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Case Study

Tyco: Driven by growth, driven to a fall

By Stewart Hamilton and Alicia Micklethwait

23 pages

February 2005

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Reference: IMD-1-0218

Under Kozlowski’s (CEO) leadership Tyco embarked on an acquisition spree that produced one of America’s largest conglomerates. Kozlowski’s power and wealth grew in tandem. But this was not enough. Kozlowski’s ambition was for Tyco to become the new GE. At the same time, he, and his CFO, Swartz, looted the company of millions of dollars. Expansion into financial services and investigations by the SEC into Tyco’s aggressive accounting practices finally brought the company to the brink of collapse. A whole suite of court cases ensued as shareholders suffered an 80% loss.

Keywords

Conglomerate, Executive Compensation, Board Oversight, Fraud, Greed

Settings

United States of America
2002

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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