The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst Essay Example for Free

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst Essay Picking up from the improve of ones inability, causes an individual to appear to be egotistical or prideful. The Scarlet Ibis, a short story by James Hurst recounts to the narrative of two siblings. Sibling recounts to the narrative of his activities that add to his more youthful siblings demise. Siblings pride is the principle explanation behind Doodles yearly passing. This thought of pride, is a focal subject in the story. Pride, a sentiment of significance, legitimacy, or predominance, can cause both positive and negative outcomes. Moral honesty will crush the profession that took such a long time to develop. Siblings disgrace and humiliation are powers that offered life to Doodle. Since Brother is embarrassed about Doodles handicap Brother attempts to fix Doodle with the goal that he can be pride of his sibling. For instance, when Brother discovers that Doodle won't have the option to walk, Brothers pride makes him instruct Doodle to walk. At the point when Doodle said he was unable to walk, Brother answered, â€Å"Shut up. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to instruct you to walk† (Hurst 346-347). Sibling instructs Doodle to walk essentially in light of the fact that he is humiliated by his crippled sibling. Truth be told Brother concedes, â€Å"All of us must have something to be glad of† (347). In spite of the fact that Brothers reasons are childish, Doodle is furnished with a superior life as a result of Brothers egotistical activities. What's more, since Brother is so fruitful in instructing Doodle to walk, Brother feels much more pride in his achievements. Doodle clarifies, â€Å"I started to have confidence in my own infallibility† (349). Sibling chose to instruct Doodle to run, column, swim and climb trees. Unquestionably, if Doodle were prepared to do such things; running, paddling, swimming it would give Doodle a more extravagant, more full life. A similar pride that gives Doodle life nonetheless, additionally takes his life. At the point when the siblings head out to Horsehead Landing for a swimming exercise, a tempest upsets their arrangements. To get away from the downpour the siblings rapidly head for home. When Doodle slips and falls, Brother recongnizes that Doodle would consistently be unique. Sibling thinks, â€Å"He had fizzled and we both knew it. He could never resemble different young men at school† (352) The possibility that Doodle is distinctive keeps on disgracing Brother. Indeed, Brother is embarrassed to such an extent that his activities cause languishing over Doodle. Sibling relinquishes Doodle. Sibling recollects, â€Å"The information that Doodle’s and my arrangements had come to nothing was harsh, and that dash of brutality inside me stirred. I ran as quick as Possible, deserting him far with a mass of downpour isolating us† (353). Now, Brothers pride is exorbitant and makes him surrenders his more youthful sibling. At the point when Brother at long last returned he found his sibling dead. â€Å"He had been seeping from the mouth, and his neck and the front of his shirt were recolored a splendid red† (354). Sibling drives Doodle excessively far this time. His activities were useful before where they were urging Doodle to have a superior life, later they become so over the top Brothers pride pushes Doodle a long ways past his capacities. Sibling pushes Doodle to the point that was not to his greatest advantage. His pride causes pulverization of his siblings life. A general public can't long exist without this feeling of trust in one another, without certain measures of truth. Spear Armstrong, a surely understand cyclist and Tour de France seven time victor, was utilizing unlawful Performance Enhancing Drugs all while asserting genuineness and respectability. A large number of fans placing their trust into him, having Armstrong play them like nitwits. Numerous kids gazed upward to such an honorable competitor, giving them cheating to win is alright; at that point over and again lying about the activities Armstrong made. Moral honesty is convictions with respect to fitting conduct in the correct lead. Spear Armstrong moral uprightness is destroyed. Armstrong thought it was ethically satisfactory to take Performance Enhancing Drugs while contending in the most renowned cycling race. Spear Armstrong’s moral respectability demolished his profession and furthermore how individuals see him. Pride can be both a positive and negative power. Sibling perceived this duality when he stated, â€Å"Pride is a brilliant horrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death† (347). All through the short story Brother focuses on the duality, or the different sides of pride. It could of pushed Brother to do accomplish enormity, yet it became dangerous when his fixation on helping Doodle pushed him to his initial passing. To have the open eye continually viewing Armstrong’s life, he ought to have realize his conduct made a frightful good trustworthiness as a wellrespected big name.

Business project Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Business venture - Coursework Example Broadening of Toyota’s business approach brings future ideas and new thoughts that keep up developing on the car business outskirts, henceforth keeping up Global and Canada initiative. One among the numerous business systems of Toyota is enrolling the most brilliant and the best, accordingly making possibilities for organization (Shang, pp. 72) The key methodologies give employee’s and consumer’s discernment that Toyota sticks on greatness notoriety on all phase of activity. The organization has a conviction of having business morals just as social morals. Morals begins at the company’s center and work out their direction. The top chiefs have faith in uniqueness and by means of that it speaks to different Toyota faces. At Toyota no cliché partialities or suppositions are apparent, simply the picking of people with gifts and are develop and can lead. Socially, Toyota is depicted to have a positive picture. The organization additionally accepts that it ought to stretch out some assistance to the networks to improve their expectations for everyday comforts. Toyota works with college, schools and different associations in supporting projects that guides the world to improve. The beliefs are proliferated around the world. Customers were dumbfounded in the year 2009 by the underlying arrangement of exposed reviews of vehicles in America. They refered to an issue wherein mistaken floor and ineffectively positioned tangles under the seat of the driver could cause wild increasing speed in different models, Toyota said that it had o review 3.8 million America vehicle. The review was because of a lethal accident that occurred in California where a Lexus’ quickening agent stalled out and came about to the driver’s demise. Likewise, reports of coincidental increasing speed as a result of stick pedals made the traffic organization to request that Toyota review their models and vehicles. To assembling understudies and vehicle buyers’ greatness, the organization was most certainly not

You Are Not Your Khakis

You Are Not Your Khakis I came home one day and it was all gone. If my 28-year-old self wouldve walked into the home of my 30 year-old self, he would have thought hed been robbed. Where did all my stuff go? hedve thought. I worked so hard to buy all that stuff, and now its all gone! My 28-year-old self would have panicked when he noticed that over 90% his stuff was no longer there. It was gone. Vanished. Poof! He had given so much meaning to all that stuffâ€"the car, the clothes, the gadgets, the trappings of a consumer culture that he was a part ofâ€"but that stuff didnt have any real meaning. He was part of the disease, not the cure. There were so many lessons he learned in those two years. Remember when Fight Clubs Tyler Durden told us we are not our fucking khakis? Many of my learned lessons were similar to that quote. I am not my stuff. I am not my jeans. I am not my television. I am not my car. I am not my bank account. I am not my vocation. I am so much more. I am who I am on the inside. I do amazing things, yet I am imperfect. I accomplish incredible feats, yet I make mistakes. I am a caring person, yet I forget about important things sometimes. I am proud of who I am, yet I make bad decisions at times. I am a human being, a mixed bag. I am just like you. And Im still learning Stuff is just stuff. Possessions  can be replaced. You cannot. We  cannot purchase a meaningful life. We  can only live it. One day at a time. But of course I wasnt robbed. It didnt happen over night. I didnt wake up one day and get rid of the vast majority of my stuff. It took time. It started with a pair of khakis that I didnt wear, grew into an entire basement of clothes that no longer fit, and expanded from there, one item at a time. Once I got rid of one thing, I started questioning other things in my life,  asking myself better questions to get to the root of why I had all this stuff that I didnt needâ€"or even want most of the time. Why did I buy this? What could I have used that money for instead? Do I really need this? What would happen if I didnt have this anymore? Could I replace this if I really needed to? Can someone else use this more than I can? Does this add value to my life? I kept questioning my possessions and getting rid of more and more stuff. A carload of clothes here, a piece of furniture there, one thing at a time, donating the majority of it. And then I came home one day last week, walked in, and realized that I didnt own much stuff anymore. I realized I could have less stuff and still be happy, still live a meaningful life. I will continue to question my stuff. Do I need this couch even though I rarely sit on it? Do I need these jeans when I have two other pairs? Do I need this watch when my phone has a clock on it? Do I need this, this, or that? No, I dont think physical possessions are inherently evil or wrong; I just think we give too much meaning to our stuffâ€"the stuff  that doesnt matter. Every dollar we spend is a dollar we have to work for, which takes our time away from us. Our precious time. Our time is our freedom. Thus, our stuff has the potential to rob us of our freedom. So maybe I was robbed. Robbed by my stuff. Robbed of my freedom. No more, though. I am in control now. I am aware that I am not my stuff. Subscribe to The Minimalists via email.

The History of Aspirin and Salicin

Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid is a derivative of salicylic acid. It is a mild, non-narcotic analgesic that’s useful in the relief of headache as well as  muscle and joint aches. The drug works by inhibiting the production of body chemicals known as prostaglandins,  which are necessary for blood clotting and  for sensitizing nerve endings to pain. Early History The father of modern medicine was  Hippocrates, who lived sometime between 460 B.C and 377 B.C. Hippocrates left historical records of pain relief treatments that included the use of powder made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree to help heal headaches, pains, and fevers. However, it wasn’t until 1829 that scientists discovered that it was a compound called salicin in willow plants that relieved the pain. In From A Miracle Drug Sophie Jourdier of the Royal Society of Chemistry wrote: It was not long before the active ingredient in willow bark was isolated; in 1828,  Johann Buchner, professor of pharmacy at the University of Munich, isolated a tiny amount of bitter tasting yellow, needle-like crystals, which he called salicin. Two Italians,  Brugnatelli  and Fontana, had in fact already obtained salicin in 1826, but in a highly impure form. By 1829, [French chemist]  Henri Leroux had improved the extraction procedure to obtain about 30g from 1.5kg of bark. In 1838,  Raffaele Piria  [an Italian chemist] then working at the Sorbonne in Paris, split salicin into a sugar and an aromatic component (salicylaldehyde) and converted the latter, by hydrolysis and oxidation, to an acid of crystallised colourless needles, which he named salicylic acid. So while Henri Leroux  had extracted salicin in crystalline form for the first time, it was Raffaele Piria  who succeeded in obtaining the salicylic acid in its pure state. The problem, though, was that salicylic acid was hard on the stomach and a means of buffering the compound was needed. Turning an Extract Into Medicine The first person to achieve the necessary buffering  was a French chemist named  Charles Frederic Gerhardt. In 1853, Gerhardt neutralized salicylic acid by buffering it with sodium (sodium salicylate) and acetyl chloride to create acetylsalicylic acid. Gerhardts product worked but he had no desire to market it and abandoned his discovery. In 1899, a German chemist named  Felix Hoffmann, who worked for a German company called  Bayer, rediscovered Gerhardts formula. Hoffmann made some of the formula and gave it to his father who was suffering from the pain of arthritis. The formula worked and so Hoffmann then convinced Bayer to market the new wonder drug. Aspirin was patented on February 27, 1900. The folks at Bayer came up with the name Aspirin. It comes from the â€Å"A in acetyl chloride, the spir in spiraea ulmaria (the plant they derived the salicylic acid from) and the â€Å"in† was a then familiar name ending for medicines. Before 1915, Aspirin was first sold as a powder.  That year, the first Aspirin tablets were made. Interestingly, the names Aspirin and Heroin were once trademarks belonging to Bayer. After Germany lost World War I, Bayer was forced to give up both trademarks as part of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

London, An Analysis Essay - 868 Words

William Blake makes a pointed critique of the society and institutions of the English Government in his poem, London. Throughout the poem Blake presents an image of man against society. He directly accuses several institutions and society itself of creating the tyranny that is controlling the people of London. He alludes to the struggle of the classes, the upper-class controlling the lower, as being the reason for the problems in London. This conflict of classes is the reason for the oppression and tyranny that the people of London are forced to live under. The upper-class has to control the lower classes by subjugating them and forcing them to live by their rules. Blake writes the poem using a speaker wandering through the†¦show more content†¦The other people in the poem dont seem to have any idea what the cause of their problem is, only the speaker in the poem. The speaker says that he hears mind-forged manacles. (Line 7) This makes evident that the society has p ut restraints on how the people think and act. They are restrained and their own minds are doing it to them. The people that the speaker is talking about are the mass of people in London. They go along with their lives because they know nothing else. Their own minds keep them in place and under control of a society that exploits them. The next stanza is the first to make direct accusations towards the institutions of England. Blake clearly accuses the Church and the Government for helping to create the situation that the people live in. The Church of England was extremely political. It was one of the main reasons that the rich could sustain control of the society by making the lower class ascribe to its rules. The same reasoning for the Government, because the upper-class controlled the Government, they also controlled the fate of the citizens which were under its rule. This stanza presents an image of a people that are oppressed and isolated, How the Chimney-sweepers cry/.../ And the hapless Soldiers sigh (Lines 9-11). The working class of the society is not being heard by the controlling class. This is the main theme of the poem. The people ofShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Movie London 972 Words   |  4 Pagesmovie. London Has Fallen, will keep you on the edge of your seat, jumping at every explosion in hopes of a good ending for the lovable characters. Though the movie is enticing, inspiring and thought provoking it becomes repetitive and predictable. Iranian-Swedish film director, Babak Najaf directs London Has Fallen, the sequel to â€Å"Olympus Has Fallen†. Though he did not direct the first movie, the two movies both feel as if they are by the same person. 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Impact of Mergers and Acquisition on Shareholder Value Free Essays

string(78) " associated with mergers where the bidder company does not pay a bid premium\." 1. Introduction There has been an increasing trend in mergers and acquisitions. The main motive behind mergers and acquisitions is that they create value for both shareholders of the target and acquiring companies indicating that mergers and acquisitions result in the creation of shareholder value. We will write a custom essay sample on Impact of Mergers and Acquisition on Shareholder Value or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, as we shall see, empirical evidence suggests that not all mergers and acquisitions lead to the creation of shareholder value. Some mergers and acquisitions simply occur because managers of the acquiring firm may want to see their corporations grow bigger so as to increase their bonuses or control of the company. In addition, some mergers occur simply because some firms want to gain monopolistic power. This paper provides a discussion on whether mergers and acquisitions actually lead to the creation of shareholder value by reviewing literature on studies that have studied the wealth effects of mergers and acquisitions for both bidder and target firm shareholders. This is done in section 2 below. Section 3 then provides a practical case study of a merger that occurred five years ago and determines whether there has been any increase in the value of the company as a result of the merger. 2. Overview of Mergers and Acquisitions and Empirical Evidence Mergers and acquisitions can be regarded as a form of business combination. A distinction can be made between the two forms of business combination. On the one hand, an acquisition refers to the purchase of a part of a company by another. It could be the purchase of assets from another company, the purchase of a definable segment of another company such as a subsidiary, or the purchase of the entire company. If the acquisition takes the form of purchasing the entire company, then the acquisition is referred to as a merger. A merger on its part is therefore the absorption of one firm by another. In a merger, one of the firms ceases to exist and the other acquirer continues to exist as a separate legal entity. The increasing number of mergers and acquisitions suggests that they could be important events. For example, in 1999, the total value of mergers and acquisitions across the globe was approximately 2 percent of world-wide gross domestic product (UNCTAD, 2000). Given the rising trend in mergers and acquisitions, post-merger performance has become one of the most researched and interesting topics in financial economics. The issue as to whether post-merger performance is positive or negative is a controversial one. That is it is difficult to make a clear cut conclusion that mergers and acquisitions lead to the creation of shareholder wealth or that they do not lead to the creation of shareholder wealth. Many studies have taken a number of different approaches to arrive at different conclusions. On the one hand, accounting studies seek to understand whether there is an improvement in accounting numbers following a merger and acquisition. The evidence from these studies remains mixed with some studies demonstrating that mergers and acquisitions result in an improvement in profitability while a significant number of studies conclude that mergers and acquisitions do not foster performance improvement. Financial and economic studies typically employ event studies, which aim at understanding how the share prices (stock returns) of the firms concerned react to the merger or acquisition announcement. The results of these studies suggest that mergers and acquisitions lead to significant positive abnormal returns to shareholders of the target firm while resulting in negative of no abnormal returns to shareholders of bidder firms (Bild and Guest, 2002). The studies also demonstrate that despite the negative abnormal returns to acquiring shareholders, there these shareholders eventually benefit from overall significant gains in the future. These results have led some authors to argue that the results obtain tend to be sensitive to the methodology employed thereby leaving one t o continue doubting whether the results actually reflect reality or whether they simply reflect the authors’ beliefs about mergers and acquisitions. For example Andrade et al. (2001) argues that the measure of long-run equity returns used in the studies is not reliable. On the contrary, Tchy (2002) argues that mergers and acquisitions are overvalued around the period covering the announcement, with the long-run effects being less improvement in profitability and destruction in shareholder wealth. Based on a financial theory perspective, in order to determine whether mergers and acquisitions result in the creation of shareholder wealth, one needs to determine whether the present value of the financial rewards expected from the merger and acquisition are greater than the present value of the costs incurred in undertaking the merger and acquisition (Bild and Guest, 2002). That is, whether the net present value of the merger and acquisition is positive or not. Despite the importance of this approach, both accounting and event studies fail to employ this approach in their analysis. In addition, to the marginal impact of the merger and acquisition, the reaction of stock markets to the announcement of take-over bids also reflect many other factors that event studies fail to take into account. Consequently, the results may be affected by issues other than the marginal impact of the merger and acquisition. Event studies therefore fail to consider these other issues and as such one ca nnot rely completely on their results. On their part accounting studies fail to provide an explicit account of the cost of the acquisition, the time value of money or gains beyond a limited post-merger period (Bild and Guest, 2002). Among the accounting-based studies, Healy et al. (1992) provide evidence based on an examination of 50 largest mergers in the U.S over the period 1979-1984 that the median cash flow return on assets of the merged or combined firm is 2.8% over a post-merger period of five years. Healy et al. (1997) extends the work of Healy et al. (1997) by examining 50 largest industrial takeovers over the same period. The evidence suggests that there are significant industry takeover premiums associated with mergers where the bidder company does not pay a bid premium. You read "Impact of Mergers and Acquisition on Shareholder Value" in category "Essay examples" The merger premium however, becomes insignificant when a bid premium is paid. Dickerson et al. (1997) provide evidence that firms that do not engage in MA activity tend to outperform those that engage in MA activity. Ghosh (2001) based on a study of U.S mergers over the period 1981 to 1995 argues that there are no significant differences in s ales growth and operating expenses between merged firms and unmerged firms in the same industry. Having examined accounting based studies, the remainder of this section will focus on event studies that observe the behaviour of the stock price of target and bidder firms around the announcement period of the merger or acquisition. Cybo-Ottone and Murgria (2000) provide evidence based on a study of European Bank mergers that there is a statistically significant and economically relevant size-adjusted combined performance of both target and bidder banks. Cummins and Weiss (2004) analyse the wealth effects of bidder and target firm shareholders by examining a number of European mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry. The evidence show that these mergers and acquisitions related to a small amount of negative cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs) for bidders on average across various around the date of the merger and acquisition transaction. On the other hand the study observes that target firms exhibited substantially higher positive abnormal returns ranging from abo ut 12% to 15% (Cummins and Weiss, 2004). The study is then broken down into cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions within the insurance industry. The evidence in this case shows that cross-border mergers and acquisitions had no impact on the shareholder value of bidders while domestic acquisitions resulted in significant negative abnormal returns to bidders. Target firm shareholders witnessed a significant increase in shareholder value for both domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry. Despite post-merger benefits to targets for both domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the evidence further suggests that the gains to target firms of domestic mergers where in part off-set by the losses incurred by bidders (Cummins and Weiss, 2004). Song and Walking (2004) observe that bidders exhibit significant positive abnormal returns of 1 percent. Compa and Hernando (2004) observe that bidders in the regulated industry lose 1.96% ove r 60 days around the announcement of the takeover while bidders from unregulated industries witnessed an insignificant positive abnormal return. Ben-Amar and Andre (2006) provide evidence that acquiring firms earn 1.6% over a 3-day event window for a sample of Canadian mergers and acquisitions over the period 1998 to 2000. Some studies have made a distinction between mergers and acquisitions of related and unrelated targets. For example, Singh (1984) provide evidence that more shareholder wealth is created in mergers and acquisitions involving related targets. However, Chatterjee (1986) provides contrary evidence suggesting that the post-merger benefits of unrelated targets are higher than those of related targets. It can be observed that the evidence from both the accounting-based and event studies is mixed. Some suggest that mergers and acquisitions lead to the creation of shareholder wealth while some argue that mergers and acquisitions do not result in the creation of shareholder wealth. It is therefore difficult to conclude whether mergers and acquisitions actually result in the creation of shareholder wealth or not. However, most of the studies are inclined to concluding that mergers and acquisitions do not result in shareholder wealth creation. Consequently, this paper concludes based on these studies that mergers and acquisitions lead to the creation of shareholder wealth but only in a limited number of circumstances. Conclusions based on the results of accounting-based and event studies must however, be treated with caution taking into consideration the methodological issues associated with these studies. Consequently, there is a need for more adequate methods of studying the impact of mergers and acquisitions on shareholder value need to be developed. 3. Analysis of the Bell South Corporation by ATT In 2006, ATT took over Bell South Corporation for a total consideration of $72, 671million. This paper will be looking at how the company has performed following the acquisition. This will be done by analysing its performance 2 years prior to the acquisition and 4 years following the acquisition. The merger was expected to generate substantial cost savings for the enlarged company (Lemon, 2006). According to the company, cost savings of $2billion were expected two years following the merger owing to reduction in operational costs, consolidation of facilities as well as the combination of the IT operations of the two companies (Lemon, 2006). Earnings per share (EPS) were expected to witness double-digit growth over the first three years following the acquisition (Lemon, 2006). In addition, the revenue forecast for 2007 were revised upward as a result of the deal. In analysing whether the merger led to a creation or destruction of value, this paper will be looking at how a number of variables including revenue, profitability, operational costs, earnings per share and return on equity have performed over the past five years. The study will also consider 5 years prior to the merger and 4 years following the merger. Specifically, the study will be conducted over the period 2001 to 2010. 2001-2005 is considered the merger period while 2007-2010 is considered the post-merger period . Appendix 1 illustrates a 10-year summary of key figures from the income statement of ATT over the period 2001 to 2010. It can be observed that the sales revenue for ATT more than doubled during this period. The company witnessed a growth in revenue from $43,528million in 2001 to $113,239million in 2010. Considering the pre-merger period 2001-2005, ATT witnessed a decline in revenue from $43,528million in 2001 to $38,623million in 2005. The post-merger period 2006-2010 shows that revenue increased from $55,888million in 2006 to $113,239 in 2010. This shows that the merger might have had a positive impact on the revenue of ATT. As earlier mentioned, one of the objectives of the merger was to realise an increase in revenue. It can be observed from appendix 1 that following the merger in 2006, revenue jumped from $55,888million in 2006 to $107,378million in 2007, representing an increase of 92.13 percent. Since 2007, revenue has maintained an upward trend as shown in figure 1 below. Howe ver, the growth in revenue has been gradual since the merger in 2006. Another objective of the acquisition was to reduce operating costs over the next three years following the merger. The operating cost of ATT has also more than doubled over the period 2001 to 2010. Operating cost moved from $33,550million in 2001 to $95,001million in 2010. During the pre-merger period 2001-2005, operating cost increased from $33,550million in 2001 to $32,905million in 2005. This was the case despite declining sales. This suggests that during the pre-merger period, the operating cost of ATT did not change significantly. However, the corresponding sales figure declined over this period which suggests that operating costs were significantly high. Looking at the post-merger period 2006-2010, one can observe that operating cost increased from $45,007million in 2006 to $95,001million in 2010. This somewhat suggests that the merger led to an increase in operating costs rather than to a decrease. However, there was a corresponding increase in sales revenue to cover this cost, which means that the cost can be justified on the grounds that it resulted in an increase in the corresponding figure for operating income. Immediately following the merger, operating cost increased from $45,007million in 2006 to $89,174million in 2007. This was followed by a corresponding increase in operating income from $10,881million in 2006 to $18,204million in 2007. Since 2007, operating cost has declined but not to its pre-merger level. To a certain extent the objective of reducing operating cost was achieved as the increase in operating cost after the merger can be justified on the grounds that there were corresponding increases in sales revenue and operating income. In order to determine whether shareholder wealth was created or destroyed following the merger, this paper conducts an analysis of the movement in net profit margin, earnings per share, return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) for the pre- and post-merger periods. Appendix 1 provides a 10-year summary of these figures. Figure 2 illustrates the movement in net profit margin, ROE and ROA while figure 3 illustrates the movement in EPS. In can be observed that the net profit margin in 2001 is almost the same as net profit margin for 2010. Specifically, the respective figures for 2001 and 2010 were 15.3% and 15.4 percent. However, some changes have taken place within this period. Two phases can be observed in the movement of the net profit margin: a declining phase covering the period 2002 to 2008 and an increasing phase covering the period 2008 to 2010. During the pre-merger period, ATT mainly witnessed a decline in its net profit margin. Following the merger, ATT continued witnessing a decline in its net profit margin right up to the year 2008. The year 2008 appears to be the worst year for ATT over the last decade. The company actually realised a net loss during 2008 which translated to a net profit margin of -2.1 percent. Immediately following the acquisition, net profit margin declined gradually from 11.7 percent in 2006 to 10.0 percent in 2007. It then witnessed a drastic decline to -2.1 percent in 2008, jumped to 9.9 percent in 2009 and increased further to 15.40 percent in 2010. The movements in the EPS, ROA and ROE were similar to that of the net profit margin over the period 2001 to 2010. The EPS in particular declined slightly immediately following the acquisition, declined drastically in 2008 and rose significantly in 2009 and 2010. ATT targeted the increase in EPS as one of its objectives for the merger. The evidence suggests that this objective was achieved. Overall, the evidence above suggests that the takeover resulted in the creation of wealth for ATT’s shareholders. However, to draw conclusions, it is important to analyse a comparative company (a control company) which did not merge during this period to see if the results are similar or different. The company that has been chosen for this purpose is Verizon Communications Inc., which operates in the same industry as ATT. The results for the control company are summarised in Appendix 2 and figures 4, 5 and 6 are used to analyse the performance of the company over the period 2001 to 2010 vis a vis that of ATT. It can be observed from figure 4 that Verizon Communications Inc. has maintained an upward trend in its sales revenue, operating cost and operating income throughout the period under investigation. Unlike ATT the company has not witnessed a prolonged period of declining sales revenue or operating income. Like ATT its operating income for 2008 was negative, which reflects the impact of the global financial crisis. Looking at figure 5 it can be observed that Verizon Communications’ net profit margin, ROE and ROA have been more volatile compared to those of ATT. Two clear phases can be observed in ATT’s figures. This shows that the two companies did not perform the same during the period under investigation. As shown in figure 6 below, the EPS figure for Verizon Communications is also more volatile compared to that of ATT. The post-merger period for Verizon Communications does not show any marked improvement in performance. However, ATT shows significant improvement in performance after the merger. This suggests that a significant portion of the improvement in the performance of ATT can be attributed to its takeover of South Bell Corporation. Only a small fraction can be attributed to industry dynamics. It can therefore be concluded based on the foregoing analysis that ATT created value for its shareholders as a result of its takeover of South Bell Corporation. Particularly, the takeover enabled the company to increase sales revenue, reduce relative operating costs and increase operating income. In addition, the company increased the takeover resulted in an increase in the earnings per share of ATT which means that each individual shareholder benefited from an increase in his/her claim on the company’s assets. References Andrade, G. Mitchell, M. andStafford, E. (2001) ‘New evidence and perspec-tives on acquisitions’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 15, pp. 103-120. Ben-Amar, W. and Andre, P. (2006). Separation of ownership from control and acquiring firm performance: the case of family ownership in Canada. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 33, 517–543. Bild, M., Guest, P. (2002), â€Å"Do Takeovers Create ValueA Residual Income Approach on U.K Data, ESRC Centre for Business Research, University ofCambridge Working Paper No. 252 Campa, J.M. and Hernando, I.(2004). Shareholder value creation in European MA. European Financial Management, 10, 47–81. Chatterjee, S. (1986) Types of Synergy and Economic Value: The Impact of Acquisitions on Merging and Rival Firms, Strategic Management Journal, 7, 2, 119-139. Cummins, J. D., Weiss, M. A. (2004), Consolidation in the European Insurance Industry: Do Mergers and Acquisitions Create Value for Shareholders?, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=558044 [accessed: 10th December 2011]. Cybo-Ottone, A., Murgia, M. (2000) Mergers and shareholder wealth in European banking Journal of Banking Finance, 24, 6, 831-859 Dickerson, A., Gibson, H. and Tsakalotos, E. (1997). The impact of acquisitions on company performance: evidence from a large panel of UKfirms. Oxford Economic Papers, 49, 344–361 Ghosh, A. (2001). Does operating performance really improve following corporate acquisitionsJournal of Corporate Finance, 7, 151–178. Healy, P.M., Palepu, K.G. and Ruback, R. (1992). Does corporate performance improve after mergersJournal of Financial Economics, 31, 135–175. Healy, P.M., Palepu, K.G. and Ruback, R. (1997). Which takeovers are profitableStrategic or financialSloan Management Review, 45–57. Lemon, S.(2006) ATT to buy BellSouth in $67 billion deal, Deal is expected to close within the next 12 months, available online at: http://www.infoworld.com/t/networking/att-buy-bellsouth-in-67-billion-deal-052 [accessed: 13th December 2011]. MSN Money Central (2011a) â€Å"ATT Inc†. Available online at: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=TenYearSummarysymbol=US%3aVZ [accessed: 13th December 2010]. MSN Money Central (2011b) â€Å"Verizon Communications Inc.† Available online at: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=TenYearSummarysymbol=US%3aT [accessed: 13th December 2011]. Singh, H. (1984) â€Å"Corporate acquisitions and economic performance†, University of Michigan Tichy, G. (2002) ‘What do we know about the success and failure of mergers?’ Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, vol. 1, pp. 347-394. UNCTAD (2000) World Investment Report 2000, United Nations publication,New YorkandGeneva. Appendices Appendix 1: ATT, 10 Year Summary of Income Statement Extracts YearSales ($Millions) Operating Costs ($Millions) Operating Income ($Millions) Total Net Income ($Millions) Tax Rate (%) EPS Net Profit Margin (%) ROE (%) ROA (%) 200143,528.00 32,550.00 10,978.00 7,026.00 36 2.07 15.30 21.30 7.30 200240,655.00 30,384.00 10,271.00 7,361.00 28.33 2.2 17.20 22.20 7.70 200338,591.00 29,875.00 8,716.00 5,859.00 32.78 1.76 14.50 15.30 5.80 200436,264.00 29,099.00 7,165.00 4,979.00 30.51 1.5 12.20 12.30 4.50 200538,623.00 32,905.00 5,718.00 4,786.00 16.3 1.42 10.90 8.80 3.30 200655,888.00 45,007.00 10,881.00 7,356.00 32.4 1.89 11.70 6.40 2.70 2007107,378.00 89,174.00 18,204.00 11,951.00 34.35 1.94 10.00 10.40 4.30 2008111,403.00 115,975.00 -4,572.00 -2,623.00 0 -0.44 -2.1 -2.7 -1 2009111,172.00 92,654.00 18,518.00 12,118.00 32.89 2.05 9.90 11.90 4.50 2010113,239.00 95,001.00 18,238.00 19,085.00 -6.37 3.22 15.40 17.10 7.10 Source: Source: MSN Money Central (2011) Available online at: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=TenYearSummarysymbol=US%3aT [accessed: 13th December 2011]. Appendix 2: Verizon Communications Inc., 10 Year Summary of Income Statement Extracts YearSales ($Millions) Operating Costs ($Millions) Operating Income ($Millions) Total Net Income ($Millions) Tax Rate (%) EPS Net Profit Margin (%) ROE (%) ROA (%) 200166,713.00 63,982.00 2,731.00 584 0.21 78.62 Bottom of Form 0.9 1.8 0.3 200267,056.00 60,926.00 6,130.00 4,591.00 1.67 25.11 6.8 14.1 2.7 200367,468.00 62,795.00 4,673.00 3,460.00 1.25 25.96 5.1 10.3 2.1 200465,751.00 57,774.00 7,977.00 5,899.00 2.11 26.05 9 15.7 3.6 200569,518.00 61,070.00 8,448.00 6,027.00 2.16 28.66 8.7 15.2 3.6 200688,182.00 80,028.00 8,154.00 5,480.00 1.88 32.79 6.2 11.3 2.9 200793,469.00 78,924.00 14,545.00 5,510.00 1.9 27.38 5.9 10.9 2.9 200897,354.00 95,711.00 1,643.00 -2,193.00 -0.77 -141.14 -2.3 -5.3 -1.1 2009107,808.00 94,288.00 13,520.00 4,894.00 1.72 14.19 4.5 11.8 2.2 2010106,565.00 93,881.00 12,684.00 2,549.00 0.9 19.45 2.4 6.6 1.2 Source: MSN Money Central (2011) Available online at: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=TenYearSummarysymbol=US%3aVZ [accessed: 13th December 2010]. How to cite Impact of Mergers and Acquisition on Shareholder Value, Essay examples

Symbolism in Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home Essay Example

Symbolism in Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home Paper Ernest Hemingway is often noted for his unadorned prose style, which manages nevertheless to be extremely suggestive and effective in its plainness. The short story, Soldier’s Home, is a semi-autobiographical sketch which is certainly not cloyed with metaphors and symbols. Despite this fact, Hemingway manages to contextualize his story and give it a hidden meaning, through other literary devices and narrative elements. One of the important symbolic elements in the story is the book about war that Krebs is reading and which is one of the very few things that the former soldier finds fascinating after having come back from the front. The denotative meaning of the symbol is obvious: Krebs is inactive after having returned home and he spends most of his time reading or playing different games. The theme of the story is obviously the impossibility of a man who has experienced war to reconnect with his family and with his own life. There is an emphasis in the book on the permanent confusion Krebs seems to live in and on his inability to readjust to his own environment. The young former soldier is back at home, trying to find his own place in the midst of the small town’s community. Somehow however, he is still a soldier, unable to come to terms with his own experience and discomforted by the lies and exaggerations about the front, which circulate in the small community. Thus, the book about war that Krebs dwells on with such interest is symbolic for his inability to leave the war behind and continue his life as it used to be. We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolism in Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolism in Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolism in Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer He could not fully grasp the experience that he underwent and now he is desperately trying to understand it from the outside. This is even more difficult as neither the book about war nor the stories recounted by other soldiers can actually convey the sheer terror and chaos of his experience on the front. Hemingway uses the symbol of the book about war to emphasize the inability of the soldier to reconnect with his normal life and to understand its meaning. The symbol is used in the context of many other elements that convey Krebs’ distance from his own life. The book about war is a literary symbol that Hemingway employs in a specific context. In conjunction with the other elements in the story, this symbol translates the long lasting and devastating effect of war on the lives of those who have experienced it. Works Cited: Meyer, Michael. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. New York: Bedford, 2005