...Siboni, and put down the phone. This was a crucial beachhead for Netscape in its quest for the corporate market. Netscape had initially won the KPMG contract, but Microsoft’s persistence had pried it back open. Beating back Microsoft’s latest challenge marked a great success for Netscape. This victory stood in sharp contrast to a far less happy dealmaking episode the previous year in which Netscape had tilted against mighty Microsoft for AOL’s browser business. In a sequence that gave some industry observers virtual whiplash, a pathbreaking Netscape deal with AOL had been announced, only to be undercut the very next day by Microsoft. Netscape’s ultimate loss in the AOL battle helped to define an Internet dealmaking ethos that the normally sober Wall Street Journal likened to Melrose Place in which “no player sleeps alone and no back goes unstabbed.”1 Barksdale’s mind drifted back to the trials and tribulations of the AOL saga. The Netscape Story The popularization of the Internet in the 1990s heralded a new age in digital communications. At the forefront of this dramatic technological shift was the...
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...Accounting Scandals: Responsible Stewardship and Integrity AOL Time Warner 1. Summary of the events that led to the accounting scandal. AOL was the major face in the Internet scene for four years, between1994 to 1999, by using aggressive advertising contracts instead of charging subscription fees to their users. When internet advertising became more and more popular, AOL’s stock rose by an extremely large amount. Due to this tremendous response from investors, enhancing revenues in order to keep the stock prices favorable for AOL TW’s stockholders became the core objective of the AOL management and its employees (Cantoria). In 2000, a new company called AOL Time Warner was created when AOL purchased Time Warner for $164 billion. The deal announced on January 10, 2000 and officially filed on February 11, 2000, this merger in which each original company had a creative opportunity to merge into a newly created entity. Immediately before and after AOL’s merger with Time Warner, top executives at the internet company used tricks, contrivances and false transactions to inflate the value of AOL stock while liquidating their shares in a selling frenzy to enrich themselves to the tune of $936 million. 2. The financial accounting that was performed in the scandal. In 2001 and 2002, the company inflated its online advertising revenue by $400 million in connection with transactions with Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann paid $400 million as consideration for amendments to the multi-billion...
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...Select a publicly traded company that has experienced Fraud since 2002. You will need to receive approval from me for the company in which you select PRIOR to beginning your research. You MUST submit the name of the company you have chosen by the end of this unit. Your final project is due no later than the end of Unit 9. Company selected: AOL Time Warner. When scandal went public: July 2002. As the ad market faltered and AOL's purchase of Time Warner loomed, AOL inflated sales by booking barter deals and ads it sold on behalf of others as revenue to keep its growth rate up and seal the deal. AOL also boosted sales via "round-trip" deals with advertisers and suppliers. Shredding documents related to audit. AOL said it may have overstated revenue by $49 million. Course Paper - Instructions The paper must be a minimum of 10 complete pages in length (double spaced), not including your title page and reference page, double spaced using Times New Roman Font, Font size 12 and include the following: 1. Background on the company 2. Overview of the Questionable Accounting Practices and the Financial Statement Highlights. 3. One of the main purposes of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 was to make the leadership teams of the different organizations more responsible for their financial data that is released. With this in mind, what involvement did the leadership have in this fraud, if any? If the leadership team was not involved, do you feel they did everything possible...
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...presentation today will given be myself, Jon Vuchinich, Allison Fergusen, and Justin Pierce. We hope you enjoy. The search engine industry exists to provide a service to consumers and businesses. The search engine model has been built around the idea of providing valued content to both consumers of information and consumers of products and services. The model also exists as a way to provide marketing and advertising opportunities for businesses of all sizes. This is an extremely profitable business, with U.S. ad spending topping the 17 Billion dollar mark in 2012 (as seen in this chart here). As of July 2011, the top five rankings for U.S. search engine market share were: 1. Google 2. Yahoo Sites 3. Microsoft Sites 4. Ask.com 5. AOL As seen in the percentages here, Google is the clear leader in market share of the U.S. search engine market at 65.1%, but that does not mean they do not face significant competitive forces. The first competitive force we will talk about will be “rivalry among competitors”. This is strong competitive force, because of the quality of competitors in the market. While Google currently has a sizeable lead in the industry, they are not able to rest on their laurels, especially because Microsoft’s Bing, which powers yahoo’s search engine as well, is a formidable rival. Even though they have not been able to gain any significant ground as of yet in the marketplace, they are a strong and well known company who has...
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...Google Inc. 1. What were the key factors behind Google's early success? The main reason for Google’s early success was “Thinking big”. The co-founders believed they were able to solve an important problem and ultimately change the way people search for information and this was the driving force for everything that followed. Besides having a clear vision, there were other factors that contributed to Google’s early success: • New search algorithm that provided users with highly relevant results. The search engine did what users wanted it to do: provided results redirecting users to the pages they needed. • Clean homepage design with no distractions. No advertising or sponsored results within search results in early years of the company. That helped Google build trust in the search results it provided: because of no advertising, the results were perceived “unbiased”. The company also actively promoted the fact that the results were never manipulated. • Significant investments into the infrastructure that resulted in extremely fast page loading. Google’s servers supported “cloud” applications. That allowed the company to offer novel services (applications) from one reliable source, such as Calendar, Google’s Reader, Google Photos, etc • Unique corporate image – Innovators, engineers, leaders. The company was so different from its competitors; it stood out of the crowd. • They took innovation as core value to the whole new level. They allowed engineers to spend 20% of time...
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...1. Prior to 1995, why was AOL so successful in the commercial online industry relative to its competitors CompuServe and Prodigy? As AOL has always been focusing on aggressively attracting new clients and managed to achieve a high retention rate, due to AOL’s proven track record of customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth, it built up a relatively large customer base (4m customers by end of Oct 1995). AOL aggressively marketed its online service using direct mail packets with AOL software disks and entered co-marketing efforts with computer magazine publishers and PC hard- and software providers in order to distribute their software. New customers could easily activate their accounts with the provided keys and passwords by just providing their credit card information, which, compared to AOL’s competitors constituted the easiest acquisition process for new customers. Continuous investments in the development of new online services and additional contents that met customers’ needs and expectations yielded an additional competitive advantage. Those included real-time conferences, interactive communications, public bulletin boards, electronic mail, electronic magazines and newspapers, online education (real-time interactive classes, library), shopping and travelling (vacation booking, travel information and services), information services (world’s, sport, stock market news, internet access), etc. AOL built on a strong network of partner-companies which resulted in...
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...long tail by housing them all in numerous warehouses and distributing products from many partner companies. . Amazon has direct operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. (CrunchBase, 2011). Amazon.com is a marketing web site which includes information about products, employment opportunities, financial information, and online selling. Amazon.com saves time. It is possible to give an order at any hour of the day or night. Also it allows to customers to register their credit card and shipping information to make future purchases easy. So when they place another order some other time, they need to use their username and password instead of typing all their information again. Time Warner’s AOL In 1989, Warner Brothers merged with the publishing house Time to Time Warner. Time acquired Warner for about US$14 Billion and transformed it into a multi-media company consisting of record labels, motion picture as well as television production and distribution, studio facilities and film libraries, television networks, book and magazine...
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...America Online (AOL) In the early 1980s, Case felt there was a latent market for user friendly online services. The online services provided at that time were very complex and costly and provided poor quality content. Believing that the online service market would evolve into a big industry in future, Case, Jim Kimsey and Marc Seriff founded AOL in 1985. The company was initially incorporated as Quantum Computer Services (Quantum). Quantum provided online services to consumers via PC modems. Quantum's first product was 'Q-Link,' a proprietary online service that routed emails and chat through its communication network (via telephone cables). Q-Link became popular in the market, and within a year its user base crossed the 10,000 mark. | | In October 1989, the company launched a private online service for all computer users in the US. The new service, identified by a blue triangle with a swirl in the center (the company's logo), offered games, e-mail, chat, news and travel information. In 1991, Quantum was renamed America Online and Case was appointed CEO of the company. ------------------------------------------------- The total customer base of the company during that period was 150,000, with total revenues amounting to $ 20 million. During the 1990s, AOL acquired Compuserve, Netscape and the ICQ brand. These acquisitions helped it establish itself as a global online service provider.4 During the same, AOL entered the e-commerce solutions market through an alliance with...
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...1. Prior to 1995, why was America Online (“AOL” or the “Company”) so successful in the commercial online industry relative to its competitors CompuServe and Prodigy? AOL’s success prior to 1995 resulted from its early capitalization on opportunities in an immature internet services provider industry. To illustrate this, consideration should be given to certain of the “five forces” on industry structure and profitability. Rivalry among Existing Firms – Three internet service providers – AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy – served approximately 77% of the market. The development and rapid growth of the industry meant that the competitors were able to grow independently (i.e., without needing to take market share from each other). AOL actively marketed its products “using a broad array of programs and strategies… through independent marketing programs, such as direct mail, magazine inserts and inserts in publications, advertising, and a variety of co-marketing efforts… with numerous computer hardware, software and peripheral production companies…[who] bundle America Online software with their products, thus facilitating easy trial use of the Company's services.” Basic product design, marketing, and pricing for the services were reasonably consistent among the top three competitors, with AOL’s pricing method representing the simplest of the top three competitors. AOL also developed Apple and Windows-based solutions to enable it to reach additional consumers. Through the rapid...
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...Online 1. Prior to 1995, why was America Online (AOL) so successful in the commercial online industry relative to its competitors CompuServe and Prodigy? a. Wide range of products making them more able to capture online consumer needs. b. Continuous addition and improvement to the products and services provided to retain customer. c. Extensive marketing efforts like direct mail packages and bundling AOL software into related products sold in the market to attract new customers. 2. As of 1995, what are the key changes taking place in the commercial online industry? How are they likely to affect AOL’s future prospects? d. New entrants with large financial backing like Microsoft’s MSN makes the industry even more cost competitive. e. The increase in usage of world wide web where people can obtain news or information for free, making AOL’s paid services less attractive. Thus demand for products and services by firms like AOL is growing at a decreasing rate. 3. Was AOL’s policy to capitalize subscriber acquisition cost justified prior to 1995? f. Yes i. Since costs are generated from the life of the subscriber’s subscription period, these cost should be capitalized. ii. These cost truly reflect the life of the actual cost that AOL incur rather than incurring them right at the moment subscription occurs. 4. Given the changes discussed in question 2, do you think AOL should change its accounting policy as of 1995...
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...mission statements help different people in a firm share a vision • management should introduce change in spite of experiencing resistance • one of the main causes of conflict in firms is poor communication 2. (i) Explain why workers for Day News might be scared of change. (4) (ii) What could the four senior managers do to minimise the fear that their employees show? (4) (Total 8 marks) 3. Top-taste is a medium-sized food manufacturing company. The company faces tough domestic competition. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Senior Management Team have considered both short-term and long-term options so as to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Top-taste is now considering a merger with a considerably larger overseas company that will inject much needed cash and expertise. In an emergency meeting called by the management the employees were told that: • a large injection of money into advanced technology will enable Top-taste to move from “batch” to “flow” production. Work groups will have to be dismantled. • all employees have to take a 3% wage cut with immediate effect. • due to a restructuring and de-layering process, numbers of middle management will be cut by 5%. • some workers must take their annual leave immediately rather than when they choose. • future increases in wages will be directly linked to increases in productivity. The employees are currently very upset and considering their reaction. 4. (a) Use Maslow’s...
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...AOL의 가장 큰 지출은 새로운 구독자들을 끌어들이는 것이었다. AOL은 공격적인 마케팅을 펼쳤는데, ‘직접적 마케팅’과 ‘협력적 마케팅’으로 구분 할 수 있다. 전자의 경우 AOL 소프트웨어 디스크를 담아 우편을 보내거나, 무료 AOL 주문전화번호를 넣은 TV나 인쇄물 광고를 펼쳤다. 후자의 경우 컴퓨터 관련 잡지사나 PC용 소프트웨어/하드웨어 공급사들과 함께 마케팅 활동을 펼쳤다. 이런 종류의 프로모션은 비용이 많이 들었다. 1994년 기준으로, 신규 고객 당 비용이 40불이 넘었다. 따라서 AOL의 목표는 고객의 구독 기간을 최대한 길게 하는 것이었고, 이를 위해서 AOL은 규칙적인 온라인 이벤트나 컨퍼런스, 새로운 컨텐츠 제공 등과 같은 고객 유지 프로그램을 시행하였다. 이는 새로운 구독자들을 유지시키고 이들의 충성도와 만족을 증대시키기 위한 방안이었다. AOL은 새롭고 독특한 컨텐츠를 위해 다양한 Joint Venture에 참여했다. 이런 투자가 지속적으로 수익을 내면서, AOL의 수입 중 80퍼센트 이상이 이런 회사들에 의해 발생하는 구조를 지니게 되었다, 하지만 그 컨텐츠 제공자(Joint Venture)들은 신규로 개발된 World Wide Web에 자신들의 사이트를 만드는 옵션도 가지게 되었다. 이 새로운 배급채널(WWW)은 AOL과 컨텐츠 제공자들 간의 힘의 균형을 바꿔놓고 있었다. 그러나 기존의 경쟁자들(CompuServe, Prodigy, MSN 등)과 비교해서 AOL의 요금구조는 고객들에게 가장 쉽고 합리적인(한 달에 9.95불이라는 돈으로 매달 다섯 시간씩 미국의 모든 온라인 서비스에 접근할 수 있었다. 추가 1시간 마다 2.95불이었고, 파일을 다운 받는데 에는 추가 비용이 들지 않았다.) 방식이었다. 이에 반해 AOL의 경쟁자들이 지닌 비용 산정 방식은 이용자가 자신의 한 달 요금을 계산하는데 어렵게 만들었고, 이들이 AOL로 유입하게끔 만들었다. AOL은 또한 세계 시장에서 리더 자리에 오르기 위해 다양한 컨텐츠를 가지고 있는 회사와 활발한 인수, 합병 전략을 구사하였다. American Express, Business Week Online 같은 회사와 새로운 전략적 파트너십을 체결하였고, 온라인 연결을 통해 2Market CD-ROM 쇼핑 서비스를 개시하였다. 이러한 거래들로 AOL은 컨텐츠 개발능력, 배급 유통 능력, 접근 소프트웨어, 그리고 고유의 커뮤니케이션 네트워크를 한 번에 제공해 줄 수 있는 미국 온라인 소프트웨어 시장의 최강자로 발돋움하게 된다. AOL이 그들의 고객이 내는 가입비뿐 아니라 이렇게 다른 회사들과 협력하려는 시도를 통해 수익의 원천을 좀 더 다양화 시킬 수 있었다. 예를 들면 고객에게 판 상품 판매 수수료, 그리고 다른 기업들에게 네트워크 서비스와 제품을 판매 할 때 받는 수입이 있었다. AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy의 3개 사가 온라인 서비스 시장을 장악했던 것과 달리, MS사의 ‘인터넷’으로 인해 시장의 형세는 크게 변화했다. 마이크로소프트는 기존 업체들과...
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...GBA 490 4/7/2010 Case Report Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Situation Analysis 4 Recommendations 6 Appendix 11 SWOT Analysis 12 Key Success Factors 13 Driving Forces 14 Increasing Globalization 14 Marketing Innovation 14 Diffusion of technical know-how across more companies and more countries 14 Dominant Economic Features 15 Market size and growth: 15 Number of rivals: 15 Number of buyers: 15 5 Competitive Forces 16 Competitive Landscape 17 Financial Analysis 18 Identification of Rivals 19 Percent of Searches 19 Financial Summary from 2007 19 Financial Summary from 2009 19 Yahoo 20 Microsoft Online Services 21 Analysis of Company Strategy 22 Executive Summary To: Eric Schmidt, CEO From: Tyler Echevarria, Amanda Osburne, & Samantha Smith Re: Strategic Analysis of Google Inc. Date: April 7, 2010 This report will make recommendations for improvement of Google Inc. based on the analysis of the company’s financial resources and industry evaluations. Several analytical tools will be used in determining the direction the company should pursue. These analytical tools and techniques include the following: * Evaluation based on SWOT analysis * Evaluation based on Key Success Factors * Evaluation of Google’s business model and strategy * Analysis of financial data * Evaluation of current industry conditions These tools will be used to recommend new opportunities for Google to pursue as they...
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...4. Google is constantly pushing for growth in their industry. Their Google Plex is set up to spark creativity and they’re constantly coming out with new apps and technology. The problem Google might face with this drive for growth is that when a company gets big and fast by outdoing their competitors, like Google has, it sparks jealousy and excites different parties to capitalize on litigation or reporting on their miscues. Google also has the tendency to hire people rapidly in order to pursue their growth. They may be hiring faster and more than they can handle on their profits. All this being said there has been criticism against Google saying that their Cocky and self absorbed because of all their growth. They feel entitled and elite. I think what’s so dangerous is that Google fosters and promotes creativity in the technological world, which is at the forefront of young thinkers, and is what we concentrate on in our generation. If Google is so quick to feel entitled, and seem cocky while they are still in a potential growth stage then they may be taking young hopefuls, and the genius minds they’re looking for and turning them off with their attitude to go else where. Whether the accusations are true or not if Google really wants to continue to grow they would have to seriously concentrate on their PR and make sure that they maintain a relatable, do no harm persona to keep up a reputation that can foster their growth expectations. 6. Microsoft definitely would...
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...Company: AOL Inc. Industry: AOL Inc. is a leading multinational mass media corporation headquartered in New York City, which is committed to continuously developing, growing, and investing in brands and web sites. Auditor: Ernst & Young GAAP/Audit Issue: July 2002 – AOL Time Warner – Recognition of Revenue from Barter Deals | As AOL dominated the internet scene between the mid-1990s to 1999, the internet advertising became a hit and AOL’s stock price rose extremely. However, in the year 2000, the market trading went down due to numerous accounting scandals which impacted the companies that were into internet advertising contracts with AOL TW, this brought a loss of advertising revenues. To sustain the strength of AOL TW’s stock prices, AOL’s management resorted to accounting manipulations by recognizing off-book revenues, such as: (a) Recording of pre-booked advertising contracts were made twice, even though they were already recognized as pre-booked revenues; (b) Assigning overvalued amounts to advertising contracts as ways to inflate revenues; and, (c) Dollar values of advertising deals entered into as barter trades with other companies were recognized as legitimate sales. The barter trades were actually entered into for the purpose of making AOL’s advertising offers look lucrative by faking trade deals. Customers were given free advertisements just to make it appear that they closed advertising contract deals with AOL Time Warner. The dollar...
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