Build a Bear and Master Card

Build a Bear and Master Card

  • Submitted By: johncp
  • Date Submitted: 01/20/2010 4:50 PM
  • Category: Business
  • Words: 873
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 376

Build a Bear & MasterCard
John Perry
University of Phoenix

From the beginning of its conception, Build-A-Bear’s long term plans were to be part of the publicly traded market. Store sales had fallen considerably over a three year period causing management to take notice. The executive staff knew something had to be done to get sales up to a point that would make them attractive on the public market. Build a bear had plans for a $125 million initial public offering (Jackson, 2004). While making preparations for the success of its initial offering, Build-A-Bear made efforts to establish relationships with multiple investment banking firms. Stock pricing was also an issue. A main concern that the company had was being in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as well. Staff changes are needed prior to going public to help the process along (Thompson Financial, 2006).
Molly Salky IR Director stated, from the founding of BBW in 1997, the long term plan was to become a public company; therefore, from day one the company structured and grew its infrastructure with that goal in mind. Strategic planning, finance, and accounting systems, IT infrastructure, etc. were in place. (Thompson Financial, 2006, p. 13)
Where sales were concerned, executives spent millions of dollars on advertising each year leading up to the IPO. Build-A-Bear entered into licensing agreements with several manufacturers to develop a collection of their brand products (Jackson, 2004). This help build up brand awareness with consumers.
Build-A-Bear held several meetings with investment banking firms with sell-side analysts at each of these firms. Sell side analysts can gauge a company’s market awareness while giving management a clear understanding of the information interest’s analysts in the company’s industry. Stock price was also determined with the help of sell-side analysts. To comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, outside resources were hired to assist...

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