Mergers and Acquisitons Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Mergers and Acquisitons - Case Study Example A merger actually refers to a business combination of two or more firms in which only one firm survives and the other firm or firms go out of existence. In a merger, the surviving firm acquires the assets and liabilities of the other firm(s). A relevant example here is the recent merger of HDFC Bank and Times Bank. After the merger, Times Bank will go out of existence and expanded HDFC Bank will continue to exist. A merger takes place when the firms involved in the combination are of unequal size. The larger or stronger firm continues to exist because of its stronger bargaining power and the smaller or weaker firms go out of existence. Four periods of economic history have witnessed very high levels of merger activity, which are called a merger waves. These periods are characterized by cyclical activity i.e. large number of mergers followed by relatively fewer mergers ((ICMR), 2003). The current period is called as the fifth wave. In the first three waves, merger activity was concentrated in the United States of America. The fourth and the fifth waves were global in nature though the impact of the wave is most pronounced in the United States of America. The current merger wave began in 1992. This wave is marked by a large number of mega-mergers and cross-border mergers. Prior to this, there had been four different waves of mergers and acquisitions happening each being predominantly different. A famous example of the acquisition in the fourth wave of merger and acquisition row is the acquisition of Safeway, Britain's fourth largest supermarket group (Sky News, 2003) by William Morrison Supermarkets which operates in Central London and England (Arla Foods, 2003). The major drivers for the current wave are deregulation, globalization and technology. The increasing levels of deregulation are enabling companies to enter or expand their operations in areas which had significant regulatory barriers. The sectors where the impact of the wave is most visible are telecommunications, entertainment and media, banking and financial services. Safeway PLC was going through a troubled phase of business and was also struggling to cope up with the competition from the other retail giants in UK. As part of this struggle to compete, Safeway has also started experiencing the decline in its brand equity. All these struggles of Safeway were despite its strong national portfolio of having almost more than 450 outlets all across the United Kingdom. Going ahead, though William Morrison is a regional retail player in the United Kingdom having its strength in Midlands and in Northern Europe. Though William Morrison PLC is a regional player, the main strength of the company is its brand image and reputation in the market. One of the fundamental motives that drive mergers and acquisitions is the growth impulse of firms. Firms that decide to expand have to choose between two generic growth strategies, one is the organic growth and the other being the acquisition driven growth. The former one is a slow,

Teenagers and Tattoos Essay Example for Free

Teenagers and Tattoos Essay In Andre’ Martin’s (2012) article, â€Å"On Teenagers and Tattoos†, he discusses the different reasons as to why adolescents would choose self expression by obtaining a tattoo or a piercing and how society views them, as well as how they view themselves. Martin deliberates many diverse reasons as to why teenagers choose to utilize their body as a canvas for art forms, or whether or not they are in a state of ignorance due to rebellion and self-acceptance. Martin conveys many innumerable reasons in this article concentrating on an individual’s right to express them as they see fit. Some teens tattoo or pierce themselves simply due to acceptance from acquaintances, others just to rebel against society. Some juveniles feel that in order to be socially accepted, one must prove to society that tattoos are merely a way of expression. Some teens struggle with different pressures amongst their peers. Martin channels in this article of a teenagers role in society and what part a tattoo plays and how one would deem themselves. He conveys the struggles of our youth at attempting to show individualism, not thinking of the consequences of their actions. Not only are peer pressure and social acceptance an important factor, but being able to choose and interpret ones character lies to be an esteemed part of a teenagers journey though life. The endeavors of these young adults, as conveyed by Martin, prove to be a healthy decision or an ignorant one. Many of these adolescents yearn for acceptance, but do not think of the consequences that follow, for what seems to be an ample conviction at the time. I knew from my own experiences that  obtaining a tattoo as a teenager weren’t for social acceptance; it was succumbed by peer pressure and the value of expression. Being a teen with strict parents, there really wasn’t room for individuality, so once I was old enough to make my own decisions, I, along with some of my acquaintances, seized the opportunity to create my character. Tattoos do become addictive because as aging takes over, one would find more and more ways to make a statement. Commemorations, beauty, and art take over a blank canvas. Starting this wondrous migration from a reserved teenager to a polished individual, the possibilities are endless. It wasn’t for social acceptance; it was all abo ut individualism and creativity. The different markings were simply distinctiveness and an extenuation of one self. Martin plainly speculates the reasons that teenagers chose to tattoo and pierce their bodies. Whether it’s for social acceptance, a form of art, individualism, or ignorance, each one has their own way of executing one’s identity. Although teenage angst can be redundant and tend to overrule, expressionism and individuality are more important than any trait when finding ones personality. If it takes marking parts of the body, for any reason, simply because your mind is intelligent enough for a decision of this magnitude, then it should be completely admissible in society; therefore, socially accepted. As for making a horrendous judgment at an early age, the youth of today have chosen to accept the terms at that particular moment in time. Frankly, just to show that they are in control of their own bodies and minds and are fully capable of making rash decisions, without fear of judgment. References Martin, A. (2012). On teenagers and tattoos. In M. Kennedy et. al. Baker College Composition: A Custom Approach (pp. 320-323). Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions

Mariquita: A Tragedy of Guam by Chris Perez Howard Essay -- Book Revie

Mariquita: A Tragedy of Guam by Chris Perez Howard The book entitled Mariquita A Tragedy of Guam was written by author Chris Perez Howard in honor of her mother Mariquita Aguon Perez. The book covers the pain and sufferings of Guamanians through World War II from the perspective of one family. The book covers a period of time a little under a decade, beginning in 1938 while Guam was under Naval Administration. The book starts off painting the image an Howard's mother Mariquita. She is depicted as somewhat a diamond in the rough, beautiful and one of a kind, even pointing out that she worked as a stenographer, an uncommon position to be held by women in this time period. The book goes on describing her daily life including spending much time with her friends, competing amongst each other in the latest fashions and watching the movies. The story goes on describing her acquaintance with a young soldier by the name of Edward Neal Howard that has an eye for her. Mariquita at first entertained the young sailor but hesitated to pursue any relationship with Eddie. Then one night coming out of the movies, a Marine yelled a racial remark towards Mariquita and Eddie, out of the crowd, defended Mariquita. That was the turning point, and they eventually begin dating, first in secrecy then soon after, they married. Mariquita and Eddie had two children, the first named Chris and the second named Helen. Japanese invaded and the war broke out in Guam right after the birth of Helen and Mariquita actually had to flee with her newborn into the jungle for safety. During Japanese rule Guamanians were forced to work. The Japanese also occupied any housing they needed. The Americans were forced to surrender and Eddie bec... ...dure their torture, then head home and play and laugh with her kids, it was like there were two people playing her role. The book gave very good accounts of the times surrounding war, but I think Howard's emotions skewed the story somewhat. This book goes against the canon in citing instances which were harmful to the Guamanians. Americanization for instance, indirectly told the people to lose their identity and their culture and opt for a more Westernized and modern set of values. Then goes the point of having separate schools and American only functions, U.S. treated the people of Guam as second class citizens. The book does a great job in capturing all this unfairness. All in all, the book seemed better as a romance novel to me, with a great many details, valuable details of World War II in Guam hidden in the background almost as a supplemental story.

Award in Education & Training Essay

Assignment No1: Explain how you would go about the task of promoting inclusion, equality and diversity faced by a new group of learners enrolled for the first class of your specialist subject, as well as summarising ways to establish ground rules with them. Firstly we need to understand the difference between equality & diversity which is well covered by Gravells reference: Equality refers to the learners’ rights to attend and participate regardless of their differences, while diversity refers to valuing the learners’ differences (Gravells, 2008). Learners not only come from different cultures and backgrounds but they also differ in their abilities, needs, and the way they learn. Their differences must be recognised and considered by teachers who should treat them fairly and value each individual regardless of any differences. This way, learners will feel welcomed and included into the learning environment, engaged, empowered and supported by teachers (Gravells, 2008). Both equality and diversity can raise issues concerning learners’ gender, race, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, intellectual, linguistic or other characteristics. Despite differences, learners must have equal access to learning without any discrimination, prejudice or other barrier. It is the teacher’s responsibility to eliminate or reduce any learning barriers by recognising and providing full access and support to learners with a disability or individual need (Miller and Sammons, 1999), for example, by providing large print, on tape or using symbols and ensuring appropriate class layout. In my current role as an ESOL tutor I am involved in teaching English to a class of Nepalese immigrants which have a wide range of abilities depending on how long they have been in the UK and the level of education they received in their homeland. There are also some cultural age / gender issues that mainly affects the senior members of the community as the men & women need to be taught in separate groups / classes, although this does not affect the younger Nepalese who accept a mixed teaching situation in our  schools as the norm. Another problem with the beginners / older generation is that a lot are widowed women and live together in 3’s & 4’s, they don’t understand or watch television / media and therefore don’t have access to additional learning in the home in such that there may be multi generations. Students from the multi generation household from grandparent / parents / grandchildren where Nepalese will be the first tongue but have a greater exposure to English via the younger generations being at work or school and more acceptance / use of media via internet / television via in house translation. With a new group of learners it is important to assess their abilities from a simple student form with name / address etc and then test their ability to write / speak / recite the alphabet. With this assessment we are able to separate the class into smaller ability groups and with the help of interpreters give additional support on a 1 to 1 or small group basis especially with some that may have had no formal education in Nepal and barely able to write their name in Nepalese and the ones that do we have to teach them to read / write from left to right to overcome their natural right to left learning. Here we encounter additional cultural issues with some of the students wanting to sit next to a friend / relative they come to class with and through the interpreter we have to explain that people of similar abilities will learn quicker together where as their friend or relative may be at a further stage in the learning process to them. The important aspect is their ability to help one another and they seem to team up with people of the same abilities very easily and you find them working well in their new groups very quickly. The main thing is that all that attend the sessions is that they are all included irrespective of ability into a safe, social & welcoming learning environment that they feel they can be a part of. Ground Rules With this ESOL learning group the ground rules are difficult to establish without extensive interpreter help, although they are an extremely compliant and polite race and rarely have any issues with behaviour although it can become boisterous at times. Noise levels can rise as we use an open hall and with up to 4 or 5 ability groups and multiple tutors it is necessary to sometimes quieten the hall and reset the teaching noise level. From a general point there essentially 3 ways to establish ground rules: Teacher imposed Learner Imposed Negotiated My preferred option would always to negotiate the ground rules with learners which would be done at the start of the course using an introduction from the teacher & learners or as an ice breaker activity where through discussion the learners set the rules. The benefit of this option is that they feel through suggestion, rejection, agreement they have made they rules, they own them, respect them, are responsible for upholding them individually and collectively and to a certain extant enforcing them. It could be beneficial to keep the agreed ground rules visible / displayed in the form of flip chart to reinforce behaviour expectation especially around any Health & safety aspects and a reminder of their ownership and responsibility. Some ground rules cannot be negotiated, a typical example would be around Health & Safety if part of the teaching involves an environment where protective clothing / equipment is required ie a laboratory where a lab coat & glasses are required or a workshop where safety footwear / glasses and hair protection are essential. In this instance if not negotiated through the group, then the teacher should suggest if there were to be† any rules around health & safety† in the lab / workshop and use the opportunity to define the required rules for the particular environment.

Match made in heaven Essay

â€Å"There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends. † Homer That bard created such two people in The Odyssey, their contrasting roles concealing the similarities in their natures. Both Penelope and Odysseus dealt with â€Å"a world of pain†, but in very different settings: she wastes away at home, while he faces a myriad of adventures and sufferings around the Greek world. Although Homer assigned them dissimilar parts in his epic, however, his story still reveals striking resemblances between Odysseus and Penelope: they possess positive qualities and several faults in common as well as one major dissimilarity, all of which are the secrets to their long and blissful marriage and help them to see â€Å"eye to eye. † One can easily see why Ithaca’s king and queen remained happily united for so many years when looking at the shining characteristics they share. Both are wondrously loyal, even when faced with an abundance of temptations. Over the course of twenty years, Odysseus knew countless lovely women, from Nausicaa to Calypso, yet he remained determined to return to his wife. Likewise, Penelope had her choice of one-hundred and eighty of the best men in Greece all vying for her hand, but she still â€Å"falls to weeping for Odysseus† every time she thinks of her beloved husband. Undoubtedly, The Odyssey’s happy ending could not have occurred without their mutual fidelity. Cunning brilliance is the second attribute common to both Odysseus and Penelope, and it served to reunite them as much as their reciprocal devotion did. Odysseus is known as the â€Å"man of twists and turns†, and presumably, he used his acumen to select a wife who could match him in matters of the mind. Being the hero of the story, Odysseus’s brains are flaunted by Homer in his every action, from his escape from the Cyclops to all the creative stories he fabricated. But Penelope’s wisdom can also be detected within the text, and is crucial to the plot. For example, take the often-retold story of her web, woven and unwoven to keep the suitors at bay for three years, or when in Book 18, she coyly elicited expensive gifts from each suitor to compensate for some of her husband’s squandered estate. One can also adduce the test she devised for the suitors as a confirmation of her sagacity: â€Å"The hand that can string this bow with the greatest ease†¦ he is the man I follow. † Penelope knows very well that it is highly unlikely that one of her brazen suitors could muster the strength needed to shoot â€Å"his polished bow†: it was just another clever way postpone marriage. Had Penelope not â€Å"sp[un] out her wiles†, much like her husband had done abroad, the lovely queen of Ithaca would probably have been coerced into an unwanted union long before Odysseus returned. Not only are the queen and king of Ithaca alike for possessing dominant traits of loyalty and astuteness, they also share several shortcomings. Firstly, although they are devoted enough to pine for each other for two decades, neither were one hundred percent loyal to their spouse. Odysseus did not remain faithful to Penelope, sleeping with Circe, then Calypso, and perhaps some mortal women unworthy of being mentioned as well. Odysseus claims that he lay with the Circe for the sake of diplomacy, but if so, then why did he stay in her â€Å"arching caverns† for over a year, leaving only at his crew’s urging? Homer also hints at Odysseus’s voluntary treachery during his seven-year detainment with Calypso, including lines such as â€Å"they lost themselves in love†, and â€Å"since the nymph no longer pleased. † Is the bard implying that the nymph with lovely braids once pleased him, and thus, he willingly copulated with her? Penelope, being a woman, could not have had such affaires d’amour and still be considered loyal. However, because she was only a woman, she still harbored an innate desire to attract men. In Book 18, she fulfilled Athena’s wish that she should â€Å"display herself to her suitors, fan their hearts, inflame them more† in order to receive the suitors’ gifts, but perchance also to satisfy her own longing for attention – after all, Penelope is a woman whose husband has been gone for more than twenty years. She succeeds in accomplishing both: After she descends the stairs, â€Å"the suitor’s knees went slack, their hearts dissolved with lust† and they showered her with â€Å"gorgeous presents. † Homer seems to reiterate this fact that Penelope enjoyed the courtship of so many fine, young princes, even though her suitors were a burden and a plague to the household. Book 19 includes a passage describing a dream Penelope had, in which an eagle, which later reveals himself as Odysseus, destroys her flock of geese by â€Å"snap[ping] their necks and kill[ing] them one and all†, the geese obviously symbolizing her gaggle of suitors. Penelope is comforted by this dream and seems to hope that it foreshadows future events, but also acknowledged that she â€Å"wept and wailed† and was â€Å"sobbing, stricken† at the slaying of her geese. Hence, though Penelope does remain honorable and is faithful to Odysseus during the twenty years when they were apart, she still, perhaps subconsciously, fostered a desire to do otherwise. However, Penelope’s slight interest in her suitors may not be a have been such a bad thing; on the contrary, it could have inspired her to forgive her husband more easily if he ever told her of his dalliances with goddesses. Second, both Odysseus and Penelope are characterized as â€Å"wary†, and although their caution helped them to succeed in many situations, both are overly circumspect at times, causing them to be suspicious of those who love them most. One of the most tense and heartbreaking scenes in the book takes place in Book 23, when Penelope is face to face with her devout husband for the first time after twenty years of separation, yet refuses to acknowledge him, prompting Telemachus to reproach: â€Å"What other wife could have a spirit so unbending? Holding back from her husband, home at last for her After bearing twenty years of brutal struggle- Your heart was always harder than a rock! † Her son is right, but Penelope still refused to speak to Odysseus, even after Telemachus’s rebuking, causing the great-hearted Odysseus to â€Å"blaze up in fury† over his wife’s distrust. An analogous incident took place later between Odysseus and his old father. Seeing Laertes in the orchard, Odysseus observed him sitting alone, â€Å"his heart racked with sorrow†, a sight enough to make even â€Å"long-enduring Odysseus† stop to weep. Yet, even so, Odysseus decided to test the old man first, to â€Å"reproach him with words that cut him to the core. † It was wholly unnecessary to verify the loyalty of Laretes, for after all, the man is his father and if that were not enough, Odysseus had heard testimonies to Laretes’s grief from Eumaeus as well as his own mother in Hades. Odysseus’s often-praised caution prompted him to be rather irrational his handling of the situation, telling a tale that causes his dear father to grieve even more: â€Å"Both hands clawing the ground for dirt and grime, he poured it over his grizzled head, sobbing, in spasms. † His suspicion inflicts unnecessary pain on his father, much as Penelope’s caution angered him; nevertheless, it is because their minds operate in such a similar fashion that they are able to understand each other’s rash actions, caused by that extreme â€Å"wariness† which dominates their reasoning. It was because of their faults that Odysseus and Penelope could see â€Å"eye to eye. † But for all their innate likenesses, one main difference remains between the hero and heroine of The Odyssey: Odysseus has pride, a kind of virile self-regard that Penelope surely lacks, for better or for worse. Odysseus’s excessive self-respect gets him into many difficult circumstances: his odyssey of misery would not have occurred had he not revealed his identity to the Cyclops because he could not bear being remembered as â€Å"Nobody†. One cannot imagine that Penelope would find ever herself into such a predicament. However, there are some instances during the plot of The Odyssey when Penelope should have displayed more dignity. Several times throughout the story, Telemachus scolds her in a disrespectful manner, telling her to â€Å"Tend to your [Penelope’s] own tasks†, declaring that he â€Å"hold[s] the reins of power in this house. † Penelope didn’t put her teenage son in his proper place, opting instead to meekly withdraw to her own quarters. Had Telemachus spoken similar words to his father, Odysseus’s ego certainly wouldn’t have allowed such a lack of reverence, and Telemachus most likely would have received some tough love at his hands. Pride is the only significant distinction between the characters of Odysseus and Penelope, but it is a meaningful difference as well. If Ithaca’s queen was as self-righteous as its king, one could expect many royal family squabbles instead of the marital bliss they are famed for. Penelope is modest and demure, attributes that are absolutely necessary in order to live in harmony with a proud man like Odysseus. In conclusion, Odysseus and Penelope are alike in almost every respect, with their good qualities holding them together, their faults leading to understanding, and their one dissimilarity producing compatibility. That is why they were able to build the strongest kind of love, the love described in I Corinthians 13:7 : † Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. † The Odyssey itself is a testimony to this kind of bond between husband and wife, a bond forged by harmonious natures, able to survive through twenty years of separation, temptation, and suffering.