In the fast-paced world of deal making, joint ventures (JVs) are a conundrum. Slow in the making, often with complicated structures and shared management teams, they seem out of place in a volatile era marked by buzzwords that hype agility and nimble strategic moves. Yet there they are, more than 1,500 JV deals completed annually over the past ten years, including around 10 percent of them characterized as large JVs, with an initial value of more than $250 million. Their volume seems likely to endure—more than two-thirds of executives surveyed in 2014 reported that they expect to do more JVs in the future.1
