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Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (A)

By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan

2009

It was nearly 10 years since Multi Media Mapping Ltd had gone live with the launch of the Multimap.com website and Sean Phelan, founder and majority shareholder, was facing the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma. The company had a successful platform and business model that had made it the market leader in the UK and a highly profitable ‘dot-com’ survivor of the Web 1.0 generation, but the market was evolving quickly and Sean was convinced that the company’s current technology platform didn’t have a future. The choice was whether to raise the stakes and bet on the company again in the evolving online mapping industry and emerging Web 2.0 environment, or commit to a process that may lead to the sale of the business.

As the company’s 10th anniversary party at the Earth Gallery in London’s Natural History Museum approached, Sean wondered whether the interests of the company’s various stakeholders – founders, management, option-holding employees and trade investors – were still aligned and how these interests might affect the choices he needed to make. It all seemed a long way from the early days, when he had seen the opportunity to change the way that maps would be used and bootstrapped Multi Media Mapping Ltd into existence.

Learning objectives

  1. Understand accounting valuations and how to apply valuation methodology
  2. Evaluate business acquisition proposals versus raising more funding to consolidate and finance company growth
  3. Illustrate the impact of sustaining and disruptive technological change

Details

Publication Date: April 2009
LBS Case Code: CS-20-002
Topic:
Subjects: , , , ,
Industry:
Geography:
Pages: 21
Format: pdf