Painting and architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Painting and architecture - Essay Example Baroque paintingBaroque painting is mainly related to the underlying Baroque cultural movement mainly identified with the underlying Absolutism, the renowned Counter-Reformation and corresponding Catholic Revival. It is mainly characterized by massive performance, rich, Deep color and deep light and dark shadows(Bohn &Saslow, 2013). Moreover, it depicts the moment prior to an event. Baroque painting style commenced within Rome, Italy and subsequently spread to other parts of Europe. Similarities and contrast between Baroque and Renaissance architectureBoth Baroque painting and Renaissance architecture style commenced in Italy then subsequently spread to other parts of Europe. Baroque and Renaissance arts are interrelated in regard to painting and architecture in that they both utilize distinctive classical forms, which are used in books, valuable objects and oil painting(Bohn &Saslow, 2013). Both of the arts balance the good proportion within the architecture and sculptures. Moreover , both baroque painting and corresponding Renaissance architecture are the main classical forms that were utilized within the Renaissance in attracting distinct attention on the clarity and corresponding realism.Conversely, Renaissance architecture mainly utilizes Classical art in which the Roman and corresponding Roman and Greek art whilst Baroque painting commence by breaking away from corresponding Classical art and utilizes numerous curves and flowery patterns.

Huffman Trucking Essay Example for Free

Huffman Trucking Essay Huffman Trucking is a large organization that provides transportation of goods and services to its customers. In order to better serve these customers and to compete and stay at a high level above other suppliers, Huffman Trucking management enlisted the assistance of Team B to upgrade their companies systems to be able to create, maintain, and report on a database, which tracks the servicing of Huffman Trucking vehicles. Huffman Trucking has a number of business needs that should be met. The system should not require more than a few days of supervision to learn. It should be usable on modestly priced computer systems. Most of all, it should be simple and convenient for the users. The current system is not meeting business objectives because they are not able to tracks the servicing of the vehicles at Huffman Trucking. Huffman employees usually scan alphabeticly for vehicles . This is a fairly simple procedure if the exact name of the vechilce is available. However, many new employes may only know the few words of the vechile type. A tracked vehicle could possibly be misfiled, which requires a full stock review to find it. With the new shipment of vechicles need maintanes every month, it is close to impossible for a counter employee memorize Project Requirements There are two different types of requirements for this project. One is the technical requirements of the chosen database system and another is the business requirements of the Huffman Trucking. The business requirements  define the boundaries. Starting college can be like entering an entirely new world. You have more freedom than youve ever had before and you are in total control over your own life. This increased responsibility however can make you susceptible to some serous pitfalls. Read the following article to learn what habits to avoid in order to have a successful college career. Business Accounting Project Overview Huffman Trucking is a large organization that provides transportation of goods and services to its customers. In order to better serve these customers and to compete and stay at a high level above other suppliers, Huffman Trucking management enlisted the assistance of Team B to upgrade their companies systems to be able to create, maintain, and report on a database, which tracks the servicing of Huffman Trucking vehicles. Huffman Trucking has a number of business needs that should be met. The system should not require more than a few days of supervision to learn. It should be usable on modestly priced computer systems. Most of all, it should be simple and convenient for the users. The current system is not meeting business objectives because they are not able to tracks the servicing of the vehicles at Huffman Trucking. Huffman employees usually scan alphabeticly for vehicles . This is a fairly simple procedure if the exact name of the vechilce is available. However, many new employes may only know the few words of the vechile type. A tracked vehicle could possibly be misfiled, which requires a full stock review to find it. With the new shipment of vechicles need maintanes every month, it is close to impossible for a counter employee memorize Project Requirements There are two different types of requirements for this project. One is the technical requirements of the chosen database system and another is the  business requirements of the Huffman Trucking. The business requirements define the boundaries in which the project team has room to operate in. Huffman requires that the new system be relatively inexpensive with little ongoing maintenance required. The new system should not require many hours of training in order to use. The new system should also be usable  gout of the box. h Given these business requirements.

High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions

High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions The fast rate of technological change was one of the most important trends in the 1990s and this brought an increasing complexity and cost to the development of new technologies. Companies used their innovative assets as a major source of competitive advantage to quickly introduce new products and adopt new processes (Sen and Egelhoff, 2000). Acquisitions are completed in many industries for reasons that are aligned with the dominant competitive driving forces for that industry. In the area of high technology and seminconductors, the competitive drivers are short product life cycles and process advancement. Process advances are required to both support the incremental changes to existing products and to allow the creation of radically new one. The number of acquisitions rapidly increased through the decade for several reasons: the product life cycle was getting shorter; participating in the creation of industry and product standards was crucial; early entry helped capture market shar e; and R D risk could be reduced. Hagedoorn (1993) found the reduction in innovation time and acquisition of needed technologies as the most important reasons for one company to pursue another. Several researchers have written about the radical and incremental innovation capabilities, their distinguishing factors and the important consequences to the corporation. It has also been argued that large firms are effective with incremental innovations and small firms are better at radical innovations. (Ettlie, Bridges, and OKeefe, 1984; Dewar and Dutton, 1986; Christensen, 1992). Corporate decision to acquire or not acquire another company embodies a high level, serious management strategy decision toward repositioning a company in the competitive landscape. The decade from 1990 to 2000 was chosen as an important time for acquisition activity. There was frequent activity in acquisitions during a time of stable economic conditions creating good conditions for analysis. In 1990, the dollar value of all acquisitions and mergers in the United States was two percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2000, the value reached over 15% of the GDP (Mergerstat, 2003). In the first 10 months of 2000, in the technology sector alone, there were 2,019 acquisition and merger deals worth $573 billion (Reason, 2000). This occurred despite studies done in the 1980s and 1990s that found little positive effect financially for the acquiring company. The magnitude of the activity strongly suggests that some positive relationship could be found if examined in a different way o r using new metrics. This research uses a different methodology by exploring a single industry, selecting profitability growth as the metric from theoretical industry driving forces and analyzing profitability over time as a statistical repeated measures model using SPSS software. The results from this work may have strategic implications for remaining competitive in high technology, high-velocity industries. It should be noted here that the term acquisition, mergers and acquisitions and M A will be used interchangeably in this research and are defined in Appendix A along with other important terms. In high technology industries, such as semiconductors, a firm interested in new product innovation must aggressively invest to stay at the leading edge. Creating or acquiring new offerings can be dependent on a combination of efforts directed either internal or external to the company. Internal efforts include primarily Research and Development (R D) or newly formed affiliates, termed greenfields (Vermeulen Barkema, 2001; Sonenclar, 1984; Bradley Korn, 1981). External efforts can take the form of acquisition or mergers to best capture the intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Acquisitions, when done well, appear to have the advantage of capturing this kind of IP as compared to the other forms of external efforts. Acquisitions also potentially offer faster repositioning with less risk and lower cost than pursuing internal company endeavors (Singh Montgomery, 1987). A high technology companys success hinges on crea tion of innovative ideas, availability of creative personnel, speed of new product execution and cost effectiveness. Mergers and acquisitions are a highly favored management avenue for growth and competitive positioning. The importance of this management consideration and the impact of mergers and acquisitions continue to expand with billions of dollars involved. The importance in the technology sector becomes apparent when looking at the 724 firms that made their initial public offering (IPO) in 1992, but were not acquired or merged. Of these companies, 58% were selling at less than their IPO price six years later (Small Business Statistics, 2000). Product and service offering must constantly evolve and change (Thompson Strickland, 2001). High velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth and survival of high technology businesses. Organizations that are successful have a regular stream of unique products and services. Hewlett-Packard had over 50% of revenue in 1999 coming from products introduced in the previous two to four years. In high technology companies, the highest profit levels come from the newest products. Consequently, it is imperative to accelerate the innovation cycle, often through mergers and acquisitions, and this is critically important to remaining competitive. Entrepreneurial firms consistently outperform larger firms in both market and earnings growth on the Inc. 500 and Forbes 200 lists (Imparato Harari, 1994). There are several potential reasons for making an acquisition that have been identified and studied in the literature. In addition to the reasons for actually acquiring, there are a number of factors following the event that will influence the degree of success or failure that these efforts may experience. These elements that play a part in determining the outcome have been the focus of studies that are summarized in the Literature Review. WHAT MAKES HIGH-TECH COMPANIES AND THEIR ACQUISITIONS UNIQUE Both the popular business press as well as recent academic research seems to uniformly accept the unique nature of high-tech stocks. Kohers and Kohers (2000) state: The high-growth nature of technology-based industries distinguishes them from other types of industries. In addition to their high-growth potential, however, another distinctive feature of high-tech industries is the inherent uncertainty associated with companies whose values rely on future outcomes or developments is unproven, uncharted fields (p. 40). In fact, many pure technology stocks are young companies, underfunded and without prospects for generating any cash flows in the near future. Nevertheless, despite the inherent uncertainty of high-tech industries, investors seemed to disregard most equity fundamentals when valuing technology stocks, especially during the market upturn in the late 1990s. As a result, even though high-tech stocks were in general extremely volatile, many of them were trading at remarkable pre miums. The exploding rate of growth in M A activity that involved high-tech industries can be partly attributed to those overly optimistic valuations. Puranam (2001) argues: On the acquirers side, booming stock market valuations have made acquisitions for stock feasible for several relatively small (revenue wise) firms, as well as the more established larger ones. On the targets side, an increasing preference for the ready liquidity offered, by an acquisition, as opposed to the paper profits from an IPO have created an environment conducive to acquisitions of small start-ups. At the same time many of these acquisitions were also motivated by the acquirers need to obtain critical technologies and expertise in order to quickly enhance their own technological competence. Despite the burst of the high-tech market bubble and the failure of most of these acquisitions, investors continue to show an extreme faith on these stocks. Americans still believe that technology can create a better world. Each time the U.S. tech sector falls into a trough, new technologies and companies emerge to lead it forward again (Business Week, August 27, 2001). PROBLEM MOTIVATING THIS STUDY This research effort seeks to understand the relationship between acquisitions and profitability by looking at the industrial sector for high technology semiconductor companies. Many prior studies have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company in research conducted beginning in the 1980s and extending to today using a variety of variables, measures and company sample selection. These studies will be discussed in more detail in the Literature Review. The researchers Rumelt (1984), Ravenscraft and Scherer (1987), Porter (1987) and Kaplan and Weisbach (1990) separately found that acquisitions that could be categorized as unrelated, or diversifications, did not lead to profitability improvements, but most of these studies obviously included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is discussed in literature and high velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth, profitability and sur vival of these businesses (Thompson and Strickland, 1999; Betz, 2001; Burgelman, Christensen and Wheelwright, 2004). The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This research examines the correlation between the event of acquisition and subsequent company performance and growth of profitability in the decade of 1990-2000. Practicing managers in the area of management of technology are faced with the challenge of high velocity innovation being a requirement to maintain competitive positioning (Thompson Strickland, 2001). Two methods for constant innovation include internal efforts, such as Research Development (R D), and external efforts, such as acquisitions, on which this paper focuses. Prior studies have been cross-sectional across different industries and analyzed the benefits gained in terms of patents and R D (Bettis 1981), stock price (Matsusaka, 1990; Schleifer and Vishny, 1990; and Lubatkin, 1982) or increase in company size versus the cost of acquisitions. These studies have not captured one of the most unique features of the high technology industry where innovation and new products are dependent on intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Because of this characteristic, the high technology industry would be expected to yield different results. The importance of IP and know-how has been an area of academic focus working to clarify the concept of absorptive capacity in the 1990s, but empirical work to tie these concepts to firm performance was not pursued (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Barney, 1991; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The use of patents as a measure, as used in prior research (Acs and Aud retsch, 1988; Pakes and Griliches, 1980; Hitt, Hoskisson, Ireland and Harrison, 1991), does not capture the IP benefits in these categories or measure the success resulting from these external efforts. Acquisitions, when done well, should be expected to have an advantage on capturing this kind of IP. Acquisitions potentially offer faster positioning with less risk and lower cost than internal company endeavors which include primarily Research and Development (R D) (Gulati, 1995; Singh Montgomery, 1987). STUDY OVERVIEW This research effort focuses on one high technology industrial sector of semiconductors and studies the correlation between acquisitions, profitability, survivability and RD intensity over time. Many prior studies (Rumelt, 1984; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990) have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company, but most of these studies included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is widely discussed in literature. High velocity innovation is fundamental for the theory of growth, profitability and survival of these businesses. The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This paper researches the correlation between the ev ent of acquisition and subsequent company performance, survivability, the growth of profitability and R D spending. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ON HIGH-TECH COMPANIES Most research on high-tech companies is relatively recent and has its origin in various business fields. Chaudhuri and Tabrizi (1999) study the practices of 24 high-tech companies involved in acquisitions, and try to identify the key factors in capturing the real value in high-tech acquisitions. They conclude that in order to make a successful acquisition managers need to move beyond the traditional model of acquisitions where the people acquired are secondary to physical assets and brands. High-tech acquisitions need to focus on the people since technological capabilities tied to skilled people are the key to long-term success in these industries. Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella (2000) examine how the growth of markets for technology affected the corporate strategies of the leading companies, which can now sell technologies that they do not use in-house and increase their potential returns to R D. They argue that globalization, along with the low transportation costs of technologies, has made large R D intensive companies realize that they have the potential to exploit their technology on a very large scale by licensing. However, in deciding how to exploit their technology small firms and technology-based startups face a different set of challenges. According to the authors they need to trade off the costs of acquiring capital and building in-house production, distribution and marketing capability against the rents that would be lost or shared with their partners in a licensing deal. Also, the authors argue that integration may reduce the innovative potential of the firm, because the acquisition of the complementary assets in evitably increases the size of firms and induces important changes in the culture of the firm and in the speed and fluidity of information flows. Finally, they claim that evaluating technologies and being able to use them requires substantial in-house scientific and technological expertise and therefore internal and external R D can be reviewed as complements and not substitutes. Liu (2000) focuses on a different issue by examining the markets reaction to innovation news announcement made by the U.S. biotech firms during the 1983-1992 period. He finds that the average AR to the announcements is as high as 3.98 percent for a three-day event window and biotech stocks trading volumes almost double on the day of the news announcement. The announcement period ARs are negatively related to firm-size and underwriter reputation, while positively related to the firms technology depth as measured by R D intensity. However, during the months following the announcement the average three-month post announcement AR is 2.73 percent. The negative drift in stock prices appears to be mainly driven by the firms weak science and technology (less R D intensive), firms with high Book to Market (B/M) ratios and large firms. In explaining his findings the author proposes an expectation error hypothesis. According to this hypothesis it is hard for investors or even managers to prec isely evaluate the economic value of innovations which in turn leads to the possibility of forming erroneous expectations. In high-tech industries the erroneous expectation is reflected in the investors over-optimism towards high-tech firms innovation news. Eventually, the stock prices adjust itself to reflect the firms fundamentals, especially its technology depth. The author attributes the observed evidence to the costly information required to value a high-tech firms innovation. Prentice and Fox (2002) provide a comprehensive review of the merger and acquisition process while focusing on the distinctive characteristics of high-tech companies. They argue that technology mergers are different from traditional mergers because of the importance that must be placed on people and their ability to innovate. Targets must be evaluated on intangible assets such as intellectual property and human capital. At the same time managers need to consider the issues of retention, culture and integration strategy from the beginning of the merger process to ensure success. There are two studies that are most relevant to this research. The first one is by Kohers and Kohers (2000) who examine the value creation potential of 1,634 mergers in the various high-tech areas between 1987 and 1996. They find that acquirers of high-tech targets experience significantly positive Ars at the time of the merger announcement, regardless of whether the merger is financed with cash or stock. Othe r factors influencing bidder returns are the time period in which the merger occurs, the ownership structure of the acquirer, the ownership status of the target and the high-tech affiliation of acquirers. They conclude that the market appears to be optimistic about such mergers and expects that acquiring companies will enjoy future growth benefits. The second related study is also by Kohers and Kohers (2001) who examine the post-merger performance of acquirers that purchase high-tech targets in order to determine whether the high expectations regarding the future merits of these investments are actually justified. Their results indicate that compared to non acquirers, acquirers perform poorly over the three-year period following the high-tech takeover announcement. Furthermore, glamour bidders show significantly lower long-run ARs, while value bidders do not experience significant post-merger ARs. Also, glamour bidders with a higher risk of agency problems show even worse post-merger performance while institutional ownership in the acquiring firm has a positive influence on acquirer long run ARs. Overall, the authors conclude that the market tends to exhibit excessive enthusiasm toward the expected benefits of high-tech mergers but many of these benefits do not materialize. CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES, METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCES STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES Previous research in the literature has generally found little financial benefit for the acquiring companies that were associated with occurrence of the acquisition activity (Rumelt, 1974; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990). Consequently, the first and second questions for this study are focused using the single industry of semiconductors, are stated in the null hypothesis format. First, firm profitability growth rates are compared in two groups, one that does acquire and one that does not. Secondly, individual firm profitability growth is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a change in growth rate that is significant. Hypothesis 1 (H1): There will be no significant difference in profitability growth when firms making acquisitions are compared to firms not making acquisitions in the high-tech sector. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Acquiring firms making acquisitions are expected to have no significant change in profitability growth before and after the acquisition event. The literature yields less empirical work in analyzing the relationship between merger and acquisition actions and the longevity of a corporation. Theory certainly recognizes the close link between competitive capability and company survival. For the high technology industry of semiconductors, high velocity innovation is a requirement for remaining competitive. Research questions three and four are also stated in the null hypothesis format. Company longevity, or survival rate in number of year, is compared in two groups also, where one group does acquire and one does not. Lastly, an individual firms spending rate on R D is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a significant change in the rate compared to the trend for the company. Hypothesis 3 (H3): Firms making acquisitions are expected to have no difference in survivability in this industry than firms who do not make acquisitions. Hypothesis 4 (H4): A companys R D intensity will show no significant change following the event of acquisition within this industry. SELECTION OF VARIABLES This research was conducted in a concentric approach by starting with one independent and one dependent variable initially to define the relationship and guide the next treatment in the study. As work continued, variables were selected and the methodology expanded to assess both within-subject and between-subject effects. The variables used in this study for Hypothesis 1 (H1) include profitability growth rate and a dummy variable to represent the presence or absence of the event of acquisition. The event of acquisition is represented by a dummy variable with a zero (0) representing no acquisition and with a one (1) representing an acquisition event. An acquisition event is identified by using a firms reported cash flows attributed to acquisition as stated in the Compustat database. The profitability growth rate is calculated from the total gross profit margin reported by year and cumulated over three years, then averaged to reduce fluctuations and facilitate identification of trends. The variables used for H2 analysis of profitability growth rate before and after an acquisition were the dummy variable for the presence of acquisition, the gross profit margin percentage (GPM %) calculated as a three (3) year cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) to smooth fluctuations and better identify a trend. This relationship was studied for three (3) years prior to the actual acquisition and five (5) years following the action. As the study progressed, a second dummy variable was used for company size to separate the effect of this independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variables, each with two levels and one dependent variable with repeated measures over nine years for a 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures analysis using the SPPS software. The variables used for H3 analysis of acquisition relation to firm longevity were the acquisition dummy variable and the data from Compustat for the number of years that the company did financial reporting during the period of this study. H4 looks for the effects between acquisition and RD spending or intensity by using the acquisition dummy independent variable and R D intensity as the dependent variable. R D intensity is calculated using the R D expense reported as such by the companies and in the Compustat database. This Compustat item represents all costs incurred during the year that relate to the development of new products or services. This amount is only the company`s contribution and includes software and amortization of software costs and complies with Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) standards. This item excludes customer or government-sponsored research and development (including reimbursable indirect costs) and ordinary engineering expenses for routine, ongoing efforts to define, enrich, or improve the qualities of existing products. Methodology This study encompasses the time period of ten years from 1990-2000, inclusive. Semiconductor companies were selected as an entire group according to their NAICS/SIC codes. Using the Standard Poors Compustat database, there are 153 semiconductor companies included that were identified as active companies at the end of the calendar year 2000 by Compustat. These companies are listed in Appendix B. Active reporting for one year. Companies are designated as inactive and reclassified in the Compustat database when it is no longer actively traded on a stock market exchange due to bankruptcy, becoming a private company, leveraged buyout or merging. The research effort started with analysis one independent variable and one dependent variable in order to initially establish what the relationship was that existed, if it was significant and how to proceed with analysis. Exploratory work on Hypothesis 1 showed that there was a statistically significant and positive correlation between acquisitions and gross profit margin (GMP) growth broadly over the decade which differs from prior research. Hypothesis 2 moves toward a more detailed analysis of this finding. Consequently, in this chronology of discovery, the next step presented in Section 4.2 look at one dependent variable of profit margin growth and two independent variables of company size and acquisition activity. 3-way ANNOVA and regression treatments of the data are conducted using the data analysis tool available under Microsoft Excel Software looking at individual years in the ten year study period. The results show significance again and suggest that other interactions betwe en variables would yield additional understanding. The next step in the research was set up to look at one dependent variable, again gross margin (GPM) growth, repeatedly measured over time for each subject or company was entered for the nine (9) years 1995-2000 inclusive to capture acquisition effects giving 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures design. The two independent variables were used in the dummy format with non-acquires given a code zero 0 and acquires assigned at one (1). Company size was the second dummy variable with firms less than $100M in sales per year coded zero (0) and if greater than $100M in sales, assigned a one (1). The statistical analysis using a repeated measures design analyzed the variable interactions and their relationship to GPM growth using the SPSS software. These results are presented in Section 4.5 Repeated Measures Analysis that was done using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were an important first treatment of the data sets created. This includes the values for the following parameters: mean, median, range variance, standard deviation, kurtosis, and skewness. This treatment looks at characteristics of the data and the degree of normal distribution. The 3-way ANOVA investigations and regression treatment of the data were initially done using the data analysis tool software available in Microsoft Excel. Generally, the data sets for this study vary somewhat from the classical normal distribution, but ANOVA and MANOVA (multivariate ANOVA) within a repeated measures analysis are considered robust to violations of the normal distribution assumption (Maxwell Dealney, 1990; Stevens, 1996) SPSS Advanced Models 11.0 software was used to create general linear models of the data and conduct analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for the multiple variables in this model with repeated measures. The factors or independent variables were used to divide the population of 153 active semiconductor companies into groups. There were two independent variables used that were designated as dummy variables. The first variable of acquisition separated companies that did complete acquisitions from those that did not complete acquisitions during the decade of study. The second variable grouped the companies by size of sales at the end of the decade by either greater than $100 million or less than $100 million. Then the general linear model procedure was used to test the four null hypotheses, as stated above, regarding the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable of gross profit margin growth as a repeated measure over the perio d 1992-2000. The investigation included looking at interactions between factors as well as the individual factors and the effects and interactions of covariates. This model specifies the independent variables as covariates for regression analysis. The SPSS repeated measures model creates a matrix for the sums of squares due to the model effects, gives the approximate F statistics and estimates parameters in addition to testing hypotheses. When an F test shows significance, SPSS performs post hoc tests to evaluate the differences between the means. This yields a predicted mean value for the cells of the model. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to named variables to study the portion of variance in the each variable that could be identified as explained and unexpected with regard to the event of acquisition. A covariance tool was also used when looking at the variables described above such as acquisition occurrence, company size and profitability growth changes. This compares whether the two ranges of data move together à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" that is, whether large values of one set were associated with large values of the other (positive covariance), whether small values of one set were associated with large values of the other (negative covariance), or whether values in both sets were unrelated (covariance near zero). DATA SOURCES Standard Poors Compustat database was used for data collection in this research. The database contains fundamental financial, statistical and market data derived from publicity traded companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, OTC and Canadian stock exchanges. The calendar year for a company is the year in which the fiscal year ends and is the time period used as standard in this research. Companies with fiscal years ending in January through May are assigned by Compustant into the year in which the fiscal year begins. Companies with fiscal years that end in June through December are assigned to the year in which the fiscal year ends. The EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) System database maintained by the United Stated Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also used. The EDGAR data is also collected from the same sources that are used to generate the Compustat database. Data from these controlled and verifiable sources were corroborated and augmented with information collected from semiconductor trade journals, company annual reports and the Mergers Acquisitions Journal that tracks statistics in this area. CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION HI à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ACQUISITON AND PROFITABILITY RELATIONSHIP A strong positive relationship was found to exist between the presence of acquisition activity and the growth in gross profit margin (GPM) by the end of the ten year study period. The statistical analysis is detailed below and is a departure from previous findings. This finding addresses the central question of this research endeavor to look for a relationship between acquisition events and profitability growth within the one industry of semiconductors. A positive financial effect is found and opens the path for additional analysis in this direction. Consequently, this information forms the foundation for the additional work presented in this research. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions The fast rate of technological change was one of the most important trends in the 1990s and this brought an increasing complexity and cost to the development of new technologies. Companies used their innovative assets as a major source of competitive advantage to quickly introduce new products and adopt new processes (Sen and Egelhoff, 2000). Acquisitions are completed in many industries for reasons that are aligned with the dominant competitive driving forces for that industry. In the area of high technology and seminconductors, the competitive drivers are short product life cycles and process advancement. Process advances are required to both support the incremental changes to existing products and to allow the creation of radically new one. The number of acquisitions rapidly increased through the decade for several reasons: the product life cycle was getting shorter; participating in the creation of industry and product standards was crucial; early entry helped capture market shar e; and R D risk could be reduced. Hagedoorn (1993) found the reduction in innovation time and acquisition of needed technologies as the most important reasons for one company to pursue another. Several researchers have written about the radical and incremental innovation capabilities, their distinguishing factors and the important consequences to the corporation. It has also been argued that large firms are effective with incremental innovations and small firms are better at radical innovations. (Ettlie, Bridges, and OKeefe, 1984; Dewar and Dutton, 1986; Christensen, 1992). Corporate decision to acquire or not acquire another company embodies a high level, serious management strategy decision toward repositioning a company in the competitive landscape. The decade from 1990 to 2000 was chosen as an important time for acquisition activity. There was frequent activity in acquisitions during a time of stable economic conditions creating good conditions for analysis. In 1990, the dollar value of all acquisitions and mergers in the United States was two percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2000, the value reached over 15% of the GDP (Mergerstat, 2003). In the first 10 months of 2000, in the technology sector alone, there were 2,019 acquisition and merger deals worth $573 billion (Reason, 2000). This occurred despite studies done in the 1980s and 1990s that found little positive effect financially for the acquiring company. The magnitude of the activity strongly suggests that some positive relationship could be found if examined in a different way o r using new metrics. This research uses a different methodology by exploring a single industry, selecting profitability growth as the metric from theoretical industry driving forces and analyzing profitability over time as a statistical repeated measures model using SPSS software. The results from this work may have strategic implications for remaining competitive in high technology, high-velocity industries. It should be noted here that the term acquisition, mergers and acquisitions and M A will be used interchangeably in this research and are defined in Appendix A along with other important terms. In high technology industries, such as semiconductors, a firm interested in new product innovation must aggressively invest to stay at the leading edge. Creating or acquiring new offerings can be dependent on a combination of efforts directed either internal or external to the company. Internal efforts include primarily Research and Development (R D) or newly formed affiliates, termed greenfields (Vermeulen Barkema, 2001; Sonenclar, 1984; Bradley Korn, 1981). External efforts can take the form of acquisition or mergers to best capture the intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Acquisitions, when done well, appear to have the advantage of capturing this kind of IP as compared to the other forms of external efforts. Acquisitions also potentially offer faster repositioning with less risk and lower cost than pursuing internal company endeavors (Singh Montgomery, 1987). A high technology companys success hinges on crea tion of innovative ideas, availability of creative personnel, speed of new product execution and cost effectiveness. Mergers and acquisitions are a highly favored management avenue for growth and competitive positioning. The importance of this management consideration and the impact of mergers and acquisitions continue to expand with billions of dollars involved. The importance in the technology sector becomes apparent when looking at the 724 firms that made their initial public offering (IPO) in 1992, but were not acquired or merged. Of these companies, 58% were selling at less than their IPO price six years later (Small Business Statistics, 2000). Product and service offering must constantly evolve and change (Thompson Strickland, 2001). High velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth and survival of high technology businesses. Organizations that are successful have a regular stream of unique products and services. Hewlett-Packard had over 50% of revenue in 1999 coming from products introduced in the previous two to four years. In high technology companies, the highest profit levels come from the newest products. Consequently, it is imperative to accelerate the innovation cycle, often through mergers and acquisitions, and this is critically important to remaining competitive. Entrepreneurial firms consistently outperform larger firms in both market and earnings growth on the Inc. 500 and Forbes 200 lists (Imparato Harari, 1994). There are several potential reasons for making an acquisition that have been identified and studied in the literature. In addition to the reasons for actually acquiring, there are a number of factors following the event that will influence the degree of success or failure that these efforts may experience. These elements that play a part in determining the outcome have been the focus of studies that are summarized in the Literature Review. WHAT MAKES HIGH-TECH COMPANIES AND THEIR ACQUISITIONS UNIQUE Both the popular business press as well as recent academic research seems to uniformly accept the unique nature of high-tech stocks. Kohers and Kohers (2000) state: The high-growth nature of technology-based industries distinguishes them from other types of industries. In addition to their high-growth potential, however, another distinctive feature of high-tech industries is the inherent uncertainty associated with companies whose values rely on future outcomes or developments is unproven, uncharted fields (p. 40). In fact, many pure technology stocks are young companies, underfunded and without prospects for generating any cash flows in the near future. Nevertheless, despite the inherent uncertainty of high-tech industries, investors seemed to disregard most equity fundamentals when valuing technology stocks, especially during the market upturn in the late 1990s. As a result, even though high-tech stocks were in general extremely volatile, many of them were trading at remarkable pre miums. The exploding rate of growth in M A activity that involved high-tech industries can be partly attributed to those overly optimistic valuations. Puranam (2001) argues: On the acquirers side, booming stock market valuations have made acquisitions for stock feasible for several relatively small (revenue wise) firms, as well as the more established larger ones. On the targets side, an increasing preference for the ready liquidity offered, by an acquisition, as opposed to the paper profits from an IPO have created an environment conducive to acquisitions of small start-ups. At the same time many of these acquisitions were also motivated by the acquirers need to obtain critical technologies and expertise in order to quickly enhance their own technological competence. Despite the burst of the high-tech market bubble and the failure of most of these acquisitions, investors continue to show an extreme faith on these stocks. Americans still believe that technology can create a better world. Each time the U.S. tech sector falls into a trough, new technologies and companies emerge to lead it forward again (Business Week, August 27, 2001). PROBLEM MOTIVATING THIS STUDY This research effort seeks to understand the relationship between acquisitions and profitability by looking at the industrial sector for high technology semiconductor companies. Many prior studies have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company in research conducted beginning in the 1980s and extending to today using a variety of variables, measures and company sample selection. These studies will be discussed in more detail in the Literature Review. The researchers Rumelt (1984), Ravenscraft and Scherer (1987), Porter (1987) and Kaplan and Weisbach (1990) separately found that acquisitions that could be categorized as unrelated, or diversifications, did not lead to profitability improvements, but most of these studies obviously included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is discussed in literature and high velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth, profitability and sur vival of these businesses (Thompson and Strickland, 1999; Betz, 2001; Burgelman, Christensen and Wheelwright, 2004). The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This research examines the correlation between the event of acquisition and subsequent company performance and growth of profitability in the decade of 1990-2000. Practicing managers in the area of management of technology are faced with the challenge of high velocity innovation being a requirement to maintain competitive positioning (Thompson Strickland, 2001). Two methods for constant innovation include internal efforts, such as Research Development (R D), and external efforts, such as acquisitions, on which this paper focuses. Prior studies have been cross-sectional across different industries and analyzed the benefits gained in terms of patents and R D (Bettis 1981), stock price (Matsusaka, 1990; Schleifer and Vishny, 1990; and Lubatkin, 1982) or increase in company size versus the cost of acquisitions. These studies have not captured one of the most unique features of the high technology industry where innovation and new products are dependent on intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Because of this characteristic, the high technology industry would be expected to yield different results. The importance of IP and know-how has been an area of academic focus working to clarify the concept of absorptive capacity in the 1990s, but empirical work to tie these concepts to firm performance was not pursued (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Barney, 1991; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The use of patents as a measure, as used in prior research (Acs and Aud retsch, 1988; Pakes and Griliches, 1980; Hitt, Hoskisson, Ireland and Harrison, 1991), does not capture the IP benefits in these categories or measure the success resulting from these external efforts. Acquisitions, when done well, should be expected to have an advantage on capturing this kind of IP. Acquisitions potentially offer faster positioning with less risk and lower cost than internal company endeavors which include primarily Research and Development (R D) (Gulati, 1995; Singh Montgomery, 1987). STUDY OVERVIEW This research effort focuses on one high technology industrial sector of semiconductors and studies the correlation between acquisitions, profitability, survivability and RD intensity over time. Many prior studies (Rumelt, 1984; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990) have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company, but most of these studies included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is widely discussed in literature. High velocity innovation is fundamental for the theory of growth, profitability and survival of these businesses. The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This paper researches the correlation between the ev ent of acquisition and subsequent company performance, survivability, the growth of profitability and R D spending. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ON HIGH-TECH COMPANIES Most research on high-tech companies is relatively recent and has its origin in various business fields. Chaudhuri and Tabrizi (1999) study the practices of 24 high-tech companies involved in acquisitions, and try to identify the key factors in capturing the real value in high-tech acquisitions. They conclude that in order to make a successful acquisition managers need to move beyond the traditional model of acquisitions where the people acquired are secondary to physical assets and brands. High-tech acquisitions need to focus on the people since technological capabilities tied to skilled people are the key to long-term success in these industries. Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella (2000) examine how the growth of markets for technology affected the corporate strategies of the leading companies, which can now sell technologies that they do not use in-house and increase their potential returns to R D. They argue that globalization, along with the low transportation costs of technologies, has made large R D intensive companies realize that they have the potential to exploit their technology on a very large scale by licensing. However, in deciding how to exploit their technology small firms and technology-based startups face a different set of challenges. According to the authors they need to trade off the costs of acquiring capital and building in-house production, distribution and marketing capability against the rents that would be lost or shared with their partners in a licensing deal. Also, the authors argue that integration may reduce the innovative potential of the firm, because the acquisition of the complementary assets in evitably increases the size of firms and induces important changes in the culture of the firm and in the speed and fluidity of information flows. Finally, they claim that evaluating technologies and being able to use them requires substantial in-house scientific and technological expertise and therefore internal and external R D can be reviewed as complements and not substitutes. Liu (2000) focuses on a different issue by examining the markets reaction to innovation news announcement made by the U.S. biotech firms during the 1983-1992 period. He finds that the average AR to the announcements is as high as 3.98 percent for a three-day event window and biotech stocks trading volumes almost double on the day of the news announcement. The announcement period ARs are negatively related to firm-size and underwriter reputation, while positively related to the firms technology depth as measured by R D intensity. However, during the months following the announcement the average three-month post announcement AR is 2.73 percent. The negative drift in stock prices appears to be mainly driven by the firms weak science and technology (less R D intensive), firms with high Book to Market (B/M) ratios and large firms. In explaining his findings the author proposes an expectation error hypothesis. According to this hypothesis it is hard for investors or even managers to prec isely evaluate the economic value of innovations which in turn leads to the possibility of forming erroneous expectations. In high-tech industries the erroneous expectation is reflected in the investors over-optimism towards high-tech firms innovation news. Eventually, the stock prices adjust itself to reflect the firms fundamentals, especially its technology depth. The author attributes the observed evidence to the costly information required to value a high-tech firms innovation. Prentice and Fox (2002) provide a comprehensive review of the merger and acquisition process while focusing on the distinctive characteristics of high-tech companies. They argue that technology mergers are different from traditional mergers because of the importance that must be placed on people and their ability to innovate. Targets must be evaluated on intangible assets such as intellectual property and human capital. At the same time managers need to consider the issues of retention, culture and integration strategy from the beginning of the merger process to ensure success. There are two studies that are most relevant to this research. The first one is by Kohers and Kohers (2000) who examine the value creation potential of 1,634 mergers in the various high-tech areas between 1987 and 1996. They find that acquirers of high-tech targets experience significantly positive Ars at the time of the merger announcement, regardless of whether the merger is financed with cash or stock. Othe r factors influencing bidder returns are the time period in which the merger occurs, the ownership structure of the acquirer, the ownership status of the target and the high-tech affiliation of acquirers. They conclude that the market appears to be optimistic about such mergers and expects that acquiring companies will enjoy future growth benefits. The second related study is also by Kohers and Kohers (2001) who examine the post-merger performance of acquirers that purchase high-tech targets in order to determine whether the high expectations regarding the future merits of these investments are actually justified. Their results indicate that compared to non acquirers, acquirers perform poorly over the three-year period following the high-tech takeover announcement. Furthermore, glamour bidders show significantly lower long-run ARs, while value bidders do not experience significant post-merger ARs. Also, glamour bidders with a higher risk of agency problems show even worse post-merger performance while institutional ownership in the acquiring firm has a positive influence on acquirer long run ARs. Overall, the authors conclude that the market tends to exhibit excessive enthusiasm toward the expected benefits of high-tech mergers but many of these benefits do not materialize. CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES, METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCES STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES Previous research in the literature has generally found little financial benefit for the acquiring companies that were associated with occurrence of the acquisition activity (Rumelt, 1974; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990). Consequently, the first and second questions for this study are focused using the single industry of semiconductors, are stated in the null hypothesis format. First, firm profitability growth rates are compared in two groups, one that does acquire and one that does not. Secondly, individual firm profitability growth is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a change in growth rate that is significant. Hypothesis 1 (H1): There will be no significant difference in profitability growth when firms making acquisitions are compared to firms not making acquisitions in the high-tech sector. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Acquiring firms making acquisitions are expected to have no significant change in profitability growth before and after the acquisition event. The literature yields less empirical work in analyzing the relationship between merger and acquisition actions and the longevity of a corporation. Theory certainly recognizes the close link between competitive capability and company survival. For the high technology industry of semiconductors, high velocity innovation is a requirement for remaining competitive. Research questions three and four are also stated in the null hypothesis format. Company longevity, or survival rate in number of year, is compared in two groups also, where one group does acquire and one does not. Lastly, an individual firms spending rate on R D is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a significant change in the rate compared to the trend for the company. Hypothesis 3 (H3): Firms making acquisitions are expected to have no difference in survivability in this industry than firms who do not make acquisitions. Hypothesis 4 (H4): A companys R D intensity will show no significant change following the event of acquisition within this industry. SELECTION OF VARIABLES This research was conducted in a concentric approach by starting with one independent and one dependent variable initially to define the relationship and guide the next treatment in the study. As work continued, variables were selected and the methodology expanded to assess both within-subject and between-subject effects. The variables used in this study for Hypothesis 1 (H1) include profitability growth rate and a dummy variable to represent the presence or absence of the event of acquisition. The event of acquisition is represented by a dummy variable with a zero (0) representing no acquisition and with a one (1) representing an acquisition event. An acquisition event is identified by using a firms reported cash flows attributed to acquisition as stated in the Compustat database. The profitability growth rate is calculated from the total gross profit margin reported by year and cumulated over three years, then averaged to reduce fluctuations and facilitate identification of trends. The variables used for H2 analysis of profitability growth rate before and after an acquisition were the dummy variable for the presence of acquisition, the gross profit margin percentage (GPM %) calculated as a three (3) year cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) to smooth fluctuations and better identify a trend. This relationship was studied for three (3) years prior to the actual acquisition and five (5) years following the action. As the study progressed, a second dummy variable was used for company size to separate the effect of this independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variables, each with two levels and one dependent variable with repeated measures over nine years for a 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures analysis using the SPPS software. The variables used for H3 analysis of acquisition relation to firm longevity were the acquisition dummy variable and the data from Compustat for the number of years that the company did financial reporting during the period of this study. H4 looks for the effects between acquisition and RD spending or intensity by using the acquisition dummy independent variable and R D intensity as the dependent variable. R D intensity is calculated using the R D expense reported as such by the companies and in the Compustat database. This Compustat item represents all costs incurred during the year that relate to the development of new products or services. This amount is only the company`s contribution and includes software and amortization of software costs and complies with Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) standards. This item excludes customer or government-sponsored research and development (including reimbursable indirect costs) and ordinary engineering expenses for routine, ongoing efforts to define, enrich, or improve the qualities of existing products. Methodology This study encompasses the time period of ten years from 1990-2000, inclusive. Semiconductor companies were selected as an entire group according to their NAICS/SIC codes. Using the Standard Poors Compustat database, there are 153 semiconductor companies included that were identified as active companies at the end of the calendar year 2000 by Compustat. These companies are listed in Appendix B. Active reporting for one year. Companies are designated as inactive and reclassified in the Compustat database when it is no longer actively traded on a stock market exchange due to bankruptcy, becoming a private company, leveraged buyout or merging. The research effort started with analysis one independent variable and one dependent variable in order to initially establish what the relationship was that existed, if it was significant and how to proceed with analysis. Exploratory work on Hypothesis 1 showed that there was a statistically significant and positive correlation between acquisitions and gross profit margin (GMP) growth broadly over the decade which differs from prior research. Hypothesis 2 moves toward a more detailed analysis of this finding. Consequently, in this chronology of discovery, the next step presented in Section 4.2 look at one dependent variable of profit margin growth and two independent variables of company size and acquisition activity. 3-way ANNOVA and regression treatments of the data are conducted using the data analysis tool available under Microsoft Excel Software looking at individual years in the ten year study period. The results show significance again and suggest that other interactions betwe en variables would yield additional understanding. The next step in the research was set up to look at one dependent variable, again gross margin (GPM) growth, repeatedly measured over time for each subject or company was entered for the nine (9) years 1995-2000 inclusive to capture acquisition effects giving 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures design. The two independent variables were used in the dummy format with non-acquires given a code zero 0 and acquires assigned at one (1). Company size was the second dummy variable with firms less than $100M in sales per year coded zero (0) and if greater than $100M in sales, assigned a one (1). The statistical analysis using a repeated measures design analyzed the variable interactions and their relationship to GPM growth using the SPSS software. These results are presented in Section 4.5 Repeated Measures Analysis that was done using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were an important first treatment of the data sets created. This includes the values for the following parameters: mean, median, range variance, standard deviation, kurtosis, and skewness. This treatment looks at characteristics of the data and the degree of normal distribution. The 3-way ANOVA investigations and regression treatment of the data were initially done using the data analysis tool software available in Microsoft Excel. Generally, the data sets for this study vary somewhat from the classical normal distribution, but ANOVA and MANOVA (multivariate ANOVA) within a repeated measures analysis are considered robust to violations of the normal distribution assumption (Maxwell Dealney, 1990; Stevens, 1996) SPSS Advanced Models 11.0 software was used to create general linear models of the data and conduct analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for the multiple variables in this model with repeated measures. The factors or independent variables were used to divide the population of 153 active semiconductor companies into groups. There were two independent variables used that were designated as dummy variables. The first variable of acquisition separated companies that did complete acquisitions from those that did not complete acquisitions during the decade of study. The second variable grouped the companies by size of sales at the end of the decade by either greater than $100 million or less than $100 million. Then the general linear model procedure was used to test the four null hypotheses, as stated above, regarding the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable of gross profit margin growth as a repeated measure over the perio d 1992-2000. The investigation included looking at interactions between factors as well as the individual factors and the effects and interactions of covariates. This model specifies the independent variables as covariates for regression analysis. The SPSS repeated measures model creates a matrix for the sums of squares due to the model effects, gives the approximate F statistics and estimates parameters in addition to testing hypotheses. When an F test shows significance, SPSS performs post hoc tests to evaluate the differences between the means. This yields a predicted mean value for the cells of the model. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to named variables to study the portion of variance in the each variable that could be identified as explained and unexpected with regard to the event of acquisition. A covariance tool was also used when looking at the variables described above such as acquisition occurrence, company size and profitability growth changes. This compares whether the two ranges of data move together à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" that is, whether large values of one set were associated with large values of the other (positive covariance), whether small values of one set were associated with large values of the other (negative covariance), or whether values in both sets were unrelated (covariance near zero). DATA SOURCES Standard Poors Compustat database was used for data collection in this research. The database contains fundamental financial, statistical and market data derived from publicity traded companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, OTC and Canadian stock exchanges. The calendar year for a company is the year in which the fiscal year ends and is the time period used as standard in this research. Companies with fiscal years ending in January through May are assigned by Compustant into the year in which the fiscal year begins. Companies with fiscal years that end in June through December are assigned to the year in which the fiscal year ends. The EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) System database maintained by the United Stated Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also used. The EDGAR data is also collected from the same sources that are used to generate the Compustat database. Data from these controlled and verifiable sources were corroborated and augmented with information collected from semiconductor trade journals, company annual reports and the Mergers Acquisitions Journal that tracks statistics in this area. CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION HI à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ACQUISITON AND PROFITABILITY RELATIONSHIP A strong positive relationship was found to exist between the presence of acquisition activity and the growth in gross profit margin (GPM) by the end of the ten year study period. The statistical analysis is detailed below and is a departure from previous findings. This finding addresses the central question of this research endeavor to look for a relationship between acquisition events and profitability growth within the one industry of semiconductors. A positive financial effect is found and opens the path for additional analysis in this direction. Consequently, this information forms the foundation for the additional work presented in this research. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Tibet Essay examples -- China Government Papers

Tibet The history of Tibet during the half century of occupation has been a complicated one. Everything, from the reasons provided by China for invading Tibet to the apparent lack of international support for the Tibetan people during much of the harsh Chinese occupation, has made preserving a cultural and national Tibetan identity a difficult process for the Tibetan people. Tibet received so little help for so long because of an effective propaganda campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government, as well as a blind eye turned towards Tibet by influential nations of the world that at the time were trying to forge good trading relationships with China, as in the case of the US and protecting previously established interests, in the case of Britain. The recovery of Tibet therefore cannot be attributed to â€Å"compassionate† governments such as the US or Britain, but rather to vast coalitions of NGOs, networks of Tibetans in exile, the tireless efforts of the Dalai and Panchen Lam as, armed rebel groups with aspirations of freedom, devote Buddhist nuns within Tibet leading demonstrations, and more recently: concerned governments. Each of the above mentioned has made an impact on how the world feels it can help Tibet, whether help for Tibet is simply supporting its interim government or harshly reprimanding the Chinese government for its actions. Propaganda Hampering Foreign Aid To better understand why there was little international outcry during the invasion of Tibet, one can refer to an article titled â€Å"The Revolution in Tibet and Nehru’s Philosophy.† By better understanding the policies of Nehru and the contradictory stances on Tibet by the Indian government, one is able to understand why no clear messages for help were he... ...protest, foreign intervention, or conflict will ever restore Tibet to its pre-1949 state. Due to the importation of Chinese settlers, a generation of Chinese call Tibet their home. Most people have come to realize that after fifty years of no progress toward an autonomous Tibet, freedom from China is extremely unlikely. The Tibetan state can be considered dead, but the Tibetan culture and nationality are still vibrant. Instead of giving up the fight, Tibetans and NGOs need to step up efforts to pressure the Chinese to give Tibetans within Tibet their nationality and culture back. The Chinese government hears the international protest against their actions and every new voice that joins the fight. The pressure against China will eventually reach a critical point where the Tibetans will be able to realize their freedom to a culture and national identity. Tibet Essay examples -- China Government Papers Tibet The history of Tibet during the half century of occupation has been a complicated one. Everything, from the reasons provided by China for invading Tibet to the apparent lack of international support for the Tibetan people during much of the harsh Chinese occupation, has made preserving a cultural and national Tibetan identity a difficult process for the Tibetan people. Tibet received so little help for so long because of an effective propaganda campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government, as well as a blind eye turned towards Tibet by influential nations of the world that at the time were trying to forge good trading relationships with China, as in the case of the US and protecting previously established interests, in the case of Britain. The recovery of Tibet therefore cannot be attributed to â€Å"compassionate† governments such as the US or Britain, but rather to vast coalitions of NGOs, networks of Tibetans in exile, the tireless efforts of the Dalai and Panchen Lam as, armed rebel groups with aspirations of freedom, devote Buddhist nuns within Tibet leading demonstrations, and more recently: concerned governments. Each of the above mentioned has made an impact on how the world feels it can help Tibet, whether help for Tibet is simply supporting its interim government or harshly reprimanding the Chinese government for its actions. Propaganda Hampering Foreign Aid To better understand why there was little international outcry during the invasion of Tibet, one can refer to an article titled â€Å"The Revolution in Tibet and Nehru’s Philosophy.† By better understanding the policies of Nehru and the contradictory stances on Tibet by the Indian government, one is able to understand why no clear messages for help were he... ...protest, foreign intervention, or conflict will ever restore Tibet to its pre-1949 state. Due to the importation of Chinese settlers, a generation of Chinese call Tibet their home. Most people have come to realize that after fifty years of no progress toward an autonomous Tibet, freedom from China is extremely unlikely. The Tibetan state can be considered dead, but the Tibetan culture and nationality are still vibrant. Instead of giving up the fight, Tibetans and NGOs need to step up efforts to pressure the Chinese to give Tibetans within Tibet their nationality and culture back. The Chinese government hears the international protest against their actions and every new voice that joins the fight. The pressure against China will eventually reach a critical point where the Tibetans will be able to realize their freedom to a culture and national identity. Tibet Essay examples -- China Government Papers Tibet The history of Tibet during the half century of occupation has been a complicated one. Everything, from the reasons provided by China for invading Tibet to the apparent lack of international support for the Tibetan people during much of the harsh Chinese occupation, has made preserving a cultural and national Tibetan identity a difficult process for the Tibetan people. Tibet received so little help for so long because of an effective propaganda campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government, as well as a blind eye turned towards Tibet by influential nations of the world that at the time were trying to forge good trading relationships with China, as in the case of the US and protecting previously established interests, in the case of Britain. The recovery of Tibet therefore cannot be attributed to â€Å"compassionate† governments such as the US or Britain, but rather to vast coalitions of NGOs, networks of Tibetans in exile, the tireless efforts of the Dalai and Panchen Lam as, armed rebel groups with aspirations of freedom, devote Buddhist nuns within Tibet leading demonstrations, and more recently: concerned governments. Each of the above mentioned has made an impact on how the world feels it can help Tibet, whether help for Tibet is simply supporting its interim government or harshly reprimanding the Chinese government for its actions. Propaganda Hampering Foreign Aid To better understand why there was little international outcry during the invasion of Tibet, one can refer to an article titled â€Å"The Revolution in Tibet and Nehru’s Philosophy.† By better understanding the policies of Nehru and the contradictory stances on Tibet by the Indian government, one is able to understand why no clear messages for help were he... ...protest, foreign intervention, or conflict will ever restore Tibet to its pre-1949 state. Due to the importation of Chinese settlers, a generation of Chinese call Tibet their home. Most people have come to realize that after fifty years of no progress toward an autonomous Tibet, freedom from China is extremely unlikely. The Tibetan state can be considered dead, but the Tibetan culture and nationality are still vibrant. Instead of giving up the fight, Tibetans and NGOs need to step up efforts to pressure the Chinese to give Tibetans within Tibet their nationality and culture back. The Chinese government hears the international protest against their actions and every new voice that joins the fight. The pressure against China will eventually reach a critical point where the Tibetans will be able to realize their freedom to a culture and national identity.

Ambitions

Bamboo is about a system of corruption and oppression brought about by the triangle of power that we are now living In. In the Philippines, the effects of this â€Å"triangle† can be vividly seen throughout the country; murders, stolen funds, mistaken identities and poverty-stricken people because of corruption.The song gives a clearer sound to what the country Is crying for and why the people of this country are suffering and being punished with Injustice every day. People are blinded with the notion that racism Is the enemy and color and birthplace Is the enter for Injustice but we are gravely mistaken because as long as there Is poverty to be seen, and Justice to be given only to the rich and powerful, nothing good will come to our country and to our people.I am growing up In a country with officials that are like wolves where they stalk on the easiest prey at the blink of an eye, it would surprise me if one of them would do something out of pure charity, â€Å"being truly generous† is starting to be extinct, with the way our system is progressing. The true nature of this â€Å"triangle† is that it all favors to who is on top and respectively, it all saviors to who is at the bottom and because of this; we are continually being pulled down by our own wrongdoings.A country that lives with two faces, a face which does everything to help the people, and a face that works in the dark to pull strings in self- favor. I have seen how this triangle works and I can personally say that as time passes, the gap between the top and bottom is starting to distance further, which can mean only one thing; the prosperity of the people and the economy is determined by the battle between the two faces of a nation that thrive in a triangle of power.

To Be or Not to Be A Greenhorn †History Essay

To Be or Not to Be A Greenhorn – History Essay Free Online Research Papers To Be or Not to Be A Greenhorn History Essay Throughout history, the concept of Americanization has been studied in order to better understand the effects of a mass culture on immigrants. On one side stands the view of an immigrant engulfed in American ideology who leaves behind his past. He conforms to this new individualism and now is able to move upward on the economic ladder. On the opposite end of defining Americanization is the unscathed immigrant who maintains his old word traditions and institutions to emerge victoriously despite unfavorable conditions. His ethnicity solidifies his success by creating affinity bonds and social patterns to aid in the struggle for a decent life. Though both these views are extreme, they both contain significant aspects which form a more accurate perspective of how immigrants assimilated into the â€Å"emerging industrial and consumer society† (Ewen, 15). These immigrants did not give up their nationality completely, even as they adopted American ideals in order to survive within the new but unfamiliar consumer culture. This cultural coalescence brought about major changes, which women had most of the burden of assimilating during the 19th century. The unrelenting and brave women described by Ewen i n â€Å"Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars† demonstrated an amazing ability to retain many of their traditions while still accommodating American ideals and culture in their social events, employment, and home life. For many immigrant families, social events were the only way to escape the humdrum of daily living, even though to the American many of these activities would seem restrictive or a barrier to the betterment of immigrant life. The struggle and isolation were forgotten for a moment as â€Å"new immigrants found ways to maintain culture and create community† (Ewen, 226). As many Americans looked on with disapproval, there still arose a clash between parents who wanted to preserve the traditions of the old country while the younger generation wanted desperately to assimilate. This division appeared in issues such as love and marriage, dress, and social behavior. Even as different views developed between the older and younger generation, many social events remained traditional with the ideals that were common in the Old Country. There were many kinds of recreation, however, that involved the whole family and were enjoyed by both Italian and Jewish families (Ewen, 214). For example, immigrant weddings were an important part of social life unlike the trend of elopement in American marriages (Ewen 235). According to Ewen, â€Å"weddings were large, festive affairs in which the ties between the couple, the two families and the larger community were sanctified† (235). Since weddings in America were much more expensive, many Italian and Jewish daughters and mothers went without paying for food, rent, or other pleasures in order to fund a wedding. Many went into debt as well, but they found it â€Å"worth the sacrifice† (Ewen, 237). This attitude permeated other social events such as christenings, bar mitzvahs, holidays, and funerals. Due to industrialization, factory work was a major component that divided an immigrant mother’s homebound life from a daughter’s new social and economic ideals of the outside world. Though many American social workers believed that new practices and consumer standards would transform an immigrant’s home life, the actuality and comprehension of the work was fairly dissimilar from the immigrant. Immigrant daughters who did work outside of the home, usually in factories, did so to supplement the family’s inadequate income. Though many mothers demanded unopened pay envelopes from all their children, many daughters tried to exert control of their own wages by demanding an allowance, paying board instead of overturning their whole pay, or moving out on their own completely. One day in an immigrant’s home would be sufficient to convince anyone of the cooperation and discipline that women use to run their household. Extensive housework was required and daughters often went through rigorous training in sewing, cooking, and spinning- â€Å"the skills of life† (Ewen, 32). Girls became proficient in these skills before they became teenagers and learned to be self-sufficient and sacrificial. Women were also in charge of family fiscal affairs where all income from husband and children was given to the mother. Also, usually with Jews, the women did the work of â€Å"domestic religion† (Ewen, 41). These rules were handed down from generation to generation to ensure the proper methods for religious rituals. Housework was divided between the females of the household in order to maintain a more demanding home in America. These homes needed more â€Å"care than in Europe, in part because the evolution of new standards of living and new hous ehold acquisitions made house work more complex† (Ewen 149). Laundry had to be done more than once a month and native cooking in a new environment was difficult. Tenement housing did not ease the burden as well with its inadequate provisions. Hence it was difficult for immigrant families to meet new American standards of â€Å"clean and different clothing every day† with a daily bath (Ewen, 155). â€Å"Nevertheless, despite the small cramped quarters and the endless fight against dirt and grime, immigrant women kept their houses clean (Ewen, 156).† Even against unsanitary and grimy conditions, immigrant mothers instilled in their daughters the value of an orderly and pleasant house. Despite the desperate attempts to Americanize immigrants, the first and second generations did not let go of all of their traditional ideals and beliefs. Even so, they did not continue unscathed by the process. However, these ideals from the Old Country helped them â€Å"meet the challenge† (Ewen, 266). This culture became a mutual protection for immigrants against the scarcity and struggle of tenement life. It also provided a bond for the community and was the foundation for their survival. As the years passed, immigrants eventually succumbed to American ideals, but they have not totally given up their culture now that they are considered Americans. Even so, one can look back on this period and see the significant struggle that women had between customary ideas and the assurance of modernity. 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Free Essays on Blanche Kelso Bruse

On this date, Blanche K. Bruce was born in 1841. He was the first black senator from Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. From Prince Edward County, Va., the son of a slave mother and white planter father, Blanche Kelso Bruce was well educated as a youth. After the American Civil War, he moved to Mississippi, where in 1869 he became a supervisor of elections. By 1870 he was an emerging figure in state politics. After serving as sergeant at arms in the state senate, he held the posts of county assessor, sheriff, and member of the Board of Levee Commissioners of the Mississippi River. Through these positions he amassed enough wealth to purchase a plantation in Floreyville, Miss. In 1874 Mississippi's Republican-dominated state legislature elected Bruce, a Republican, to a seat in the U.S. Senate. He served from 1875 to 1881, advocating just treatment for both blacks and Indians and opposing the policy excluding Chinese immigrants. He sought improvement of navigation on the Mississippi and advocated better relations between the races. Much of his time and energy he devoted to fighting fraud and corruption in federal elections. Bruce lost his political base in Mississippi with the end of Reconstruction governments in the South. He remained in Washington when, at the conclusion of his Senate term, he was appointed register of the Treasury. He served in that post from 1881 to 1885 and again from 1895 to 1898. He was also recorder of deeds in the District of Columbia from 1889 to 1895 and a trustee of Howard University. Blanche Bruce died on March 17, 1898 in Washington, D.C.... Free Essays on Blanche Kelso Bruse Free Essays on Blanche Kelso Bruse On this date, Blanche K. Bruce was born in 1841. He was the first black senator from Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. From Prince Edward County, Va., the son of a slave mother and white planter father, Blanche Kelso Bruce was well educated as a youth. After the American Civil War, he moved to Mississippi, where in 1869 he became a supervisor of elections. By 1870 he was an emerging figure in state politics. After serving as sergeant at arms in the state senate, he held the posts of county assessor, sheriff, and member of the Board of Levee Commissioners of the Mississippi River. Through these positions he amassed enough wealth to purchase a plantation in Floreyville, Miss. In 1874 Mississippi's Republican-dominated state legislature elected Bruce, a Republican, to a seat in the U.S. Senate. He served from 1875 to 1881, advocating just treatment for both blacks and Indians and opposing the policy excluding Chinese immigrants. He sought improvement of navigation on the Mississippi and advocated better relations between the races. Much of his time and energy he devoted to fighting fraud and corruption in federal elections. Bruce lost his political base in Mississippi with the end of Reconstruction governments in the South. He remained in Washington when, at the conclusion of his Senate term, he was appointed register of the Treasury. He served in that post from 1881 to 1885 and again from 1895 to 1898. He was also recorder of deeds in the District of Columbia from 1889 to 1895 and a trustee of Howard University. Blanche Bruce died on March 17, 1898 in Washington, D.C....

Cultural Conflict Essay Professor Ramos Blog

Cultural Conflict Essay Cultural Conflict Essay

Case reflective anaysis for desicion making Essay

Case reflective anaysis for desicion making - Essay Example Then I decided to sell the oversized room to the guest with a negotiable prize to reduce the lost and maximize the profits for the organization. After the guest check-in, the hotel manager told me that one of the up side stakeholder will came to the hotel that night and so I needed to organize the exclusive president room for him. But there was no more available room I could offer for him. I could only refuse the order and provide another room for the guest. After this, the hotel manager not satisfied with my decision, but there was no negative impact for my good job performance. Due to a continuous long term full room occupancy task, I got a promotion to be a higher-level manager in the Hotel. Analysis of Case Bounded rationality impact for my decision making I decide to promote the presidential room as a lower price to the walks in customer because of the bounded rationality. Bounded rationality is individual’s personal cognitive abilities to take decision towards rational o utcomes and optimal decision making style (Kalantari, 2010). Individual’s personal decision making is hindered by various external and internal factors as decision making is a complex process of understanding cognitive abilities and personal abilities. Sometime manager hold bounded rationality theory in to action for taking decision as neo-classical theory cannot justify and hold in real world decision making where the limitations are in excess (Saphiro, 1997). Foe example, selling the rooms with a lower price is a method to outcome the economic depression. As the manager, I should carry on decision while understanding objectives supports the decision making process for organization. Moreover the individual cognitive ability tends to impact the decision making process as cognition ability of every individual vary person to person. (Robbins and Judge, 2011). Therefore, I must kept in mind and help staff to make a better decision when they working. So based on the bounded ratio nality, I cannot sell the rooms with the normal price which will lead low profit for the hotel. Therefore individual’s decision making is affected and influenced by various elements of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that needed to understood in order to completely understand the decision process. Various methods can be utilized for making decision making as it can referred that individual sometime behavior of the decision maker directly associate the decision outcome (Nicholson and Snyder, 2007) Risk and uncertainty in decision making In hotel room management, which involves the sale of rooms to guests, several acts of risk and uncertainty comes up. These risks and uncertainties increase as the rate of options in decision making increase (Hissam and Daniel, 2009). The reason this is so is that hotel rooms come with different values and costs. In most cases however, customers do not come to request for rooms according to the value and cost of rooms. In such a case, the hotel sales manager is said to be faced with risk and uncertainty. The risk is in the fact that if the manager sales out the room at a reduced cost, there may be another customer coming in with the right bid for the hotel room. The uncertainty also has to do with the fact

Sociology Applied 4 (Social Class and Stratification) Essay

Sociology Applied 4 (Social Class and Stratification) - Essay Example In the game rules, the lower class also received the least amount of salary. This reflects upon real life where those who fall under the lower class are victims of poor or minimal pay (Walter, 108). During the game, I experienced minimal mobility as a result of playing under the lower class. My social stratum in the game ensured that I remained fixed to the bottom and mostly experience downward mobility. My game experience reflects the real life experience of people who belong to the lower class. People in the lower class have minimal chance of making it in life due to the minimal chances they get presented with in life. For example, in the game, the lower class only gets one chance to throw the die when trying to get out of jail compared to the other classes that to throw two dice or more. This gives a parallel experience by those in lower class in real life who get minimal chance to get out of hardships. Belonging to different classes impacted on the economic and social interactions during the game. The first interaction occurs when taking turns to play the game. The lower class is the last to make a move after the working class. The only interaction between those in the upper class and lower class was economic (Water 96). This took place as the upper class controlled the bank and its functions. The upper class controlled the bank and thus forcing the other classes to rely on him to provide economic services during the game. The conflict/ social conflict theory best explains the overall perspective of the game. The division of the game into classes provides unfair advantages to various participants. The conflict theory distinguishes the society into various classes, which compete for the scarce resources (Walter, 132). This reflects in the game as the participants get classified according to social classes. This theory also states on how the elite control the poor and weak in the society. In the game, the upper class had more ability ad responsibility

Justice, Ethics and Law - critical evaluation of one of the three Essay

Justice, Ethics and Law - critical evaluation of one of the three topics below - Essay Example They insist that the idea of all people possessing certain rights by virtue of their humanity, even in the absence of legislation, is baseless and only loose talk.2 The ambiguity regarding the credibility of human rights dates back to the 18th century shortly after US Declaration of Independence in 1776, and thirteen years ahead, the French declaration of ‘the rights of man’. The US Declaration stated that every man is ‘endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights’ while the French Declaration asserted ‘men are born and remain free and equal in rights’. Not long afterwards, Jeremy Bentham, in his writings between 1791 and 1792,3 differed with the concept of human rights and called for its dismissal. Bentham claimed that the idea of human rights was borrowed from the Americans and was not practical. Even today, there is still widespread disagreement on issues relating to human rights. Most critics maintain that human rights lack coherence, cogency and legitimacy while some still point out grey areas such as social and economic rights.4 Amartya Sen5 proposes several guidelines for the elements of a human rights theory that adequately address the issue of legitimacy of human rights. I will consider these six guidelines as conclusions to arguments which he bases on one or more premises explained under each subheading. The paper will analyse each of these conclusions and their supporting premises and critically assess their legitimacy and any alternative suggestions. Sen claims that human rights are primarily ethical demands rather than legal commands.6 He makes this conclusion based on two premises. First, even though human rights have often resulted in legislation, it is considered a further fact, as opposed to a characteristic of human rights. Second, Sen states that human rights are agreements on certain ethical affirmations and the

HCM337-0704B-01 Current Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues in H - Essay - 5

HCM337-0704B-01 Current Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues in H - Phase 3 Discussion Board - Essay Example Medical errors are common in the field due to human involvement however the life and death situations pay no respect to human error. A 2006 report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies study found that medication errors are among the most common medical mistakes, harming at least 1.5 million people every year [2]. With the current system each day about 125,000 suits are filed against the doctors for mal practice. Although 70 percent of those suits filed are closed without any payment, the rest who don’t, deliver hefty sums to the patients [3]. A 2001 year average payout to the patients was estimated to be $3.9 million according to the Jury Verdict Research of the Insurance Information Institute. With such a change to extract so much money out of a suing, it is any wonder who doesn’t want to win the lottery? With so many suits filed every day, the doctors are taking malpractice insurance to keep them monetarily safe from the patients. However the costs of the insurance have risen since the 1990s. The U.S. Government Accounting Office reported in 2003 that these increases were due increased losses to malpractice insurers in paying malpractice claims, decreases in investment income of insurers, and increased costs of reinsurance, which increased overall costs to insurers. Nearly all states require that physicians have liability insurance. Even in states that don’t, physicians usually have to have insurance coverage in order to get privileges to see patients at a hospital [3] In order to cap the sky rocketing premiums and costs for mal-practice insurance, most of the states have adopted Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA) which restricts the maximum award of a law suit. One solution to bring the cost of insurance down is by treating the patients correctly. Once the patient has no chance to complain, the law suits will become non-existent and hence this would

Identify three important conditions for successfully initiating a Essay

Identify three important conditions for successfully initiating a price increase (Pricing Strategies) - Essay Example However, in general context most of the companies price their products in such a way which allows them to remain affordable to the clients and offers them a certain societal value. Pricing strategies come mainly in the form of new product pricing, product mix pricing and price-adjustment strategies. Among the aforementioned forms of pricing, a number of strategies can be employed by the company to price its products. The pricing strategies are described below. New Product Pricing Strategies. These strategies are mainly divided into two types, namely market skimming pricing and market penetration pricing. Market skimming pricing entails setting high price for a product during its launch and slowly reducing the price with the passage of time. On the other hand, market penetration pricing is about setting a low price for a newly launched product and then gradually increasing it as the products reaches the growth stage in its life cycle. Product Mix Pricing Strategies. Companies have several options to price their product mix. It purely depends on the intentions of the company. Some of the most commonly used pricing strategies in this context are product line pricing, product bundle pricing, captive product pricing, optional product pricing, and by-product pricing. Each of these strategies considers certain aspects in pricing the product. Price-Adjustment Strategies. The price of a product needs to be adjusted at times due to the changing situations and several customer differences. Some of the commonly used strategies in this context are geographical pricing, international pricing, discount and allowance pricing, psychological pricing, segmented pricing, promotional pricing, and dynamic pricing. After companies develop the pricing structures of their products, they often face a condition when they are required to modify the prices due to a specific reason. Nevertheless, price changes are initiated