Chevron Left
Back to Advanced Valuation and Strategy - M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Advanced Valuation and Strategy - M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital by Erasmus University Rotterdam

4.6
stars
1,200 ratings

About the Course

Hi and welcome to this course! Would you like to learn about the latest valuation methods that may help you to make better business decisions? Then 'Advanced Valuation and Strategy – M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital' by Erasmus University Rotterdam is the right course for you! This course is helpful for executives that need to value complete strategies and for all students interested in corporate finance and strategy. We present the latest tools and show you how to apply them! We will revolutionize your way of decision making, by extending static techniques from corporate finance with dynamic methods to quantify strategic thinking. Traditionally, we assess the attractiveness of an investment as a mature business, where future cash flows mainly result from past decisions. But, in an ever-changing world, strategic decisions determine the firm’s long-term success and market value. Yet managers often have to consider these long-term implications using intuition and experience alone, with little guidance from structured, quantitative analysis. Our treatment goes far beyond the use of standard valuation analysis. We introduce the expanded NPV, which brings together DCF, real options, and game theory. Thinking in terms of options, games, and adaptive strategies may help managers address strategic questions such as: How do you value a leveraged buyout? How can you value a high-tech venture with negative cash flows? When should you invest in new ventures in stages? How can you incorporate rival bidders in the analysis? The tools we provide can improve your decisions in business and in daily life. * Who is this class for? We hope that our course appeals to (graduate) students in finance, economics, and business, as well as to high-ranking professionals and a general audience. This course is particularly interesting for venture capitalists, private equity investors, investment bankers, CEOs, CFOs, and those who aspire these affiliations. We offer this MOOC at 3 levels: 1.Executive Summary: This 1-week module provides critical insights into the principles of corporate valuation and strategy. This is accessible for time-constrained executives and the general audience without any prior knowledge. 2. Student Level: This level involves an understanding of the technical details. This level requires basic knowledge of concepts in corporate finance, e.g., the time value of money, financial statement analysis, capital structure, and the relation between risk and returns. Learners of this level can skip week 1. 3. Honors Level (honors certificate): This level is challenging, engaging, and compelling to an intellectually rigorous student....

Top reviews

AS

May 18, 2020

Boosts your up-to-date understanding of how strategy and valuation come together. It helped me better understand my PE clients' buy & build strategies from a growth option valuation perspective.

DH

Aug 6, 2023

Great course- the material is engaging, and the assessments are challenging. The honours case study is worth doing to test your knowledge, plus the case study is a classic and well documented.

Filter by:

251 - 275 of 327 Reviews for Advanced Valuation and Strategy - M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital

By Amarendra P S

May 18, 2020

.

By Tania C B

May 4, 2020

The course materials were very good and the course was very well structured. The content was very relevant and well shared, with multiple videos, relevant additional readings and practice exercises. This is a course I will for sure recommend.

There was, however, a discrepancy between material delivered and exam questions, i.e. learning material was not sufficient to answer many questions in the final quizzes. I found myself researching a lot and reading further to be able to answer quizzes. While this is great on the one hand, as one learns more and develops, on the other hand I am not sure this is exactly what should happen in this online setting.

It was surprising to see that the honors assignments were a lot easier than the regular assignments.

By Teshinee T

Aug 20, 2020

The course was interesting and enjoyable. The DCF section was relevant and the excel exercise was helpful for someone building a DCF. The Real Options and Game Theory sections felt more theoretical, and would have been helpful to see more real-life applications of these concepts, but were still interesting nonetheless. The professor gave clear explanations though would have been helpful to have slides on the content (as opposed to reading the transcript / subtitles and pausing the videos to take notes).

By Vibhor S

Jun 20, 2020

The course introduces the amalgamation of basic game theory concepts and real options to provide an alternative framework for evaluating strategic investment decisions in uncertain and high stake situations. It is an excellent basic course to get started with understanding this framework. While mastering this framework for practical application would ideally require a lot more effort and resources, this is a good first course to get started.

By Nicolas C R

Sep 24, 2020

It is a great course to grasp the underlying idea of how to do advanced valuation of investments. Given its short length, it is great. I would have loved to see more underlying explanations as I know the concepts here are provided in a very simplified fashion, with underlying assumptions, math and statistics are significantly more complex to dominate and hence apply in real situations. Great course whatsoever, it will not disappoint you!

By Himanshu V

Apr 10, 2020

I felt that while this course is overall very helpful and well structured, it assumes pre-acquired knowledge about some things on part of the student. For example, in a quiz, there was a question about the winner's curse while this topic wasn't covered in any of the lectures. I could do well cause I have studied Strategic Management under my MBA curriculum. Overall, there's been a steep learning curve for me through this course.

By Akos E

May 24, 2020

Course is one of the most professionally but together ones I've participated in. Occasionally it is a bit superficial, but it is a very good refresher for certain concepts and it does teach you a few things you wouldn't expect.

Sometimes you have to look for answers as you feel like the things asked in quizes aren't mentioned in the course, but overall I am satisfied with it. I would've regretted not completing this course.

By Yuhuan Z

Jan 31, 2021

In general, it's an interesting course that combines DCF valuation with option valuation and game theory. However, each of the 3 topics should be a complex topic, but the course only touches the surface of these topics. This course should be named as an introduction to advanced topics in valuation and strategy. Overall, it's worthwhile learning and it can help you know some interesting areas in valuation.

By Luiz E

Jan 9, 2021

An awesome course with really interesting (and useful) content, but not as robust and complete as it was supposed to be. A lot of times I was forced to go out and find out, by myself, some of the contents that were required but wasn't clearly (or not at all) said during classes. To the new entrants, you will enjoy, but do not underestimate the "advanced" label this course has on its name.

By Paul D

Aug 21, 2020

Loved the depth of the course, great explanation videos and sometimes challenging exercises which required some thinking!

Main point of feedback is that I would have preferred to spend some more time on understanding some of the formula. Usually a fundamental understanding helps me in applications and understanding its limitations as well.

By Giancarlo M

May 9, 2020

Great content. I would suggest providing the slides with the information in the animations. It's very important for following class and further reference. Also, additional reference material would be helpful, as some questions on the test are not covered in the videos.

By Tyler W

Jul 22, 2022

The material is very dense and compact. I found that it took quite a bit of pausing and rewinding webcasts to take the appropriate amount of notes. However, the whole course is very interactive, very visually engaging, and I learned exactly what I came for.

By Tomas C S

May 7, 2021

Great course! Has really good and deep content on financial analysis for M&A, PE and VC. However, there are flaws in some parts, as there is missing information about important topics (such as the APV method valuation) which is still asked for on the exams.

By Raghavendra G

May 1, 2020

Good course with great insights into valuation, game theory, and corporate strategy. Certain explanations were lacking at some points, which had to be looked up online. However, they were included in the certificate tests.

By Priyaranjan P

Jul 7, 2020

The course was of very high quality and the reaching by Professor Smit was excellent. Only thing, few of the explanations could have been more elaborate which might have helped me a lot (being from non-finance background)

By ART V D P

Feb 2, 2022

Fine course . The exercises are enjoyable and I learned a lot. However, could I perhaps suggest that the instructor in the video not only improves on his English, but also slows down speed-talking. Overall 4 stars.

By Eduardo F R

Oct 19, 2020

An interactive overview of advanced valuation strategy. Classes webcasts are excellent and most assignments are challenging. Would like to see an extended class with more in depth examples and case studies.

By Giovanni C

Sep 28, 2021

The course is really interesting and it helps to understand and to deep an economic overview about investment.

It is really complicated if you haven't a economic background and it needs some extra studies.

By Varun c

May 29, 2020

More nuances with respect to in-depth calculations of certain metrics used ( beta values , factor values of u and d ) for example should be explained more explicitly with course work to compliment it .

By Vaishali C

May 30, 2020

If the screen had subtitles, it would have helped a lot. The course was compact but relevant. Some more and detailed explanation would have helped in better understanding of key concepts.

By Andrew W

May 15, 2020

Really enjoyed the course! Technical, and testing it pushed my to properly understand the videos and readings, and for me to further my understanding in certain areas.

By Shivin S

Jul 21, 2020

The course was quite good and unique and also very helpful for looking at things from a wider perspective. Helped me in understanding valuation and options concepts.

By Achiravich S

Apr 30, 2022

The concept of real option and game theory is really interesting. Could be better if they give more time or reading resource to explain calculation part as well.

By LUIS F A E

Sep 10, 2020

It's a course that teaches you a lot, but you need previous knowledge in valuation, option and game theory. The course basically tells you how to combine them

By Rohit M

Jun 16, 2020

Good course but for a beginner, it's hard to understand the real options theory concept and game theory. More videos to be added to make it beginner-friendly.