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About the Divestiture Strategy Reference Model
When should a company sell, spin off or split a business, and what happens to both halves afterward? The Divestiture Strategy Reference Model turns the divestiture strategy framework into a file you can work through, and then shows you the decision being made for real in 10 verified records with dated outcomes.
Two kinds of content, kept apart on purpose. The model is Stratrix's framework guidance, built from the free Divestiture Strategy blueprint, organized decision by decision, and labeled as judgment. The worked records are verified fact: every one is cited to its sources and passed the same checks as every casebook record. Across the 10 records, which span 1997 to 2024, 10 carry dated outcomes; 9 of the decisions held, 1 were reversed, 0 held in part, and 0 are still too early to call.
Why it is worth your time
Most companies treat a divestiture as an admission, so they wait too long and plan too little. The model walks you through the eight decisions a separation actually turns on, from the better-owner test to the transition agreements, and the records show what happened when eBay, IBM, Merck, Mercedes-Benz and Johnson & Johnson made those calls, with the years that followed on the record. Gap's reversed spin-off is in there too, because the decisions that went wrong teach as much as the ones that held.
The components
Divestiture strategy is the disciplined process of identifying businesses that no longer belong in a corporate portfolio and executing their separation in a way that maximizes value for shareholders, employees, and both the remaining and divested entities. It encompasses the full lifecycle from portfolio screening through post-separation optimization.
- Strategic Rationale & Portfolio ScreeningThe "Why Divest and What to Divest" Framework
- Divestiture Type SelectionChoosing the Right Separation Vehicle
- Valuation & Value MaximizationPricing the Exit to Capture Full Strategic Worth
- Separation Planning & ExecutionThe Operational Blueprint for Untangling Shared Systems
- Stranded Cost ManagementEliminating the Hidden Tax on Remaining Operations
- Transition Service AgreementsDesigning the Temporary Bridge Between Separation and Independence
- Stakeholder Management & CommunicationAligning Investors, Employees, Customers, and Regulators
- Post-Separation Value CaptureOptimizing Both Entities After the Split
Each component in the file carries its description, what you have to decide, and the tables, lists and do's and don'ts that go with it. The file also carries 4 patterns, each with what it is best for, and 6 pitfalls, each with its symptom and its prevention.
Who reaches for it
The strategy lead running a divestiture strategy workstream who wants the structure and the precedents in one place. The consultant who has to turn a framework into a workshop and a deck by Monday. The founder or operator facing this decision who would rather see how it went for eBay, IBM and Mercedes-Benz than read another essay. And the faculty member who teaches the framework and wants cited cases to teach it with.
How people use it
In the workshop, the PowerPoint gives you one slide per component with what to decide, and one slide per record to show the decision made. In the memo, the Word file gives you the framework and the records with sources, ready to cite. In the model, the Excel lets you score your own situation against each component and sort the records by verdict. And in your AI workspace, the JSON gives the assistant the framework and verified precedents as context, so it reasons from records instead of inventing them.
What is in the download
A sample record
One of the worked records, free, exactly as it appears in the file. The other 9 verified records are in the purchased files.
| Company | Fork date | The fork | Options | Choice | Stated rationale | What happened | Judgment analyst | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eBay Read the story → verified | 2014-09-30 | Whether to spin off PayPal into an independent company or keep it inside eBay |
| Spin off PayPal | The board credited its own strategic review after a six-month internal study of the payments landscape | 1 year · 2015-07-17 Inter-company agreements retained at separation: The two companies signed a stack of inter-company agreements keeping PayPal a featured payment option on eBay | reversibility low verdict held | SEC EDGAR / eBay Inc. (2015-02); SEC EDGAR / PayPal Holdings Inc. (2015-07); CNBC (2015-11); Journal of Case Research and Inquiry (ResearchGate) (2024) |
Who is in the worked records
10 verified records across these companies, drawn from 4 decision types: Cannibalization Choice, Adjacency Expansion, Asset-Light Bet and The Cross-Subsidy.
- eBay
- Gap
- Hilton
- IBM
- Johnson & Johnson
- Mercedes-Benz
- Merck
- Mondelez
- PepsiCo
- Unilever
Questions
- What is in the Divestiture Strategy Reference Model?
- The divestiture strategy framework as a structured model: 8 components, each with a description and what to decide, the option tables, the do's and don'ts, 4 patterns and 6 pitfalls. Then 10 verified decision records of eBay, IBM, Mercedes-Benz, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Mondelez and 4 more making this kind of decision, each with the fork, the options, the choice, the stated rationale, what it committed, what happened at one, three and five years, and every source. Five formats: Excel, JSON, PowerPoint, Word and PDF.
- How is the model different from the free blueprint on the site?
- The blueprint is the essay. The model is the working file: the same framework broken into components you can walk through in a workshop, a deck with one slide per component, a spreadsheet of what to decide, and JSON your AI workspace can reason from. The blueprint's company anecdotes are not in the file; the verified records replace them, and every one is cited.
- Are the records the same as the ones in the casebooks?
- Yes. Each record also appears in its own decision-type casebook and company casebook. The model collects the 10 that show this framework's decisions being made, in a curated order, so you do not have to find them across 4 casebooks.
- Is this a subscription?
- No. It is a one-time purchase, re-issued whenever a story a record rests on changes. The library license keeps every casebook and model current for a flat annual fee.