Paramount Case Analysis Essay

c. SDI’s officers have been under pressure from the board of directors to do something to improve the price of the common stock. Management is also concerned about the stock price personally because bonuses are based on the performance of SDI’s stock price relative to other firms in its industry. So, they would like a detailed explanation of how the market price is determined—what do investors look for, and what can management do to provide what investors want? Bob Wilkes also wants you to explain how stock valuation information be used to help estimate the company’s cost of equity. Tony Biddle provided some information that can be used in the stock valuation process. First, as background on what investors think about the company, here are some representative quotations taken from analysts’ reports issued during the past few years.

Given our analysis of the motion picture industry, we recommend that Arundel carefully select the major film studios from which they intend to purchase sequel rights. The net present value of hypothetical sequels taken from the available previous years shows not only that the industry is highly volatile, but also that certain production studios are more volatile than others in terms of their recent performance. In addition, some studios are consistently less profitable than others. (See "NPV for Each Production Company" chart in appendix) Since the success of film studios are relatively stable in the short term (see "Rental Shares of Major Film Distributors" table and graph) Because of this stability, it is possible for Arundel to approach more profitable studios with their offer to purchase sequel rights. Out of all the major film studios, only MCA-Universal, Warner Bros., and The Walt Disney Company generate a positive net present value on a per-film basis. However, according to casual inquiries, it is unlikely that any movie studio would enter negotiations with Arundel on a per film price that is less than 1 million. Instead, the film studios seem to

What are some alternative ways to obtain a market risk premium for use in a CAPM cost-of-equity calculation? Discuss both the possibility of obtaining estimates from outside organizations and also ways which Ace could calculate a market risk premium itself.

2. What do you think the current market price is for Rosetta Stone shares? Justify your valuation using both discounted cash flow and comparables (market multiples) analysis.

in our calculations, as this company exhibited dramatic value differences to others in the sample, (likely to skew our results and prove misleading). Using the average of the revised sample field for each ratio, we inserted Torrington’s values where appropriate to generate an entity value. The findings generated two values for Torrington, 606 million and 398 million. Taking the average of these two numbers, Torrington exhibited a relative value of 502.41 million. Because of the lack of related information given in the case, and the often large differences in measures amongst competitors, different capital structures, internal management strategies, there remained many unknowns in our model. We decided it would be best to use this valuation to reaffirm our assumptions in our DCF valuation. (Please see exhibits)

The Supreme Court ruled against the Hollywood’s monopoly of the film industry of the United States, directing that the production and distribution of movies be separated from movie exhibition practices. The ruling marked the death of studio era and led to numerous changes in film industry decades later. The paramount decision pushed the Twentieth century fox, Big Five studios, MGM, Paramount, RKO and Warner Bros companies to sell some of their theatre chains. The ruling went ahead to outlaw the price discriminatory and purchasing arrangements, fixing of admissions prices, block booking and

3. Wasserstein, Perella & Co. established a valuation range of $68-$80 per common share for Interco. Show that this valuation range can follow from the assumptions described in the discounted cash flow analysis section of Exhibit 12. As a member of Interco’s board, which assumptions would you have questioned? Why?

Based on the previous module assessments, NBC Universal’s preliminary focus should be geared toward the film industry. The recent trade deal, between both the U.S. and Chinese Governments, lowered a 20-year-old quota on U.S. films and distribution fees in the Chinese film industry. This signifies productive progression within the film industry, even though small in nature, but nonetheless this could equate to significant profit gains for all the FMO’s within the market.

2) Converting these market values into standardized values. This process of standardizing creates valuation multiples.

Most of the corporations calculate WACC for giving investors an estimate on profitability and for being able to weight future projects. We are presented with Boeing current bonds, which constitute the long term debt portion of capital, and with Boeing’s assets which constitute the equity portion of capital. No other weighted entities (such as preferred shares) are considered. The debt/equity ratio would help with the calculation of weights. Boeing would need to earn at least 15.443% return on its investments (including the 7E7 project) in order to maintain the actual share price.

Interactive media and studio entertainment are currently generating the least revenue. This is due to the high cost to produce films for studio entertainment and the fact that interactive media is a relatively new business channel for Disney. However, out of all business lines, these two have the most potential in their industry and are therefore very attractive. Interactive media is a hot trend that Disney will be able to capitalize on due to its acquisition of Playdom. While films are very expensive to produce and distribute, the profit potential from Marvel and Pixar make the industry very attractive overall.

Current market prices: Both McCaw and AT&T’s common shares are publicly traded. The market value of the equity can be summed with the book value of debt to give a rough estimate of the firm’s current value. The calculation that follows suggests a value for McCaw’s assets of about $10.5 billion. McCaw’s shares may be trading at a minority discount, because the CEO holds a controlling block of shares. To purchase a partial

4. The bargaining power of buyers: The outlook for the target market isn’t favorable for the movie industry because it will not be growing as fast as the overall population. Buyer power is a strong force because of the target market and several other factors including: the undifferentiated product offered, switching to an alternative is simple and low cost, and customers can stay home and watch movies. The consumers are also complaining about concession and ticket costs, along with the advertisements before the film is shown.

     Viacom formed when FCC rules had forced CBS to spin off some of its cable TV and program operations, this happened in 1971. Viacom then buys WAST-TV in 1979, in 1985 Blockbuster Video is founded, in 1981 the NAI buys majority interest ( Sumner Redstone owns this), in 1994 Viacom announces multi-transponder, multi-satellite agreement with PanAmSat. Also in 1994 Viacom and Paramount announces 8.4 billion dollar merger, Viacom then sells its 33% share of Lifetime. In 1995 Viacom spins off its cable systems for Tele-communications, in 1999 Viacom bought CBS for 50 billion dollars. There are other acquisitions and selling’s through which Viacom became so large, but I did not include every little thing.

The final bid for Paramount by Viacom consisted of and was worth the following with respect to the share price value of Paramount: