RLG206H5 : RLG206.doc

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byzantiumguinea-pig304

5 Oct 2012

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Siddhartha - the one who has accomplished the goal . European contact with asian customs created the above terms and references. The concept of buddhism was found, leading to the understanding of dharma (teachings) Buddhism in itself is established through european creation. Created a book with a negative view of buddhism, inferior to christianity. Later, buddhism was seen as a religion (the light of asia (london)) Overview of the sanskrit language - history of sanskrit. One of the largest languages families in the world (includes most of the languages of europe) Rules are preceded by stories about their origins. Beyond the dhamma = pali / (sanskrit = dharma) Systematic philosophical expositions on mind, cognition, cosmos, liberation, karma, etc. Insubstantiality (anatman): there is no permanent soul or substance, no universals. These are the main ideas and concepts found in buddhist text which became popular.

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19. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004. Inaddition to belonging to the EU, what do these countries have incommon?

A) They share a common language.

B) Formerly they were under the political and economic influenceof the Soviet Union.

C) All were under the political control of Germany until theearly 1960s.

D) They were former British colonies until after World WarII.

20. The initial harmonization efforts (1973-1988) of theInternational Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) createdstandards that have been described as the lowest common denominatorapproach. What was the effect of these first internationalaccounting standards?

A) IASC standards accommodated accounting practices in severalcountries.

B) Comparability of financial statements between countries.

C) It turned out that few companies complied with IASCstandards.

D) All of the above

21. Which of the following is NOT a goal of the InternationalAccounting Standards Board (IASB)?

A) Establish the global uniformity of accounting practice

B) Develop a unique set of executable global accountingstandards

C) Promote the use and application of global accountingstandards

D) Encouraging the convergence of national accountingstandards

22. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) waspreceded by:

A) the IOSCO

B) ASEAN

C) the IASC

D) the NRC

24. Which of the following is NOT part of the due processfollowed by the IASB in the formulation of International FinancialReporting Standards?

A) A public comment period is provided after the discussionpapers have been prepared.

B) The rules are unanimously approved by the 16 members of theboard.

C) Exposure drafts are published before a vote of the board ofdirectors.

D) National accounting standards and practices are studied priorto the preparation of exposure drafts.

25. What basis does the International Accounting Standards Board(IASB) use to formulate its IFRS?

A) Detailed rules for accounting practice

B) A framework of accounting principles

C) The tax laws typical of the western nations

D) Exceptions or unusual circumstances that require specialattention

amaranthwhale217

Adapted from Bayer-Monsanto: the challenges of a Mega-merger. Case #9B17M182 and Teaching Note #8B17M182 Ivey Publishing

In 2016, the German multinational Bayer AG and the U.S.-based Monsanto Company agreed to merge, potentially creating the world's largest integrated pesticide and seeds company.

The agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals industries have several attributes in common. Both have large markets and high growth potential. Both industries also have strong technological roots in chemistry and biology. Too, the R&D intensity is high in both industries. Monsanto, for example, spends over 10% of its revenues on R&D whereas the average pharmaceutical firm spends 13%. Both industries are also subject to strict government regulation. For example, safety reviews of new products are commonplace in pharmaceuticals while genetically modified organisms are forbidden in Europe.

Nevertheless, there were some differences. For example, while the pharmaceutical industry is rather fragmented, agrochemicals were not - 6 companies controlled 2/3 of the seed business and 3/4 of the pesticide market. Moreover, the pharmaceutical industry is characterized by long product life cycles (e.g., 12 years) and heavy up-front investments in R&D to discover new products. To compound this risk, Bayer had a relatively limited portfolio in pharmaceuticals (15 products accounted for 80% of its 2015 pharmaceutical revenues).

Table 1: Revenue Distribution of Pharmaceutical companies in 2015, millions of Euros
Company	Pharmaceutical Revenues	Other Revenues
GlaxoSmithKline	21.4	14.6
AstraZeneca	34.0	0.0
Sanofi	29.8	4.7
Merck	32.2	3.4
Pfizer	44.0	0.0
Novartis	27.4	17.1
Roche	35.3	9.8
Bayer	12.6	29.8*
Johnson & Johnson	28.3	34.8
*9.1M Consumer health, 10.4M Crop Science, 12.0M Polymers, Coatings, and Adhesives. Source: Bayer 2015 annual report

Other factors favored the merger. For example, while Monsanto had a strong presence in America (53% of its sales), Bayer's geographical presence was stronger in Europe. Too, it was anticipated that knowledge from Bayer's pharmaceuticals and crop science research could be shared across Monsanto's animal health business. Both sides also anticipated additional benefits from the overlap in customers farmers - and from bundling seeds and pesticides in an exclusive package. Also, though Bayer had traditionally been weak in seeds they represented only 12% of crop science division sales - Monsanto's expertise in this area was thought to be a good complement. In fact, Monsanto's seeds had been engineered to be resistant to its Roundup herbicide. Furthermore, Bayer's new CEO, Werner Baumann, had previously managed the strategy and portfolio department at Bayer and, consequently, had a good deal of M&A experience. And finally, both companies were focusing on big dataâ to provide new services and more precision for farmers. The possibility of a huge data bank created by the convergence of the data from both sides promised further productivity improvements.

Nevertheless, although agrochemicals could be considered an oligarchic industry dominated by firms such as DuPont, Syngenta, Monsanto, and Bayer, even the leading players had been struggling recently with a new wave of mergers and acquisitions. For example, after Monsanto had made three unsuccessful attempts to acquire Syngenta in 2014-2015, Dow and Dupont merged in December 2015 and Syngenta merged with ChemChina in February 2016.

Table 2: 2015 Revenues by business segment, $B
	Crop protection & seeds	Other	Other divisions
DuPont	9.8	15.2	Electronics (2.1B), Ind'l. Biosciences (1.1B), Nutrition & Health (3.2B), Perf. Materials (5.3B), Safety & Protection (3.5B)
Dow	7.3	50.5	Perf. Plastics (22.4B), Perf. Mat'ls and Chem. (15.1), Infrastructure Solns. (8.4), Customer Solutions (4.6)
Syngenta	13.0	0.0
Chem China	n.a	n.a.	Agrochemicals, Basic Chemicals, Specialty Chemicals, Tire & Rubber, Chemical Equipment, Oil Processing
Monsanto	15.0	0.0
Sources: 2015 Annual Reports

Furthermore, Bayer and Monsanto would need to obtain approval from regulators in over 30 countries to close the deal. U.S. regulators had opposed the merger but the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency (he argued that agriculture had needed more innovation) boded well for approval of the combination in the U.S. The European Union, on the other hand, had opposed Monsanto, especially its genetically-modified organisms (GMO).

Diana L. Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute, also pointed out that

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) notes that the price of farm inputs, led by crop seed, generally have risen faster over the last twenty years than the prices farmers have received for their commodities. Moreover, seed prices have outpaced yield increases over time. And finally, the USDA has determined that increasing levels of concentration in agricultural input markets (including crop seeds) are no longer generally associated with higher R&D or a permanent rise in R&D intensity.

Therefore, we might conclude that this consolidation would negatively pressure consumers and farmers.

Questions:

The preceding discussion documents Bayer's attempt to further diversify its portfolio of businesses.

1. What weaknesses were Bayer trying to address via its diversification strategy?

2. What opportunities in its environment (e.g., synergies created by merging with Monsanto) is Bayer trying to exploit via its diversification strategy? Is this a case of related or unrelated product/market diversification?

3. Finally, according to the resource-based view, firms may differ in the number of synergies they possess vis-a-vis target firms. Those with greater synergies may be able to profit more from the acquisition than their competitors. They may either (1) win the bid at a lower price, thereby earning above-normal profits, or (2) withdraw from the bidding if the target price becomes too high, allowing the winning bidder to earn below-normal profits.

What attributes does Bayer bring to the bidding for Monsanto that suggests it might have had different (possibly more) synergies with Monsanto than other potential bidders (e.g., Dow or ChemChina)?

chocolatepug721

Lonely Planet In 1972, Tony and Maureen Wheeler were newlyweds who decided to have one last adventurous travel experience before settling down. Their trip was an overland trek from London to Australia through Asia. So many other travelers asked them about their experiences that they sat down at their kitchen table and wrote a book titled Across Asia on the Cheap. They published the book themselves and were surprised by how many copies they sold.

More than three decades and 60 million books later, their publishing enterprise has turned out to be one of the most successful in history. The Wheelers%u2019 publishing company, Lonely Planet, has grown rapidly, with typical annual sales increases of 15 percent or more. In 2007, BBC Worldwide purchased a 75 percent ownership interest in the company and purchased the rest of the company%u2019s stock in 2011.

Lonely Planet TV now produces a variety of travel and documentary programs that appear on cable networks throughout the world. As a BBC subsidiary, the company does not release sales figures, but industry analysts estimate current annual revenues to be about $110 million. Lonely Planet publishes more than 600 titles and holds a 20 percent share of the travel guide market. The company has more than 450 employees in its U.K., U.S., French, and Australian offices performing editorial, production, graphic design, and marketing tasks.

Travel guide content is written by a network of more than 200 contract authors in more than 20 countries. These authors are knowledgeable about everything from visa regulations to hotel prices to the names of the hottest new entertainment spots. The combined expertise of the in-house staff and the in- country authors has kept Lonely Planet ahead of its competitors for many years.

Lonely Planet also offers travel services that include a phone card, hotel and hostel room- booking, airplane tickets, European rail travel reservations and tickets, package tours, and travel insurance. These services are sold by telephone and on the Lonely Planet Web site. The Web site has won numerous awards, including the Society of American Travel Writers Silver Award and a spot on Time magazine%u2019s %u201CFifty Best Web Sites%u201D list.

The site was launched in 1994 and includes an online store in which Lonely Planet publications are sold. However, the site%u2019s main draws are its comprehensive collection of information about travel destinations and its online discussion area, the Thorn Tree, which has nearly a half million registered users. The company has had trouble turning any of this information into a source of revenue generation. Despite its excellent Web site and its use of new technologies, most of Lonely Planet%u2019s revenues are still generated by book sales.

The typical production cycle of a travel guide is about eight months long. This is the time it takes to commission authors, conduct research, work through several drafts of writing and editing, select photos, create the physical book, and print it. This production cycle causes new books to be almost a year out of date by the time they are published. Only the most popular titles are revised annually. Other titles are on two-, three-, or four-year revision cycles. The time delay in publication means that many details in the guides are outdated or wrong; restaurants and hotels close (or move), exchange rates and visa regulations change, and once hot night spots are abandoned by fickle clientele. Lonely Planet publications are well researched and of high quality, but the writers do not work continually because the books are not published continually.

The Web site often has information that is more current than the published travel guides. The site%u2019s online shop does offer some custom guides, which are parts of its existing travel guides packaged in different ways, and it does let customers buy specific chapters from its books, but it still is largely focused on selling books, although the site does offer PDF files that can be downloaded to mobile devices. Lonely Planet has adopted some new technologies, but has not used them to change its revenue model in any major way or to make basic changes in the production of its main product, the travel guides.

Required: 1. Review the company%u2019s offerings for Apple iPhone and iPad products and for Android smart phones (Trippy). Evaluate those products and identify opportunities for other products or services that the company could offer for mobile devices that would take advantage of Internet technologies (including wireless technologies for mobile devices) and address customers%u2019 concerns about the timeliness and currency of information in the printed travel guides.

2. Prepare a report in which you analyze the marketing channel conflicts and cannibalization issues that Lonely Planet faces as it is currently operating. Suggest solutions that might reduce the revenue losses or operational frictions that result from these issues.

carminerhinoceros643

RLG206H5 : RLG206.doc

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