...Richard Godfrey BMKT 6311 USA Today Case Study The newspaper publishing industry is one of the most rapidly evolving industries in the world today. Changing due to economic climate shift, consumer needs evolving, enhanced technology, and continuous competition; USA Today has been able to succeed. The publication raises the bar through innovation and value-added content to bolster their standing in the publishing world as “The Nation’s Newspaper” in hopes of staying continually relevant and standing out amongst the competition, ensuring the future of the USA Today brand. 1) When Gannett first debuted USA Today in 1982, the corporation took advantage of a multitude of opportunities in the marketing environment and secured a strong foothold in a market that already had several major players. The most impactful opportunity, in my opinion, is its format. In an attempt to stand out from the competition, USA Today developed a unique format of shorter pieces with photos, graphs, charts in order to address the needs of an audience other publications seemingly ignored. By creating a product high in form utility, the publication was able to distinguish itself and cater to an evolving market. Gannett also cited watching trends and evolution of news readers as part of the success. As society shifted to having typically shorter attention spans, yet still having a hunger for knowledge, Gannett capitalized on these trends with the updated format of USA Today targeted towards the evolved...
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...with the supply chain. Companies diversify to grow, to utilize existing resources or to escape their environments. Advantages could include achievement on the economic scale and to expand product offering while disadvantages could be difficulty coordinating the business. Another problem with diversifying can be the manager lack of knowledge about the business. Successful strategies of managers are developing skills in diversification. They must also have well-developed beliefs how to diversify in order to achieve synergies. To achieve synergy you must exploit economic scale and scope while efficiently allocating capital. In comparison the BellSouth Corporation and BIC Corporation utilized the diversification strategy. BellSouth was incorporated in 1983 providing telecommunications through Internet, video, voice, and entertainment. BellSouth was formed through a breakup with...
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...RESEARCH IN MOTION – THE EVOLUTION OF WIRELESS In 2007, Research in Motion (RIM) was a company that many thought was the dominant force in the wireless industry. Their signature product, the BlackBerry, was “synonymous wireless e-mail, spawning countless imitators and creating a product category where none existed before” (Castaldo, J., 2007). Surely RIM was poised for success; however, three short years later, the industry is wondering if RIM can compete with the likes of Apple and Google with their new devices running on their revolutionary iOS and Android operating platforms. The future of wireless industry is constantly improving and the future looks promising for “smartphones” with internet capabilities. The trend shows that more and more cellular phone users are now upgrading their handsets to smartphones. Statistics that tracked sales of phones in the United States showed that in January 2010, “234 million Americans subscribed to mobile phone plans”. Of these, 42.7 million owned internet-accessible smartphones, which represented an 18 percent increase over a three month period (Practical Ecommerce, 2010). RIM was one of the original companies that first changed the way we perceived what a cellular phone could do. The market is once again being revolutionized, in order to stay competitive in this evolving market; RIM needs to decide what steps to take to ensure success in the future. Background and History RIM was one of the first major technology companies to originate...
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...IBS 611 LEGAL ISSUES IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT THE MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND THE UNFAIR COMPETITION LAWS INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to discuss the name and describe the different types of structural organizations used by multinational corporations. The different organizational structures are the parent company, the nonmultinational enterprise, the national multinational enterprise, and the international multinational enterprise. I will also discuss the home state regulation of multinational enterprises. The forms of regulations discussed in this paper will be the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Act and the Robinson-Patman Act. Also there effects on business in the 21st century. THE MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION The Parent Company To carry out operations internationally, large business have adapted their organizational structures to share risks and to take advantage of economies of scale. The simplest international operating structure is the “nonmultinational enterprise,” in which a firm organized in one country contracts with an independent foreign firm to carry out sales or purchasing abroad. Somewhat more complex is the “national multinational enterprise,” in which a parent firm established in one country establishes wholly owned branches and subsidiaries in other countries. The most complex is the “international multinational enterprise” made up of two or more parents from different countries that co-own operating businesses in two or more...
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...Individual research objective Recently, there has been a lot of news about companies’ combination deals. Especially, in the telecommunication sector, mergers are the trend of the moment. M&A deals grab headlines, but what does this all mean to investors? This individual research tries to figure out the effects of mergers and acquisitions and what happens to the stock price when a company is bought out. Definition The terms of merger and acquisition mean slightly different things. Merger When two firms, often of about the same size, agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated, mergers happen. Usually mergers occur in a friendly setting where executives from the respective companies participate in and try to ensure a successful combination of all parts. Mergers are often financed by an all stock deal (a stock swap). An all stock deal occurs when all of the owners of the outstanding stock of either company get the same amount (in value) of stock in the new combined company. Acquisition When one company takes over another and clearly established itself as the new owner, the purchase is called an acquisition. Unlike mergers, acquisitions happen through a hostile takeover by purchasing the majority of outstanding shares of a company in the open market. Acquisitions can be carried out in a number of ways, including exchanging cash, stock, debt, or combinations thereof. In an acquisition, shares of the acquiring company continue...
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...Write a 3-5 page papner describing the application of interest arbitration with regard to public sector employment. Within the assignment describe a recent high profile bargaining process between a union and a public sector employment organization (hospital, police, air traffic controllers, and teachers) in which issues were not resolved and the unresolved issues were sent to an impartial arbitrator for a final decision. Do you agree with the final ruling? Please support your stance with academic research. Please support your assignment with research and submit in APA format. Additionally, please submit your assignment in a paper format with a list of references (using APA standards) at the end of the assignment. Application of Interest Arbitration with Regard to Public Sector Organization Schuyler McKenzie One of the most popular method of solving disputes is through arbitration. American Arbitration Association (AAA) is the most popular arbitration in the world, as it has over 800 employees in 35 offices worldwide and represents over 8,000 arbitrators and mediators worldwide. Arbitration is actually an extremely old form of settling disputes between people, businesses, as well as between nations. The process itself is a private method of adjudication, which uses at least one arbitrator to resolve the dispute. Several companies have resulted to using arbitrational clauses within their contracts, as they have become more plentiful...
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...Most of us would be quite flattered to find an entry about us on the Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia where anybody can create or edit an entry. Not so for John Seigenthaler. His Wikipedia bio said: John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960′s. For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven. In a USA Today editorial Seigenthaler begins by quoting the false bio and then writes: I have no idea whose sick mind conceived the false, malicious “biography” that appeared under my name for 132 days on Wikipedia, the popular, online, free encyclopedia whose authors are unknown and virtually untraceable. . . . At age 78, I thought I was beyond surprise or hurt at anything negative said about me. I was wrong. One sentence in the biography was true. I was Robert Kennedy’s administrative assistant in the early 1960s. I also was his pallbearer. It was mind-boggling when my son, John Seigenthaler, journalist with NBC News, phoned later to say he found the same scurrilous text on Reference.com and Answers.com. Seigenthaler explains how he tried to track down the person who posted the information: I phoned Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s founder and asked, “Do you … have any way to know who wrote that?” “No, we don’t,” he said. Representatives of the other two websites said their computers are programmed to copy data verbatim from Wikipedia, never...
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...Sample Cover Letters December 20, 2006 Ms. Elizabeth Novak Recruiting Coordinator PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting 11 Madison Avenue, 18th Floor New York, NY 10010 Dear Ms. Novak: I had the pleasure of having lunch with Will Melson after the September 22nd Duke Corporate Presentation. I spoke with him again after the December 6th PricewaterhouseCoopers corporate visit where I learned even more about your firm. Mr. Melson’s compelling description of PwC couple with my desire to work in such a dynamic environment convinced me to apply for PricewaterhouseCoopers Analyst position. I sharpened my leadership and decision-making skills while supporting operations for an industrial supply company over three summers. The environment was fast-paced and intense, thus I was constantly analyzing data to determine the root causes of given problems. I would then identify and evaluate all possible alternatives before suggesting solutions. Most of these decisions had to be quick, concise and clearly conveyed to people at all organizational levels. As a result of my efforts, the company was able to save over $25K in material costs. During my tenure, I was often praised for thinking about problems innovatively and for never losing sight of the “big picture.” These skills will definitely aid me in consulting. At Duke, I continue to look for leadership opportunities within a team setting. In the Small Business Consulting Program, I currently lead a team of four classmates redesigning...
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...and technological conditions have proved conducive to the formation of monopolies or ‘attempted’ monopolies. From television stations to computer applications, the effects of monopolies can be felt by consumers across the globe. One of the most prevalent industries to see the rise and fall, and rise again of monopolies is the telecommunications industry. The Telecommunications Deregulation Act of 1996 was passed to break up the monopoly held by AT&T and to promote competition and lower prices benefitting consumers. In less than 20 years, the telecommunications industry stands on the brink of yet another monopolization by the biggest names in the business. Sprint (who purchased Centel and then Nextel) AT&T (who bought former SBC, BellSouth and Cingular) and Verizon are the big players in the telecommunications industry today, not only in the soon to be obsolete land-line business, but also in cellular communication, broadband, and digital media markets providing services such as digital cable television and on-demand movies. What technological condition has caused this? In a word; innovation. Consumer demand for more convenient ways to communicate with one another, cell phones, reliable networks, instant communications, smaller devices providing bigger services…the list goes on and on. We want more, better, faster…oh yeah, and one more thing…we want it to be affordable. In Mark Gimein’s essay in the July 20, 2006, edition of Business Week titled “The Phone Companies...
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...Linda Kay Davis Crawford was born to Eddie Davis Jr. and Mary Harris – Davis in Bartlett, TN. on August 30, 1957. She was the 8th of 12 children. She accepted Christ at an early age and later became one of the first members of Holy City Church of God In Christ under the great leadership of Bishop Jerry Taylor. Shortly after graduating from Bartlett High School, Alan entered into her life in December of 1976. On July 1st, 1977 they solidified their union in holy matrimony. She loved her 4 children, but she adored her grandchildren. Soon after her marriage Linda was blessed to begin a 25 year career working for Bellsouth / AT&T Telephone Company. After retiring from Bellsouth she worked for Baptist Memorial Hospital for 12 years. Linda loved...
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...before it becomes an oligopoly. Also, the rate of innovation in wirelcss technologies is frantic. A pathbreaking technical innovation by one of the big players has the potential to change the industry dynamic. The major players and thc number of subscribcrs that they have are as follows: 3. Sprint Nextel (53.8 million subscribers). 4. T-Mobile (28 million subscribers). 5. AllTel Inc. (12 million subscribers). In 2007,Alltel completed its merger with an affiliate of TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners and ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 6. US Cellular(6,1 million subscriben). 1. AT&T (70.1 million subscribers). In 2004, Cingular Wireless acquired AT&T Wireless. That acquisition gave Cingular nationwide coverage. Then the BellSouth acquisipercent ownershipof cingular. tion in 2006 gave AT&T 2 Verizon Wireless (65.7 million subscribers),formed by the . union of Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, PrimeCo, and GTE Wireless. European wireless giant Vodafone has a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless. The growth in the number of subscribers and in revenucs (which does not include...
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...located in Richardson, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. AT&T is responsible for most of the ways of communication in America today. With landlines and voice over IP, consumers will be able to construct business or speak with loved ones over the phone. AT&T went through a huge change in the 2000s with the merge of Southwestern Bell, Bellsouth, and Pacific Bell. With the merge and buyout of these companies, AT&T is now in almost virtually every home if you have a landline. A little known fact that people do not know is that, even though you may have another provider, AT&T owns almost 95% of the lines that are ran into your homes, which means, AT&T has become very profitable off of its competitors who have to buy these lines from AT&T in order to still be in business. AT&T has a corporate perks site for employees to purchase goods and discounted rates. Also, AT&T offers a 6% match of your 401K, which is a great reason to seek employment with the company. Due to the merge, a lot of employees lost their jobs due to a non-need of these employees with the AT&T organization. A lot of these employees that came from Bellsouth, etc. were asked to take pay cuts or relocate in order to keep their jobs. This was a huge cost-cutting move which has now led to an increase in jobs and the development of new products. Currently, I am a technical support representative for u-verse operations in San Antonio, Texas. As a technical support representative, we assist customers...
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...JOINT VENTURE A joint venture is a strategic alliance where two or more parties, usually businesses, form a partnership to pool their resources, share markets, intellectual property, assets, knowledge, and, of course, profits for the purpose of accomplishing a specific task. A joint venture differs from a merger in the sense that there is no transfer of ownership in the deal. This partnership can happen between goliaths in an industry. Cingular, for instance, is a strategic alliance between SBS and Bellsouth. It can also occur between two small businesses that believe partnering will help them successfully fight their bigger competitors. Companies with identical products and services can also join forces to penetrate markets they wouldn't or could not consider without investing tremendous resources. Furthermore, due to local regulations, some markets can only be penetrated via joint venturing with a local business. In some cases, a large company can decide to form a joint venture with a smaller business in order to quickly acquire critical intellectual property, technology, or resources otherwise hard to obtain, even with plenty of cash at their disposal. The reasons legitimate company chooses the joint venture strategy is not separated from the reasons above. legitimate eventually choose Tsui Wah restaurant as partners because of limited resources that faces legitimate company can be pervaded by Tsui Wah restaurant, such as: 1. Tsui wah is well known in hongkong so it...
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...NT1310 Week 2 – Unit 2 Assignment 1 Service Provider Types There are five different types of telecommunication types to date. First of which is RBOC – (regional bell operating company) which was a telephone company created as a result of the breakup of AT&T. The seven original regional Bell companies were Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, and US WEST. The reason why this was so important was because these companies are what provided local telephone service while AT&T provided the long distance phone service. These are what made up the Local Exchanges or the LEC’s. ILEC or incumbent local exchange carrier was a telephone provider that provided local service prior to the telecommunications act of 1996. These play a major role because these carriers are what own the local loops/exchange and facilities in that area. CLEC’s are the exact same thing except they are the competitor to the ILEC’s but provided their own networking and switches for local service. MSO or Multi system Operator – is owner of multiple cable and satellite television systems. This ties into what an ISP is. An ISP is simply and Internet service provider that provides a mean for accessing the internet. MSO is majorly known for being cable companies, because of this cable companies are providing internet to cable customers (usually as bundles with their plan). They work within each other because they...
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...Porsche Agrees Sale to Qatar; Merger with VW May Complete Before 2011 17 Aug 09 http://www.ihsglobalinsight.com/SDA/SDADetail17491.htm The merger between Porsche and VW may be completed ahead of schedule, according to VW Group CFO Hans Dieter Poetsch, but questions are emerging about corporate governance over the process. IHS Global Insight Perspective Significance Qatar Holding will acquire a 10% voting stake in Porsche and 17% in eventual parent group VW Group as a result of its 7-billion-euro investment in the German giant. Implications VW and Porsche are still to enact their own capital increases, VW's will happen in the first half of 2010, whilst Porsche's plans are less concrete, but necessary to pay down the debt pile with which it is struggling. Outlook Questions over corporate governance have already been raised as the power to appoint record and reputation tarnished from the scandals of a few years ago, VW will confidence in its integrity with external investors. Porsche take a 17% voting stake in the Volkswagen (VW) Group as it acquires share options held by Porsche of the last remaining key parts of the merger, tentatively agreed last week (see Germany: 13 August 2009: VW, Porsche Tentatively Agree Merger Details; May Resurrect Auto Union Name). VW will purchase 42% of Porsche for around 3.3 billion euro by 2011, initiating a capital increase of 4 billion euro in preference shares in the first half of next year to fund the ...
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