Product details

In the late 1990s, Corning Inc - one-time supplier to Thomas Edison, creator of Pyrex and Corning Ware, and inventor of fiber-optic cable - enjoyed several years of rapid-fire growth, thanks to demand from the newly deregulated telecommunications industry. During this period, the 160-year-old company sold several of its traditional businesses and spent USD10 billion on high-tech acquisitions. In 2000, the year that Corning's stock soared to USD113 a share, sales of fiber-optic cable accounted for 40 percent of its revenue. But when the dot-com sector crashed, sales of Corning's star product plummeted. In this case, students analyze financial data from both Corning and one of its competitors to determine how Corning should account for the diminished value of its acquisitions and assets.