Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages Essay Example for Free

Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages Essay Scientific evidence that some products are not healthy Effect people with heart arrhythmias and insomnia Mix with alcohol Relaxed Drink Niche – abuse with prescription cough syrup As we look at this SWOT analysis of the alternative beverage industry we notice that there are some opportunities that they have created and are able to use in the future. Consumers’ choices are changing from the standard soft drink to alternative beverages. The key is to be sustainable by building up these products. The main opportunity to help with sustainability is to build brand loyalty. Try building up the knowledge and uses of your brands will help you gain the skills needed to continue building the brand. Porter’s five-forces model reveals that the overall alternative beverage industry attractiveness is high. Some beverage companies, such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, have mastered the art of brand building in the alternativebeverage market and have been rewarded with rapid growth rates. The rising population of health conscious consumers is increasingly leaning towards alternative beverages that are believed to offer greater health benefits. The strongest competitive force, or most important to strategy formulation, is the threat of entry of new competitors. Competitive pressure from rival sellers is high in the alternative beverage industry. The number of brands competing in sports drinks, energy drinks, and vitamin-enhanced beverage segments of the alternative beverage industry continue to grow each year. Both large and small vendors are launching new products and fighting for minimal retail shelf space. More and more consumers are moving away from traditional soft drinks to healthier alternative drinks. Demand is expected to grow worldwide as consumer purchasing power increases. Another strong competitive force is buyer bargaining power. Convenience stores and grocery stores have substantial leverage in negotiating pricing and slotting fees with alternative beverage producers due to the large quantity of their purchase. Newer brands are very vulnerable to buyer power because of limited space on store shelves. Top brands like Red Bull are almost always guaranteed space. This competitive force does not affect Coca-Cola or PepsiCo as much due to the variety of beverages the stores want to offer to the customer. As a result of this certain appeal, the two companies’ alternative beverage brands can almost always be found shelf space in grocery/convenience stores. Distributors, like restaurants, have less ability to negotiate for deep pricing discounts because of quantity limitations.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Viet Nam Essay -- essays research papers

Tactics in Vietnam were an important factor in the victory of the Vietcong over the U.S. There were fundamental differences in their fighting methods, which the Vietcong were able to take full advantage of. The Vietcong used Guerrilla warfare, this meant that they used their knowledge of the area they were fighting in to hinder the U.S. The U.S army had been used to conventional warfare, in the form of bouts of fighting. Guerrilla warfare meant that they had to be constantly alert and Booby traps meant that many soldiers died and witnessed horrific deaths. This was naturally unnerving for the soldiers concerned, particularly so because many of the soldiers were young and inexperienced. The technology of the U.S was far superior to that of the Vietcong and yet it was ultimately ineffectual. One weapon, which the U.S thought would be important, was Bombs. At first the U.S bombed specific targets. When they realized that had little effect, they began blanket bombing, this was known as ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’. Massive amounts of explosives were dropped on Vietnam, three times as much explosives was dropped than on Germany and Japan put together during World War 2. However, the Vietcong countered this with anti-aircraft guns, surface to air missiles, aid from soviet planes, and a network of tunnels. The U.S believed these to be simply to take cover from the bombing, in-fact they were also effectively used to ambush the U.S. Bombing had very little effect on the Vietcong ...

Monday, January 13, 2020

Amoco Case Write Up Essay

As long-term valuation is assumed, risk free rate is set as 30-year treasury rate, 5.73%. Cost of debt is 6.72% reflecting Amoco’s credit level. Cost of equity is calculated as 10.63%, leading to final WACC at 8.85% (Chart 1). In DCF valuation (Chart 2), long-term growth rate is assumed to be 4%. Change in working capital is calculated as the average of 1997 and 1996 figure and is assumed to be constant for simplicity. Terminal value is valued at $69,398.1 million and NPV is $51,525 million. Stock price will be $37.07, indicating an exchange ratio at 0.46. This is a very conservative valuation as our DCF price is lower than Amoco’s current market price. Regarding of multiple valuation (Chart 3), P/E ratio from comparable firms are used, which leads us to an exchange ratio at 0.68. Thus, our estimation for Amoco’s stand-alone value is from $37.07 to $54.69 per share, i.e. 0.46 to 0.68-exchange ratio. As the acquirer, our basic negotiating strategy is to low the exchange ratio as much as possible. Based on our conservative evaluation of Amoco, our opening exchange ratio is 0.46. For Amoco sides, their opening exchange ratio is 1. The big difference between our opening prices indicates this negotiating process should be tough. First, we checked the discount rate. For us, BP company, we use 8.83%, however, Amoco they use a higher one around 9%. The main difference to calculate the discount rate is that we use the 30-year Treasury rate as risk free rate compared to Amoco used 20-year Treasury rate. Moreover, we use the debt to debt plus equity but they use debt to equity to calculate WACC. To compromise these differences, we agree to use the average discount rate that doesn’t make a large influence of the valuation price. After this, we discussed the most important factor –growth rate. Based on the assumption in the case, we use 4% as terminal growth rate, 2% annual oil demand growth rate plus 2% inflation rate. However, Amoco hold the view that the oil price would grow at 6% in long-term, and it’s hard for both of us to get a compromising rate. Therefore, we jumped to synergy and currency questions, and we agreed on the synergy that Amoco would bring BP the North America  market and BP would use US currency to acquire Amoco’s share. After discussed all these details, we came back to the final offer price. We offered a higher one as exchange rate 0.6. Amoco rejected. Finally, after they thoughtful discussion they offered 0.66 exchange rate or price 52.965 as their final offer, which for us is lower than our walk-away price 65.94. Therefore, we accepted this offer and we both reach our goals to reach the deal and build a good relationship with the other management team. The previous 959.6m Amoco shares will convert into 633.336m shares of BP ADS equivalent, with the previous 965.6m ADS shares, BP shareholders will take part 60% of the new company, still have majority control over the firm. In this deal, we paid for about 20% premium, which is quite standard and normal. Because synergies from revenue and chemical divisions’ combination are not estimated nor not expected to bring benefit, the main synergy from the merge is 2 billion dollars saving of pretax operating cost. The value we create for our shareholders is $14,840.06 million (Amoco stand-alone value $46,430 million+ synergy $2 billion – price paid for Amoco $33,538.94). But this number is quite sensitive to a lot of factors, such as future energy demand, oil and gas price, industry growth potentials, ultimately affecting Amoco’s stand-alone and synergy valuation. Please see the chart 4 of sensitive analysis of Amoco’s stand-alone value according to the change of terminal growth rate in the appendices. But even modest assumptions still can lead to positive value created in this deal.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

The Impact Of Technology On Classrooms On Schools

Effectiveness of Technology in Classrooms Schools are being encouraged to use more technology in their classrooms, but is technology helping with the advancement of education and learning, or is it causing a problem instead? Technology has become an important part of the education system and is changing the way students are learning. Although, books are still used, they are rapidly being replaced by e-books or online books which are more available and can be viewed at any time. Technology allows students to access assignments and notes from cell phones, laptops or any smart device. With the upcoming digital future schools are attempting to help prepare students in order to help them thrive in future jobs. Students are being taught how to†¦show more content†¦In fact, group discussion can be improved between students since they are able to find responses at the moment they are asked the question. According to a study by IT Trade Association CompTIA just released this month, around seventy-five percent of educators think that technology has a positive impact in the education process. All students have different ways in which they learn information, some find it easier to learn by a professor s instruction than others. On the other hand, there are students that require further instruction than the hours they receive at school and technology allows them to do so. Technological advances have made it easier for students to learn what they need when they need it, allowing students to do research from any location. Students now have an option to learn outside of school hours, not only can they receive instruction from their professors but from online sources as well. As stated by the U.S Department of Education, The strategy of blending online learning with school based instruction is often utilized to accommodate students diverse learning styles and to enable them to work before or after school in ways that are not possible with full time conventional clas sroom instruction. The use of online learning has created a significant change in the way students can now receive an education. Education systems are making use of technology by providing students with more options thatShow MoreRelatedThe American Education System930 Words   |  4 Pageskey factor in successful or unsuccessful technology implementation. Historically, the structure of the American education system has been resistant to any kind of change (Collins Halverson, 2009). According to Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella (2014) teachers with more teaching experience have less favorable attitudes towards technology and use technology less often than teachers with less experience. 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