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Product cover image for Xero: Evaluating Acquisition Opportunities

Xero: Evaluating Acquisition Opportunities

Julian Birkinshaw, Doug Murphy, R. Chandrasekhar

Product #:W49957
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:General Management, Strategy
Setting:United States, 2025
Details:Case (PDF) • 16 pages • 2026-05-15
Your Price:$9.71

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The case describes Sukhinder Singh Cassidy’s recent arrival as CEO of Xero Ltd., a cloud-based accounting software company, and chronicles the initiatives she undertook to quickly turn the business around through a combination of organizational restructuring, divestitures of non-core assets, and balance sheet optimization, all to ready the company for a transformational acquisition opportunity. Sukhinder and her team formulated what they described as the “3x3” strategic framework, which directed the company’s organic and inorganic growth strategies. The case then presents five acquisition targets to assess using the strategic framework, and concludes with students identifying which company to acquire, with a supporting rationale.

Learning Objectives

We use the case as part of a course called “Navigating Change: Lessons from CEOs Managing Strategic Growth in Uncertain Times,” where students are given exposure to the big strategic challenges facing CEOs across a variety of sectors. The case also works well in a regular strategic management course, for example, as a way of illustrating growth options, capital allocation, or how a CEO enacts a program of change. It can be used with undergraduate or graduate students, though typically towards the end of their studies, as it seeks to integrate many different perspectives.

The case seeks to put students in the position of a CEO in a rapidly growing software company in the highly competitive SaaS industry. The learning objectives are as follows:
  • Understand how a recently appointed CEO takes charge and develops a new strategy.
  • Learn about the economic drivers of profitability in software industries.
  • Critically assess acquisition opportunities as a means of driving a strategy.
  • Consider the integration risks that result from employing an acquisition strategy.
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Case Study: Xero: Evaluating Acquisition Opportunities (English version) | Ivey Publishing