. Teaching module
1. Introduction of the class and ongoing internationalization.
Keywords: Globalization; 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 Friday, March 8th 18.20 – 19.50
Content: The lecturer presents some material showing the importance for Kobe MBAstudents to internationalize, to be able to keep up with the globalized world ofinternational business. We will discuss in class what globalized leader means and there

4will be evidence presented that Japan needs to globalize. That said, the word “globalized”
does not only mean to speak some English. It is about communication skills tounderstand the mind of people from other countries. Japanese leaders – and that almost
ends with MBA education here from Kobe University – have to be able to understandpeople from other countries in order to outperform and to compete against foreign firms
in other countries.
Lecture 2 on Friday, March 8th 20.00 – 21.30
Content: The content of the second lecture on that day is on the basics of InternationalBusiness. We will discuss some of the following questions: Who owns corporate Japan?
We will further have conversation about foreign firms in Japan and about foreigners inJapan. In the last part of the class, we will talk about the contrast of Western to Japanesemanagement structures.
Lecture 3 on Friday, March 15th 18.20-19.50
Content: We will dive into the basics of M&A. In this respect, we will elaborate ontheories and on reasons why mergers and acquisitions became also in Japan recently avery popular topic. We will naturally also talk about the impact of Covid-19 on M&As.
Lecture 4 on Friday, March 15th 20.00 – 21.30
Content: In the second part of this evening, we focus in this class on other constellationsof firm collaborations. We will investigate Joint Ventures and talk about thedisadvantages but also about the strategic advantages of Joint Ventures. In the second
part of this class, we will focus on conglomerations. The latter part is especially in Japanan important aspect of business as there are still many traditional firms with many areasof competences.
Lecture 5 on Friday, March 22nd 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, March 22nd 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 unfriendly acquisitions also in Japan
become a popular topic. We discuss reasons for changes and the lecturer presents somerecent cases on unfriendly acquisitions.

5Lecture 7. on Friday, March 29th 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. By focusing on Japanese department stores, will discuss somespecific cases of M&A in this industry.
Lecture 8. on Friday, March 29th 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 loan problems tothe takeover of Lehmann Brothers Asia and Europe by Nomura shouken. Further, wediscuss more relevant deals in this industry such as the SBI Holdings takeover of Shinseibank. At the end, we have a round-up discussion about the whole course.