Verizon's AOL Case

Verizon’s business is most heavily influenced by the advancements in technology, but other industry changes and government decision making are other social issues changing Verizon. As previously discussed in the essay, Net Neutrality is a bill that projects the future of the telecommunications industry. In the case that it is protected it will prevent a monopoly of the internet which will benefit more than just consumers, but for Verizon the abolishment of the bill will mean opportunity to increase profits through selling the internet since it will no longer be a free utility (Maisto, 2014). Thus, the industries future profits lye on the decision of Net Neutrality.

The second video “Moyers & Company: Is Net Neutrality Dead?” is about a debate regarding net neutrality, which is the right to communicate freely online, keeping the major internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast from increasing costs for costumers to not slow down or block any content they want to use, also called price discrimination, a service offered at different prices by the same provider in different markets. As there are only few internet providers, barriers are set by limiting the area where some of them are allowed to supply their services to, limiting competition and increasing costs for consumers.

In 2006 AOL, inadvertently, made public personal information, of some 650,000 of its members. “The members filed suit with California federal district court, on behalf of themselves and a putative nationwide class of AOL members, alleging violations of federal electronic privacy law, 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a). A subclass of AOL members who are California residents also alleged various violations of California law, including the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, California Civil Code § 1770.” (Doe 1 v AOL LLC, 2009)

When it comes to the threat of new entrants and the threat of substitute products or services, The Huffington Post is deploying a successful defensive strategy. With recent expansions into new countries, as well as the development of new ways to push content to users, the content provider is able to stay ahead of new entrants. In addition, The Huffington Post is an established brand with a large existing pool of customers, which increases its defensive strategy. Also, when AOL purchased The Huffington Post, AOL’s existing customers became members of the new Huffington Post Media Group, which enlarged the customer base and reach.

After Obama’s Presidency, President Trump believed that net neutrality is a principle that limits the progress and innovation of many companies. In addition, President Trump claimed that he heard a lot of complains about net neutrality; therefore, he decided to take actions and support the repealment of net neutrality. A Republican named Ajit Pai, recently appointed as the chairman of FCC, started to raise voice against the principle of net neutrality. Note that Ajit Pai is also a former lawyer of Verizon. Ajit Pai argued that “higher profits for broadband companies would allow them to invest and expand their networks to rural America.” Furthermore, he claimed that “Entrepreneurs are constantly developing new technology and services. But too

The FCC’s move will allow companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon to charge internet companies for speedier access to consumers and to block outside services they don’t like. The change also axes a host of consumer protections, including privacy requirements and rules barring unfair practices that gave consumers an avenue to pursue complaints about price gouging.

     The telecommunications industry is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. The key success factors in this industry are hard to pin point, because they vary from having the right amount of money to having the right amount of customers. This industry is a very expensive industry to do research and development in. Besides the money required for R&D the companies in this business have to spend tremendous amount of capital on advertising and consumer awareness. The services provided by the different competitors in this industry are essentially the same but with very different reputations. AOL spends millions of dollars every year to send free trial C.D., in order to gain customer awareness. Which in turn shows the results as being very successful, making AOL the largest internet-service provider in the United States.

Verizon’s (VZ) Dividends Are Safe; But Its Peer looks to be in A Better Position

In this field, competition refers to network owners (ISP). Their differential in pricing and control of information alters the competition. Anti-competitive acts by network owners would be barred due to the impact of net neutrality (St. Petersburg). The major companies (telecom and cable) could enforce a fee for faster Internet or prefer content that is associated with their partnered conglomerates. The cause would be a halt in innovation and end up giving larger companies the power to nudge aside the smaller start-ups from expanding (Linux Journal). Also, net neutrality saves the internet as an ideal marketplace. For the previous 10 years, the Internet has been a public marketplace where privatized companies are able to expand and grow, and this reputation will continue to serve (Opposing Views). More importantly, without net neutrality in affect, price discrimination risks start-ups from emerging out of their cocoons. Net neutrality once paved the concept of free market endeavors. Without these regulations, innovators are at the hands of network owners and building new online entrepreneurships or

Yet at the same time, these two sets of companies compete for customers, creating a glaring conflict of interest. Whilst these issues seemed to be resolved by the middle of the twentieth century, the advent of the internet introduced a whole new set of problems. The term net neutrality, first coined by Tim Wu, Professor of the Columbia University Law School in 2003, came to represent a question that had long been perceived as being of relatively little concern – is unfettered access to the internet a right, or a privilege? (Cheng and Bandyopadhay 2011: 60) (Greenstein 2007: 61, 85) The debate around internet regulation and net neutrality first gained traction in 2002, when the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controversially ruled that broadband internet was to be classed as an information service rather as a telecommunications service, and thus made it exempt from a considerable range of content and conduct regulations that it would otherwise have been subject to. For those Americans, as exemplified by organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who saw the internet as a space of uninhibited free expression that needed to be protected from the influence of corporate meddling, this decision was very frustrating. As promoted by Wu and others, net neutrality came to represent the belief that ‘internet data packets should move nondiscriminatorily’ – that is, the data (‘packets’ essentially being a technical

Some advocates of pro-regulation argue that what has happened to other industries like media and music has or is on the verge of happening to the telecom industry. A fear of too few players, the reason why AT&T was split into seven companies in 1982 (Gelles and Mercedoct, 2016). If a regulative body would not force the company to comply with net neutrality, some firms may in the long-term face financial difficulties. Thus, diverse and good media is a function of net neutrality in the current system of an ever-concentrating telecom

threats as an organization. This case analysis will highlight the top three for each category and provide a rational for each factor. The SWOT analysis will serve as a tool for identifying alternative strategies for the organization and help define a 3-year growth plan. Various matrices, including a SWOT analysis and a Financial Ratios Analysis, will also support specific strategies and long-term objectives. Other relevant, recent activities and supporting research will also be supporting the strategies defined in the case analysis.

In 1984, Southwestern Bell Corporation was born. Major changes in the competitive landscape that occurred due to the Telecommunications Act in 1996 caused Southwestern Bell to acquire Pacific Telesis Group and Ameritech Corp. Later on in 2005, Southwestern Bell acquired AT&T Corporation, creating the new and improved AT&T, which would become the leader in global business communications. In 2006, the company obtained ownership of Cingular Wireless. Shortly after that, AT&T led a major transformation in the communications industry by introducing the mobile internet. To this day, AT&T continues to be very successful. In 2013, the company bought Cricket to provide more access to mobile internet to customers in the prepaid market. In 2015, they purchased two Mexican wireless companies, Iusacell and Nextel. Later that year they acquired DIRECTV which made them the world’s largest TV provider. Their pending purchase of Time Warner Inc.

In order to further emphasize the amount of power that truly lies within these nine dominating companies I would like to bring into light the most profitable, AOL Time Warner. “Time Warner makes 20 percent of its money from the music business, another 20 percent from the news division (magazine and book publishing and cable television news), 10 percent from its US cable systems and the rest from its film, video and television holdings.”3[3] This is an incredible amount. Not only does AOL Time Warner make twenty percent profit from the news division of media, but they also have a vertical integration throughout our nation. There should be warning lights going off in every American. If one single company can have this much control over so many aspects of our life, there

“The Case for the AT&T-Time Warner Deal” point out Mr. Stephenson (AT&T chief executive officer) that he wanted to ignore the basic structure of changing the market, but focus more on Mr. Bewkes (CEO of Time Warner) mentioned about “vertical combination” of AT& T and Timer Warner. Mr. Bewkers continued that this