...Case (individual assignment) Case: Star River Electronics Ltd. Student ID: By submitting this coversheet and case, I acknowledge that I have not given nor received any assistance on this assignment. If I used an editor the editor did not comment on the content, i.e., issues, analysis or recommendations. Introduction Star River Electronics is a joint venture company known to be a large manufacturer and supplier of high quality CD-ROMs to software companies. The joint venture company was founded in Singapore by Era Partners, an Asian venture firm, and Starlight Electronics Ltd, a UK company. In the past, Star River Electronics (reputable for producing high-quality discs) experienced a great success in the industry. In the 1990’s, the high demands for CD-ROM lead to more competitors entered the market, which caused a huge price reduction and posed a threat of liquidating for many participants of the market. The newer storage devices such as the DVDs are a huge threat to Star River due to its 14 times more storage capacity. The market share of the CD drives is expected to drop from 93% to 41% for an increase in the share of DVD drives from 7% to 59% by the year 2005. Key Issues Star River is going through a difficult period with the increasing threat of the DVD drives and the change in top executives. Adeline Koh, the newly appointed CEO, needs to address immediately the expected financial performance of Star River in 2002 and 2003. It is a critical issue...
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...Finance 2 March, 2015 Case 26 – Star River Electronics Ltd. Introduction Star River Electronics is a joint venture between England’s Starlight Electronics Ltd. and an Asian venture-capital firm, New Era Partners. Star River Electronics is based in Singapore, and its mission was to manufacture CD-ROMs as a supplier to major software companies. Star River Electronics has gained fame in the industry for producing high quality discs. As the optical and multimedia products became more and more popular in the mid-1990s, CD-ROM manufacturing industry experienced rapid growth during this time. Due to this effect, small manufacturers overreacted, creating oversupply that pushed prices down by as much as 40%. Consolidation followed as less efficient producers went out of business. Because of its superior reputation, Star River was able to survive the shakeout. While other CD-ROM manufacturers floundered, Star River’s volume of sales grew at a robust rate in the past two years. Unit prices, however, had declined because of increasing competition in the market and the growing popularity of substitute products, especially digital video discs (DVDs). DVDs had 14 times larger storage capacity and is a threat to displace CD-ROMs. Although, CD-ROMs still comprised 93 percent of all optical-disc-drive shipments in 1999, a study predicted that this number would fall to 41% by 2005, while DVD drives would fill the remaining 59%. Star River Electronics had begun to experiment with DVD manufacturing...
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...Star River Electronics Ltd Introduction and Recommendation Star River is a CD-ROM manufacturer located in Singapore. Adeline Koh was appointed as CEO on July 5, 2001 following the unexpected resignation by her predecessor one week earlier. The purposes of this paper are to 1) determine whether forecasted capital expenditures for DVD manufacturing should be covered through acquisition of additional debt or requested equity from New Era Partners, 2) determine if purchasing new packaging equipment should be executed immediately or postponed until 2004, 3) offer recommendations pertaining to operational and financial changes that may benefit Star River. It is recommended that Star River request equity from New Era Partners to offset the SGM 54.6 million capital expenditures forecasted for DVD manufacturing equipment, postpone the purchase of new packaging equipment until 2004 and focus on reducing the significantly increased inventory levels. Key Issues A current financial analysis of Star River is necessary to determine an appropriate course going forward. Adeline Koh has inherited all the issues facing Star River and must prepare to take decisive action on several time-sensitive choices. Determination of how to fund the anticipated SGM 54.6 million capital expenditure necessary to obtain DVD manufacturing equipment in order to remain competitive in an evolving industry. Adeline Koh must also decide to purchase new more efficient packaging Information,...
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...Edwin Ramos John Connors Luciano XXX STAR RIVER ELECTRONICS LTD FINANCIAL QUESTIONS TO BE FIGURED OUT BY ANDY CHIN 1. Develop a report showing key insights on Star River historical performance by considering the income statements of the last four years (1998 to 2001). 2. Build a two-year performance financial forecast including debt requirements at the fiscal years ending 2002 and 2003. 3. Recommendations about operating and financial changes based on the historical analysis and forecast. 4. Analyse the option to invest now or wait three years to buy the packaging equipment. 1. Key insights on Star River historical performance by considering the income statements of the last four years (1998 to 2001). * Interest coverage: as depicted in the graph 1.1L, the capacity of Star River to pay current interests with available earnings increased to 2.18 in the past fiscal year as a consequence of the increase of EBIT in about 18% and an interest expense decrease of 1.5% (see Annex 1). Even though, the ability of the company to meet its interest expenses may be questionable by the bank as generally, below 2.5 is considered as a warning sign of poor solvency. * Debt to equity and debt to total capital: As a consequence of a higher year-by-year increase of debt in comparison to equity and total capital (see graph below), the debt-to-equity and the debt-to-total capital ratios present a growing trend. This aggressive leveraging...
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...billion people. China is a single- party state governed by the communist party which is run by President Hu Jintao. China is made up of 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities directly under the Central Government. Most of the population of China lives in the middle and lower part of the Yellow River, Yangtze River (longest river) and Pearl River valleys. In China, over 35 million people still lives in caves. Approximately 91.6 percent of Chinese people are Han. Non-Han population includes 55 ethnic minorities, of which the major groups are the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uygur, Yi, Tujia, Mongolian, and Tibetan. The number of religious worshippers in China is estimated at approximately 100 million, most of which are Buddhism. Other religions are Taoism, Islam, and Christianity in both its Catholic and Protestant forms. There are many different languages spoken in China, including Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang, Gan, and Hakka. The flag of China is red with five stars on the upper left side. The position of the stars on the Chinese flag represents the people’s unity under communism. The giant panda which was found near the Yangtze River is considered a Chinese national treasure that over 1,000 survive in the wild. In China, the Chinese celebrate October 1st as a National Day to honor and celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic of China (October 1st, 1949. In...
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...Sample Persuasive Message E-tailing E-tailing or electronic retailing has taken over todays society and how a consumer purchases a product. According to Turban, King, McKay, Marshall, Lee, and Viehland (2008), “With the ubiquity of the Internet, the next logical step was for retailing to move online. Retailing conducted over the Internet is called electronic retailing, or e-tailing, and those who conduct retail business online are called e-tailers.” Prior to the Internet becoming so popular, consumers had to visit physical stores to purchase products. For example, consumers can now purchase travel plans online; compared to visiting travel agencies prior to the Internet. The physical market has definitely been hit with loss of consumers; however, organizations must adapt to today’s technology and utilize the Internet to their advantage by using the evolution of e-tailing. Consumers are now able to purchase items online, access reviews, and look for the cheapest price possible for an item. Three Behaviors of E-tailing The success of e-tailing revolves around three behaviors that contribute to e-tailing. According to Turban, King, McKay, Marshall, Lee, and Viehland (2008), the three behaviors of e-tailing are: “identify and manage buying criteria, search for products and merchants, and compare alternatives.” Identifying and managing buying criteria for customers is not as easy as it sounds. Without a plan to identify and manage the buying criteria of a customer...
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...in Bellevue, Washington. The company began as an online bookstore. In the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries. Within two months, Amazon's sales were up to $20,000/week. Amazon started out as an online bookstore and then quickly diversified by adding other items, such as VHS tapes and DVDs, music CDs, software, video games, electronics, MP3s, clothing, furniture, toys and even food items. After conducting my research I am rating Amazon as a STAR in the BCG matrix. Amazon is a well establish company that has great name recognition. The name AMAZON is not by mistake or a shot in the dark. The founder Jeff Bezos wanted a name for his company that began with "A" so that it would appear early in alphabetic order and first in internet searches. He began looking through the dictionary and settled on "Amazon" because it was a place that was "exotic and different" just as he planned for his store to be, and he believed it was the biggest river in the world, and he planned to make his store the biggest in the world. That leads me to my next reason for listing Amazon as a STAR. High market share and high market growth. By 2016 Amazon will have a market share of 20.6% of all eCommerce (according to an analysis made by Scott Davitt from Bloomberg). That is a huge market share that was made possible by Amazon’s incredible market growth. In an span of 19 years Amazon went from shipping books out of a garage to having separate retail websites for...
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...(2013) states, "The law protects the rights of owners of personal property to use, sell, dispose of, control, and prevent others from trespassing on their rights." In the divorce case of Kardashian vs. Humphries the personal property belonged to one party of a divorce and does not belong to the other party. It is lawful for the owner of the personal party to prevent the other party from trespassing on their rights. In the case of divorce a party who wants access to the other party's personal property does not have a legal right to it. If this was a business managerial setting the electronic communication would be consider the company's property because the communication was created and stored using the company's network and computer equipment. This gives the company a legal right and owner ship to an employee's electronic communication. The case between Kris Humphries and reality star Kim Kardashian is upsetting for the soon to be mom Kim. Kris Humphries believed that the e-mails in Kim’s closed e-mail...
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...Amazon Evolution Jeff Bezos created a company called Amazon.com in July 1995 by employing retail sales over the Internet. Jeff Bezos started the company, offering books for sale based from an Internet website. Now Amazon offers a vast selection, low prices, easy product search and ordering, detailed product information, and secure payment transactions while providing optimal efficiency in order product delivery (Turban, 2006). The business of Amazon has changed dramatically after the cyber store launched. Amazon is looking to become a platform for other cyber-stores, and the world’s store on the Internet. Amazon rates the best cyber-store on the content on the site and service. Other web merchants want to become a partner with Amazon for site development and back-end logistics help. According to Friedman (2004), “Amazon.com has limitless shelf space. Because they are more on an online catalog than a retail store, Amazon does not have to stock the entire inventory they offer. The downside to this is that you do not get to leave the store with your purchase in hand. In fact, depending on the availability of the item you order you may have to wait a few weeks! The upshot is that they can offer anything and everything – so you get an infinitely larger selection of goods. Customers are an integral part of Amazon’s sales force. Because Amazon is web based, they automatically have a place to post extensive product information, including customer reviews. When you are...
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...Amazon Company Name Institutional Affiliation Amazon is an American electronic and online commerce company that conducts its largest part of the business online. It has specialized in the service, and good delivery sold online by providing shipping and home delivery service. It has its headquarters in Seattle in Washington. Amazon has the largest internet-based retailer in the United States. Amazon begun as an online bookstore, but late diversified in wider activities such as the sale of DVDs, Blu-ray, CDs, video streaming downloads, MP3 downloads and streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The company produces consumer electronics notably, e-book readers, tablets, Fire TV, and Fire Phone. Amazon is the provider of cloud computing services in the world. The company also sells certain low-end products such as the USB cables under its in-house brand Amazon Basics. Amazon has so far established its customers on the largest part of the United States. It has a separate retail websites for United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. These countries form the largest part of Amazon Customers. The company sells both the goods and the services. For instance, it offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products. It provides computer services in addition to the sale of software and computer hardware. Among the...
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...principles of the Code of Conduct and Nokia Human Rights Approach regarding illegal trade of natural resources. This policy has been approved by Nokia Corporate Responsibility Steering Group, chaired by Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Responsibility. We are concerned about the link between the illegal extraction and trade of natural resources, and associated human rights violations, conflict and environmental degradation. Currently these issues are acute in the Eastern provinces of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the extraction and trade of ores of tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, which flow to world markets through the DRC and adjoining countries. Once refined, these metals are commonly used within electronic products and by many other industries. Nokia does not procure metals directly and only a fraction of the world’s minerals produce originates from the DRC, but we are taking action to increase transparency, ensure responsible procurement by our suppliers and sub-suppliers, and drive positive change. Our commitment: Nokia is committed to respect human rights and the environment in accordance with accepted international conventions and practices, such as those of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Core Conventions on Labor Standards, UN Global Compact, and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. We want to ensure that all materials used in our...
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...Buying an SUV? New, Used, or Not at All? Abstract Purchasing a vehicle is the second largest purchase a household can make. There are so many questions to ask and variables to consider. Both quantitative and qualitative variables should be researched. Making the wrong choice can be a costly mistake. The Fields’ household has decided to look into purchasing a small SUV. They have narrowed it down to a new (2015) or used (2012) Chevrolet Equinox verses a new (2015) or used (2012) Ford Escape. Then again, depending on budgets, payments, and other multiple variables – they may not buy at all. The Fields’ are thinking of upgrading to a larger vehicle from very small, low miles per gallon, high cost to insure, but paid off 2007 Ford Mustang. Just a few of the variables they must consider are cost of the vehicle (monthly payments), depreciation, cost of insurance, gas mileage, safety features, and style. They must also consider the best fit for the family. Some of these variables will be more qualitative measures. They have a teenage son who plays basketball. He is very tall and needs to fit comfortably in the SUV. He also needs the extra room in the back to haul all of his basketball gear. Not to mention, he wants to look cool being dropped off at school. They also have a daughter who is in college. She likes the extra room to haul her friends around, and of course she wants a good-looking vehicle as well. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fields need the extra room for luggage...
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...[sam.sʌŋ ɡɯ'ɾup̚]) is a South Korean multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous subsidiaries and affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol. Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since the 1990s Samsung has increasingly globalised its activities, and electronics, particularly mobile phones and semiconductors, has become its most important source of income. Notable Samsung industrial subsidiaries include Samsung Electronics (the world's largest information technology company measured by 2012 revenues),[2] Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's second-largest shipbuilder measured by 2010 revenues),[3] and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T (respectively the world's 15th- and 63nd-largest construction companies).[4] Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th-largest life insurance company),[5] Samsung Everland (operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in...
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...security market moral hazard problems at the heart of the Enron bankruptcy scandal? Brief Time-Line of the Enron Scandal • Enron was a Houston-based natural gas pipeline company formed by merger in 1985. • By early 2001, Enron had morphed into the 7th largest U.S. company, and the largest U.S. buyer/seller of natural gas and electricity. • Enron was heavily involved in energy brokering, electronic energy trading, global commodity and options trading, etc. Brief Time-Line of the Enron Scandal…Continued • On October 16, 2001, in the first major public sign of trouble, Enron announces a huge third-quarter loss of $618 million. • On October 22, 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins an inquiry into Enron’s accounting practices. • On December 2, 2001, Enron files for bankruptcy. : Oct – Dec 2001 Regulatory Oversight of Enron Auditors Arthur Anderson Audit Committee (Directors) SEC Company Report Shareholders Enron Board of Directors Enron Investigative Findings 1993-2001: Enron used complex dubious energy trading schemes Example: “Death Star” Energy Trading Strategy • • Took advantage of a loophole in the market rules governing energy trading in California Enron would schedule electric power transmission on a congested line from bus A to bus B in the opposite direction to demand, thus...
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...moral hazard problems at the heart of the Enron bankruptcy scandal? Brief Time-Line of the Enron Scandal • Enron was a Houston-based natural gas pipeline company formed by merger in 1985. • By early 2001, Enron had morphed into the 7th largest U.S. company, and the largest U.S. buyer/seller of natural gas and electricity. • Enron was heavily involved in energy brokering, electronic energy trading, global commodity and options trading, etc. Brief Time-Line of the Enron Scandal…Continued • On October 16, 2001, in the first major public sign of trouble, Enron announces a huge third-quarter loss of $618 million. • On October 22, 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins an inquiry into Enron’s accounting practices. • On December 2, 2001, Enron files for bankruptcy. : Oct – Dec 2001 Regulatory Oversight of Enron SEC Auditors Arthur Anderson Audit Committee (Directors) Company Report Shareholders Enron Board of Directors Enron Investigative Findings 1993-2001: Enron used complex dubious energy trading schemes Example: “Death Star” Energy Trading Strategy Example: • Took advantage of a loophole in the market rules governing energy trading in California • Enron would schedule electric power transmission on a congested line...
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