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Business contracts are formed through negotiations, where the parties agree on some terms, disagree on others and keep yet others undecided. Over a period of time, they see themselves as having moved from being negotiating parties to contracting parties, settling on most of the terms. The law, however, states that a contract is formed when a person makes an offer and the other accepts it. The principle arose from the rudimentary trade practices in the past. The principles coming from the prior centuries and the modern business practices may not be in consonance. The Gibson v. Manchester City Council Case, a judgement of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, reviewed attempts to modernize the law.

This case is used in Darden's course elective, Corporate Financing, and is accompanied by a teaching note for instructors and Excel spreadsheet for students. The Carlyle Group IPO case explores the circumstances leading up to the firm's IPO in May 2012. Over the past 25 years, Carlyle had grown from a fledgling private equity firm to one of the world's largest and most diversified investment firms. Carlyle had prepared extensively for the roadshow; management anticipated some tough questions. Students are asked to evaluate the extent to which Carlyle is undervalued relative to its peers. The case provides information on how to evaluate the earnings received by the public shareholders and outlines several alternative approaches to value PPEs.