Case Study Analysis: Merrill Lynch Acquisition of Mercury Asset Management

The Vanguard Group turned 42 years old this year and its mission statement remains the same - To take a stand for all investors, treat them fairly, and give them the best chance for investment success. It pioneered the industry first index fund and is one of the largest asset management companies in the world. Year after year Vanguard dominates in cash flows and client advocacy. Part of its success can be attributed to its unique corporate structure... The Vanguard Group is owned by its funds which are owned by investors, and the board of directors is tasked to commit to the best interests of the clients. With such a great brand recognition and strong foothold in the industry, what are the components in Vanguard 's value chain?

A decade ago the Lehman Brothers were the fourth largest investment bank in America. Dealing with Investment banking and investment management, the Lehman Brothers was one of the largest global financial service providers. Consequently, the subprime mortgage crisis left the company filing for the declaration of the chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, due to the unnecessary undertaken risk and obnoxious negligence accusations directed towards the group. Companies should utilize observational and analytical pundit functions in identifying the presence of crisis situations to avoid an economic downturn in the business (Pontell, 2014). The fraud would have prevented through stronger and better internal controls, which

On July 30, 2002, George Bush signed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act was a product of the collapse of major corporations such as Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, and WorldCom. “All four companies allegedly hid their true financial conditions from creditors and shareholders until an inability to meet financial commitments forced these companies to restate earnings and reveal massive losses. The financial collapse of these corporations, a result of allegedly fraudulent accounting practices, created a ripple effect that weakened a stock market already deflated by both the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000 and investor uncertainty resulting from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001(Recine, 2002).” In order to prevent

As the November Meeting approaches, CFO Doug Scovanner is faced with the problem of choosing which of the five controversial projects available to accept. Our task is to assume this role and evaluate each of the projects based upon two major criteria. The first is determining the firm’s financial motives by quantifying the projected value added to the firm and the risk associated with each project. When determining to accept or reject projects based upon adding value, the most helpful instruments we have are Net Present Value (NPV) and the

1. Adams espouses a “market first” analysis of opportunity by looking for discontinuities. Is this substantive or window-dressing? Do the four types of discontinuities represent applicable guidelines? Are they comprehensive, or are there other discontinuity templates that a venture investor would find useful?

This memo is to address the changes and consequences brought forth by the implementation of the Sarbanes – Oxley Act. The Sarbanes – Oxley Act was signed into law in efforts to eradicate company misconduct and protect public confidence by regulating management, accountants and legal counsel that represent the company (Noorishad, 2005). When passing the Sarbanes – Oxley Act, Congress also planned to protect whistleblowers because it is those who work in the organizations every day that see first-hand the indiscretions that frequently end in substantial corporate fraud (Watnick, 2007).

Enron was founded by Ken Lay in 1985 as a result of a merger of two gas companies. Enron was in top fortune 500 at number 7 and could not produce accurate financial statements to their investors. Top executives sold over a billion dollars in personal stock two years prior to their demise. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and. Author Anderson shredded all the financial statements all in one day. Employees of Enron lost over a billion and retirement and pension. Many of the top executives got off with just a slap on the wrist. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was set into place to make sure financial organizations are honest with investors.

It’s difficult to say if executive compensation at current levels are unethical. I fully understand that fact that some positions are salary based, hold more responsibility, and are more liable when there is a conflict, but I do not agree with the amounts in which they are compensated. When a company sets large compensation rewards for only certain levels it limits the income or assets to award lower levels employees. One must consider that each employee is a cog/gear within a machine and if not maintained properly or replace then problems come about with the functionally to operate. I believe that once an employee has retained so many years of employment there should be some type of compensation. I would recommend that after each third year a

The historic average returns from 1950 to 1996 and from 1929 to 1996 are given In Exhibit 3. We chose the latter time period as we considered it would give us a more reliable estimate of the risk-free rate by discounting both the Second World War and the Great Depression. It is necessary to evaluate the expected length of the project and utilize a risk free rate applicable for the same time period. Ameritrade is investing $100 million dollars in technology, which is considered a long-term investment, in order to become the largest brokerage firm. We consider their

Today’s risk management environment is more dynamic than ever. More often, companies are embracing risk management’s undeniable opportunity to improve business results. The emergence of this “true business partner” relationship requires that risk management decisions and processes rely more on strategic planning, rigorous analytical processes, and collaborative internal and external partnerships. Knowing which actions and relationships will drive down your costs of risk demands a deep and comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence it.

Chapter 7: Merger and Acquisition Strategy ---- House of Tata: Acquiring a Global Footprint (written by Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu, and Richard J. Bullock)

The move came after Bear Stearns was bleeding cash after word spread about the company’s crumbling position. European banks and other brokerage clients were pulling their investments and loans with Bear Stearns rapidly—and the company was losing billions in a week. In a swift move, the CEO of Bear Stearns, Alan Schwartz, was connected with the FED Chairman Ben Bernake, who agreed to loan money to JPMorgan if the financier company took over the quickly deteriorating Bear Stearns. It is argued that the FED was right in doing so as this move not save one of the largest American investment banks thus preventing a crushing blow to the US economy.

The Marriott Corporation, an American firm, was founded in 1927 by J.Willard Marriot.The company began as a small beer stand and soon began to sell food and provided lodging that expanded rapidly. With the help of his wife Alice, the family owned business had 45 restaurants in nine states by 1940 and grew into one of the leading service companies. The Company has three major lines of business: lodging, contract service and restaurants.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYMerrill Finch Incorporated is a large financial services corporation. As a newly hired financial planner for the company, I have been assigned the task of investing $100,000 for a client. The investment alternatives have been restricted to five options: T-Bills, High Tech, Collections, U.S. Rubber, Market portfolio, and a 2-Stock portfolio.

Aberdeen Asset Management plc (for the purpose of this report I will refer to the company as Aberdeen) is an international investment management group that manages assets for third parties; institutions and individuals (p.2, MarketLine Company Profile, 2015). Aberdeen is an extremely large firm and results from the last financial year showed net revenue of £1,117.6m and a pre-tax profit of £324.4m (p.1, Final Results 2014, AAM Plc). The group employs over 2,600 members of staff, in 33 offices across 25 different countries around the world, with its headquarters based in Aberdeen, Scotland (p.4, MarketLine Company Profile, 2015). The company has seen rapid growth since it was founded in 1983 through acquisitions and internal growth. In 1991 it began floating on the London Stock Exchange under the name Aberdeen Trust PLC (p.5, MarketLine Company Profile, 2014). Fig. 2 shows how the success of the company is reflected in its increasing share price since floatation, earning it a place in the coveted FTSE 100 Index in 2012 (Our History, aberdeen_asset.co.uk). The firm is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FSA) in the United Kingdom jurisdiction. Aberdeen is a public limited company (plc) which means it has limited liability and its shares may be freely sold and traded by the public, Fig 2 shows the fluctuation of the share price in recent years. The current market capitalisation of Aberdeen, which is calculated