Viacom Case Analysis

As techno capitalism moves into a dazzling and seductive information/entertainment society, mergers between the media giants are proliferating, competition is

In Porter's 5 forces model, the five underlying forces for an industry's structural attractiveness are the barriers to entry for new competitors, the intensity of rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of substitute products or services, the bargaining power of suppliers, and the bargaining power of buyers. In analyzing Blockbuster's business model and current position, it is evident that it faces issues in all five areas.

Paramount Pictures is one of the oldest movie studios in America. Paramount and its divisions are owned by Viacom Inc. Viacom acquired Paramount in 1994, bringing together two entertainment powerhouses. Robert Bakish is the President and CEO of Viacom, while James Gianopulos is a chairman and CEO of Paramount pictures. Viacom’s mission statement is fairly general and is based on being ethical and passionate about their work “…strives to maintain a work environment that upholds the highest standards of business behavior. Our company values individuals who are ethical, work smart and share the dedication and passion that have made Viacom the success it is today and are crucial for continued long-term success. …” (Viacom.com, 2017). Also, the mission statement covers the policies to hold employees accountable for the expected standards, “…Viacom Business Conduct Statement and Supplier Compliance Policy affirm our commitment to these high standards” (Viacom.com, 2017). Paramount itself is based in Los Angles, California; Viacom is based out of New York, New York. Viacom (VIA) is traded on the Nasdaq and as of November 24, 2017 it has a share price of $32.70 (Yahoo! Finance, n.d.).

One of these media giants is the Walt Disney Company (Disney). Its dramatic growth from a small company to become an oligopolist in the media industry offers an interesting

As the structure of the media network division is not traditional in terms of applying the value chain to an organization’s functions, some of the most important components are intangible. When looking at the breakdown of industry costs found in Appendix E, one can see that procurement (33% of revenue), wages (7%), and marketing (4.1%) are key in understanding the industry’s profit structure (IBISWorld).

Tait Communications ltd is a global company with some millions of people around the globe depending on tait products to keep their lights on cites flowing and communities safe. The core business operation of tait is to manufacture radio equipment for emergency services departments. Other wing of tait is to provide communication solutions to its clients. The company clients are spread across the globe but its key clients are from North America, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It has more than 40 years of excellence track record in engineering.

Walt Disney Company for eighty years has captured the attentions of millions of people around the world, offering family entertainment at theme parks, resorts, recreations, movies, TV shows, radio programming, and memorabilia (David, 2009). Today, Walt Disney possesses four main business segments: Disney Consumer products, Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, and Media Networks. Each of Disney's business units increased profits apart from its interactive division, which was recently restructured (Garrahan, 2011). By combining Disney's long history with the commitment to quality, Disney Consumer Products has had a large and steady presence in the toy marketplace (Anonymous, 2010). Studio entertainment has been somewhat of

These types of synergies, which are basically collaborations within the media conglomerate encourage sales by adding more excitement and the cross-promotion brings all of the products more visibility than they would be able to receive on their own. This type of synergy is also happening in another section of the Time Warner conglomerate.

In the last decades, the number of major corporations that manage to control media has decreased significantly, resulting in a high concentration of ownership. In 2011, only six media companies were responsible for 90% of the things we saw and heard on a daily basis compared to fifty companies in 1983 (Lutz, 2012). The Walt Disney Company is one of them. In this report, we will take a look at how the Company has succeeded in growing into the media corporation it is today.

In 1995 one of the strategic groups Viacom competed in was cable TV content providers with its main competitors including News Corp and Time Warner. The purpose of Viacom is to provide benefit to society through media content. The beliefs Viacom holds to realize its mission are growth, performance, and competition and the values upheld are communication, technology, knowledge, intelligence and the decentralized organization.

One the one hand, the fertility of the industry opened the doors to corporations that sighted substantial growth potential. New entrants with big pockets such as Walmart could pose a certain threat to Netflix, by exploiting a playing card based on cost reduction. On the other hand, barriers to entry became relatively significant as established video rental retailers such as Netflix have the experience and the knowhow to market movies to people. In this industry, firms that do not have a technological advantage can’t compete. The best example is Netflix’s CineMatch program that offered personalized film recommendations based on customer’s rental patterns. This way, Netflix was able to better serve its subscribers. From a cost perspective, the movie rental industry requires high capital expenditures, and the major expenses are highly related to acquisitions of DVD library and investments in technology (exhibit 2 continued). Thus, we may say that entry is difficult in this industry as the competing firms have reputation, experience and recognizable brand names.

In this scenario Margret Weston, received a letter. In the letter she found out that Yossarian acquired 10% of the company’s stock. This aggressive move by Yossarian was motivated by the company management not doing their job to maximize shareholders wealth. Moreover, the managers were having issues with the hurdle rate, because it is just generally accepted, but not scientifically proven. On the other hand one TV Commentators opinion about Teletech Corp. is that “there is no way to have a hostile takeover in this sector, but for the Teletech Corp. there are many reasons to try.” Teletech Corp. has two major business segments, Telecommunication Services and both Product and System Manufacturing make up the other segment we will analyze.

Although the corporate strategies implemented by Netflix and Blockbuster have allowed them to become leaders of competitive advantage in the movie rental industry, they sometimes encounter strategic issues that slow down their product and services process. My research of Netflix and Blockbuster will enable me to present a SWOT analysis and recommendations for each company.

Netflix‘s business model and strategy compare closely to its key rivals. Although, Netflix won a patent that covered much of its business model and could be used to help stifle competition in the future (Thompson C-33) . Netflix has a team of executives that manage only the on-line DVD rental enterprise. They are well established and use a very sophisticated software program thereby making movie selection easy and fun. In my analysis, Blockbuster has many retail stores to contend with and many other facets of a business enterprise, thereby not having a unique team of individuals solely dedicated to the on-line DVD rental business. Wal-Mart would be Netflix’s greatest fear due to the enormous capital available and expertise that could be employed, yet Wal-Mart continues to lag behind Netflix. Wal-Mart’s online software needs a lot of debugging, whereas Netflix had already spent several years debugging its software (Thompson C-37).

1. BYD Company, Ltd. (“BYD”) is the world’s second largest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries. Exhibit 1 shows that between 1999 and 2001, BYD’s annual sales grew three times - exceeding RMB 1.3 billion in 2001. Based on the first four months of 2002, BYD’s annual sales are expected exceed RMB 1.6 billion in 2002. Founded in 1995 by Wang Chuan-Fu, chairman and president, BYD has built its reputation by becoming the largest Chinese supplier of lithium-ion batteries to cell phone manufacturers. Exhibit 3 shows that by 2002, BYD was among the top four manufactures worldwide - and was the largest Chinese manufacturer – in each of the three main battery technologies (with about 9% market share in Li-ion