The Cost Of Free Will - 1428 Words

Eric Fetsch Mrs. Sturges AP Literature September 14, 2016 The Cost of Free Will; Within the Human Condition Temptation, as an omnipresent force, possesses the capacity to dictate one s life. Drawing the line between good and evil, these desires for destruction have the ability to take utter control or linger within the shadows. Manifesting from within, or as an exterior component, the darkness within feeds on the destruction of humanity, stealing peoples innocence. It is within the human condition to formulate decisions and to purposefully chose between right and wrong. Character is defined by the actions of humanity including their ability to choose, and take accountability for such choices. Within Harper Lee s To Kill a Mockingbird and William Golding s Lord of the Flies, the authors explore the essence of free will and its ramification amongst both good and bad characters. Humanity is ultimately born with sin, but is not bound by it. Free will elevates humans beyond their primitive state. In To Kill a Mockingbird, in spite of popular be lief that Atticus Finch won t win the case, he still willingly represented Tom Robinson, a black male, in a rape case against Mayella Ewell (Lee 289). Atticus struggled to maintain his ethical ideals as he is questioned by Scout; if you shouldn t be defendin him, then why are you doin it? Atticus retorted with If I didn t, I couldn t hold up my head in town, I couldn t even tell you or Jem not to do something againShow MoreRelatedFree Trade And Lower Cost1166 Words   |  5 Pagesadvantage. According to, â€Å" What mainly matters is that each of these agreements allows trade between the participating countries to take place more easily and at lower cost.†(Economic theory and policy for trading blocks, 1994). Free trade and lower cost, these are one of the most important reasons to form a trading block, for example, Free Trade Area, Customs union, Economic Union, political union, those are types of trading block that we know. One of the most important objectives of trading block isRead MoreThe High Cost Of Free Parking788 Words   |  4 PagesFor those of us in the parking industry, we are all familiar with the concept that free parking is in fact quite costly. Parking industry expert, Donald Shoup discusses in his book, the High Cost of Free Parking, how free parking leads to many negative consequences including overuse, shortage and conflicts over parking. In much the same sense, there is a very high cost to employers who have poor talent management practices that result in high employee turnover and a substandard talent pool. BothRead MoreShould College Be Free Of Cost?846 Words   |  4 Pagespart in our generation to improve the future, it is really important for each and every one of us. College nowadays is really expensive. Leading many students to stop thinking about going to 4 year college and getting education. Should college be free of cost to attend? The answer is Yes, many students opt out from college because they cannot afford for college. If youth do not go to college then how are we supposed to get our strong future leaders and how we going to develop the country with uneducatedRead MoreEssay on Opportunity Cost And The Free Market1736 Words   |  7 PagesOPPORTUNITY COST THE FREE MARKET Scarcity is one of the most basic and crucial points to understand in microeconomics.1Scarcity means that we cannot have all the needs and wants to satisfy our desires. Scarcity can be applied to almost anything. Due to the scarcity of products we must make a choice of what we want. We must choose whether to do one thing or another by what we value to be most important to us. This, therefore, leads to us opportunity cost. Usually when one has to make a decisionRead MoreCost of Free Music Downloading Essay1028 Words   |  5 PagesNapster emerged, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent, from $14.6 billion to $7.7 billion. From 2004 through 2009 alone, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks† (Students). Downloading music for free is very costly to the music industry; it violates domestic and international laws; and you become more vulnerable to computer attacks. As a consequence of global and U.S.-based piracy of sound recordings, the U.S. economy loses $12.5 billion inRead MoreFree Education May Not Cost Paper Money983 Words   |  4 PagesFree education may not cost paper money, but it will cost society dire consequences. With election season coming up, it has remained a hot topic amongst the candidates. The Democratic party believes in the idea of free education while Republicans are more concerned with the economic aspect of it and what it will do with our economy. The consequences facing free education could potentially include higher taxes, lowering the value of education, and limiting employment opportunities. When a personRead MoreEssay Costs and benefits of free speech and press826 Words   |  4 PagesFreedom of speech and press, or freedom of expression, are fundamental rights. Without these freedoms a truly free society cannot exist. By definition, they allow the citizens to communicate their ideas both verbally and in print. There are many advantages, as well as disadvantages, that an individual receives these rights. However, as with most constitutional freedoms, free of expression can be limited under certain circumstances. The First Amendment in the United States Constitution statesRead MoreAdoption Worth The Cost : Should Adopting A Child Be Free?1453 Words   |  6 PagesAdoption Worth the Cost Should adopting a child be free? As a first response, many people would answer â€Å"Yes, adoption should be free,† arguing that there should not be a price tag on children, or that adoption is unreasonably expensive. Others may argue that â€Å"No, it should not be free,† because it may unknowingly put the adoptees at risk for danger, while the children are easily accessible. Adoptions were created to give children, whose biological parents could not care for them, a new and affectionateRead MoreFree Cash Flow, Issuance Costs, And Macroeconomics Risk6500 Words   |  26 PagesFree Cash Flow, Issuance Costs, and Macroeconomics Risk  Qiaozhi Hu Questrom School of Business Boston University June 30, 2015  I thank Dirk Hackbarth, Andrew Lyaso and MF930 participants at Boston University for helpful comments. Send correspondence to Qiaozhi Hu, Boston University Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA; telephone: (732)809-1105. E-mail: qiaozhih@bu.edu. 1 Free Cash Flow, Issuance Costs, and Macroeconomics Risk Abstract This research proposalRead MoreCost Free Treatment Under Irc Section 368 Essay1405 Words   |  6 PagesJ. Tax Deferred Reorganizations â€Å"Tax-free† MA transactions are considered â€Å"reorganizations† and are similar to taxable transactions except that in reorganizations the acquirer uses its stock as a significant portion of the consideration paid to the seller rather than cash or debt. Four conditions must be met to qualify a transaction for tax-free treatment under IRC Section 368: 1) Continuity of ownership interest – at least 50% of the consideration is acquired stock (although transactions with

Illegal Immigration Is A Serious Problem Because It...

The displacement of people from their place of origin to other places, areas or countries (immigration), has always existed. These shifts or changes of residence occur for a variety of reasons: search of food, settlement of new lands, horror of wars, political causes, ect. Today most immigration to the U.S is Mexican and other Central America countries, for needs work or family connections. According to MPI estimates, about 8.1 million (71 percent of the total unauthorized population) unauthorized immigrants in the 2008-12 period were born in Mexico and other Central America countries. About 1.5 million (13 percent) were from Asia; 817,000 (7 percent) from South America; 455,000 (4 percent) from Europe, Canada, or Oceania; 317,000 (3†¦show more content†¦It is a really important issue because fighting against this kind of immigration is equal to fight against future threats toward the country. I would not like to see on TV another September 11, or another kind of terrorist a ct just because the government did not make new rules. So I think Illegal immigration is one the major problems in U.S even though they come here to get a job or just to live with his family. We are living in society and society needs to guarantee security because without this nobody can enjoy their rights. People cross the border illegally or overstay their visas due to the availability of work in the United States. Some strategy to reduce illegal immigration must therefore increase the number of legal workers and then punish those employers continue hiring unauthorized workers. Social Security card is required to combat fraud, and allow employers to easily check the documents submitted by legally authorized workers, both US citizens and non-citizens. I am the example of this because I am not American citizen but I got my social security number through authorization worker and with my visa I just can work legally inside the university, but not outside. According to Social Security Administration generally, only noncitizens authorized to work in the United States by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can get a Social Security number. Social Security numbers are

Cox Communications case free essay sample

The main purpose of this report is to evaluate an appropriate financing strategy for Cox Communications. Cox Communications is one of the largest players in the cable industry. In 1999, the firm expected to make several acquisitions over the following years, spending around 7$-8$ billion in the process. Given this possibility, the firm had to find out its external financing needs and the securities it should issue to fund these acquisitions. Cox Communications could choose between plain vanilla equity, debt, asset sales, and equity-linked securities, and must make this decision facing several constraints from the market and from the firm itself. The financing strategy had to address some corporate objectives, which included maintaining financial flexibility for future acquisitions, keeping the firm’s investment-grade bond rating and preserving the current shareholder structure. We begin by analyzing the possibilities of financing the firm has available and the constraints and disadvantages that each of those options imposed on Cox Communications. We will write a custom essay sample on Cox Communications case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This will allow us to understand if the acquisitions make sense from a financial and strategic points of view. We used the adjusted present value method to value Gannett’s acquisition and to get a more robust conclusion. After a careful analysis, we recommend Cox Communications to finance the acquisition of Gannet with the feline PRIDES securities. Even though this option doesn’t satisfy all the constraints of the firm, it is still the one that is closer to fulfilling the goals of both the Cox family and the board of directors. Background In 1898, when Cox Communications Inc. was founded it started its business in the newspaper industries. However, in 1962 the firm expanded, entering into the cable television business. By the late 1990’s the industry suffered a technological revolution full of innovations like the internet, fiber optics and wireless communications. Coaxial cables were replaced by fiber optic bundles, which provided 1000 times more capacity, and consumers could have pay-per-view and digital cable television services, high speed internet access and digital telephony. By that time satellite systems, telephone companies and wireless companies had then become part of industry, increasing the number of rivals and thus, boosting competition tremendously. Thus, the scalable nature of the business encouraged firms to grow horizontally, by acquiring extra cable systems and additional client portfolios simultaneously. It is important to note that all of this was only possible due to the deregulation of the industry at that time. If this business line had been as regulated as the traditional part of the cable industry, would the increasing rivalry and underlying growth taken place in another industry? Given this highly competitive environment, Cox Communications Inc. intended to make some acquisitions. It was increasingly important to assure its segment of market share considering the very high fixed costs and the underlying possibility for economies of scale. At a local level, the bigger the proportion of the market the company can cover, the lower the marginal costs are. This is because, in the same area, the cables for all costumers can be shared, as well as the service’s technicians and vans. At a national level the savings can be obtained by assuring a higher bargaining power with suppliers of producers and distributors of programming. Therefore, and since competition was increasing a lot, the firm had to extend the acquisitions that it was considering in the beginning to a much higher number to be able to compete in this new market. Gannett and other acquisitions: possibilities and constraints of financing Gannett was also a communications’ firm, like Cox, had approximately been on the market for as long as Cox and was going to put its cable proprieties for sale. If Cox was able to buy these, it would be gaining about 522. 000 new customers. This acquisition, along with the others Cox was already negotiating, would allow Cox’s subscribers’ base to grow over 60% only in 1999, so it was in fact an extremely important purchase. Cox Communications had four different types of financing choices. It could finance them through equity (issuing new equity), through debt (by borrowing money or issuing bonds), through hybrid securities, which is a type of financing that mixes the properties of equity and debt, or it can be financed by non-strategic assets selling. The Cox family had the intention of preserving the control of the firm and it was a top priority for them that the rating of the firm was maintained. However, since in our point of view their control is sufficiently large to be further diluted and still control the firm, there can be a change in the family’s plans. If that is the case, the financing must be done as soon as possible, taking into consideration that it has a direct cost of 2%-3% of the amount raised (fees and expenses) and that the price of shares usually decreases when new shares are issued (according to academic studies the reduction is around 3%-4% of the stock price, nonetheless it varies across firms and over time). Nevertheless, any possible issuance of new shares must be done before Charter’s IPO and must be consistent with the firm’s unique ownership structure. Charters, a similar company and competitor, is planning to do an IPO and the target investors for Charters and Cox Communications are the same. Therefore, the firm believes that issuing stock after Charters’ IPO would be a failure, since the appropriate segment of the investors would have already bought a very substitutable product provided by Charters. Furthermore, an issuance of common equity must be composed only by class A and C shares. Class A has one vote right per share, and class C has ten votes’ rights per share. Given that the Cox family has 379,2 million out of 533,8 million class A shares ( 71%) and all of the 27,6 million class C shares outstanding (giving them a total control of 81% of the voting rights), there seems to exist some space to issue new shares, maintaining the family in control of the firm. Alternatively, the firm can issue debt, which could be in the form of public debt or bank borrowing. Yields are ranging between 65 and 115 basis points above the U. S treasury obligations of similar maturities. Due to this and because the firm has a policy that the debt/EBITDA ratio shouldn’t be greater than five (when it is already very close to five), executives are concerned about the effect of increasing financial leverage in rating. Additionally, they want to order to protect the company against a possible decrease in rating, and, consequently, an increase in financing costs. Therefore, issuing new debt does not seem to be a very reasonable option to cover the financing needs of the firm. Hybrid securities seems to be the solution to Cox’s financing problem. Products like mandatory convertibles are less senior than debt and do not have voting rights. Moreover, banks perceive them as being equity, since this participation is subordinated to theirs. In the case of bankruptcy, these participations would only be paid after paying debt. Thus, the issuance of hybrid securities does not seem to influence the rating of the company. Additionally, since these participations do not have voting rights, they won’t enter in conflict with the family’s intention to keep the control unchanged. The firm held substantial equity investments in communication firms, along with smaller stakes in some other companies. Thus, the other possibility would be to finance the acquisitions by selling assets. Nevertheless, selling these participations to the public represented a high tax burden. Moreover, Cox faces a tax rate of 35% on its gain on sales of assets, meaning that this burden highly decrease the benefits of selling assets. So, the alternative is to finance it without trigger a taxable event, which is possible throughout swapping its ATT shares for shares in ATT subsidiaries that owned cable assets. Cox Communications does not seem to be able to finance its needs throughout neither debt, nor equity. The most adequate possibility appears to be issuing hybrid securities and to swap securities without trigging a taxable event. Nevertheless, issuing a small amount of equity does not appear to be harmful to the family and, in our point of view, could be considered as an additional method of financing. The firm not only needs to secure enough financing to carry the investment, but also the company’s future funding needs depend on the type of financing Cox is actually going to choose. In the short-term, the other deals, aside from Gannett, that were already announced by the firm (if completed) would require nearly 7. 6$ billion (divided between cash, equity, debt and shares) and internal cash flows would not be sufficient to fund them. On top of this, there is still the 2,7$ billion of Gannett’s acquisition. So, if the firm decides to issue debt to fund these acquisitions, it will need to pay it back in the future. In the long term, it is important to note that one of the firm’s objectives is to double its size in five years. So, if all, or some, of these acquisitions go through, the firm will need additional external funds to keep up with that particular objective. Additionally, these acquisitions would increase Cox’s customer base to 5,5 million, which would probably mean that they would need to make some capital expenditures in order to be able to fulfill the increase in demand. This too would be another source of possible external financing. Feline PRIDES securities: benefits and costs for Cox Communications Feline PRIDES Securities (FPS) is â€Å"an equity-linked hybrid product, developed by Merrill Lynch† that comes up in the context of financing Cox’s growth. With these securities, Cox Communications established a Trust which issued preferred equity and common equity. All the common equity of the Trust would be bought by the firm, and the preferred equity would be sold to investors as these Feline PRIDES securities. With the money obtained from selling the FPS’s, the Trust would buy new Cox’s debt, and the firm would pay 7% of interest rate for it. The 7% would go back to the investors as preferred dividend yield (the Trust obtained the 7% as interest rate from Cox’s debt and gave it to the investors as the dividend yield of the preferred equity). Three years after buying the FPS’s, the investor would have to buy (with cash or by exchanging the Trust’s preferred equity) Cox’s class A common stock. This form of financing could be very beneficial for the firm for two main reasons: it would not be accounted as debt, because the Trust was owned by Cox, so instead of appearing in the balance sheet as more debt, it would be reported as â€Å"minority shareholder interest†. Hence, this financing scheme would allow the firm to receive the same rating as before. Yet, it still allowed Cox Communications to deduct taxes on the interest payments made to the Trust, making them have the same tax benefits as if this financing form was plain debt. By comparing the FPS’s with the alternative sources of financing, we can see why this would be a more valuable option. First of all, it would not have the costs of an equity issue or make such a significant reduction in the price of the firm’s stock. Also, it would not reduce the Cox family’s economic ownership of the company, as mentioned before. Secondly, it would not directly increase the financial leverage, at least not in a way that would imply losing the current debt rating of the company. So, the change that may be seen in the leverage ratio cannot be attributed to it. Still, even if it were, this level stays always within the desired specifications, not representing an inconvenience. However, as it may be depicted by the cash flow scenario (in the Excel spreadsheet attached, sheet â€Å"Exhibit 8d†) where this hybrid solution is used, the Cox Family’s equity stake in CCI from 2002 onwards is below 65% minimum level of equity the family would want to hold in the company. This means that the family would not be happy with this solution, but this is the worst case scenario situation. Given that their equity stake will never drop below the 63% limit, it will not be much lower than the minimum limit of 65% required by the Cox Family and the benefits brought about by the solution may surpass this inconvenient. Also one must consider as well that the family would keep their 75% voting rights until 2002, and only have them decrease to 73% from then onwards. Having this in mind, we may assume that the family’s position in the company will still be considerable and it would not be too hard for them to buy their stakes back in the future for reasonable prices, in order to recover their preferred position. Lastly, it would not overburden the firm with the high taxes that the asset sale financing would bring. Of course there are some costs implicit in the FPS’s financing, such as the cost to form the Trust or the purchase of the Trust’s common equity, but they are not enough to make any of the other types of financing able to compete with this. Plus, this is the only kind of financing that fulfills the family’s requirements of not losing their large ownership and the current debt rating. So, through these ways, these securities create value for the company. One unit of Feline PRIDES Securities can be valued through option pricing theory. It is known that, from an investor’s perspective, once he has paid the $50 per one FPS, his payoff in three years will be one of three possible outcomes (see exhibit 7 of the case): a) if Cox’s stock price goes below $34,6875, the investor gets 1,4414 shares (50/34,6875), and the value of his payoff is the current stock price times 1,4414; b) if Cox’s stock price goes above $34,6875 but below $41,7984, the investor gets the number of shares correspondent to 50 divided by the stock price, which means the investor’s payoff in this case will be $50; c) if Cox’s stock price goes above $41,7984, the investor gets 1,1962 shares(50/41,7984), and the value of his payoff is precisely the current stock price times 1,1962. The two graphs bellow resume this situation: If we look at the second graph that shows the final payoff for the investor, we can divide it into: Basically, the payoff for the investor who bought $50 in FPS’s is equivalent to buying a call on Cox’s stocks with an exercise price of $41,7984 and writing a put on Cox’s stocks with an exercise price of $34,6875. But the short put maximum payoff should be zero, meaning that the horizontal part of the put line should be on the horizontal axis (to be equal to zero) and it is not, it is shifted up by 50 units. So, added to the put, this option strategy would also borrow $50 at the risk-free rate. Yet, we must notice that this is not exactly like a simple option on the stock because the payoff is never S-K or K-S. Instead of the current stock price, S has to be multiplied by 1,4414 or 1,1962 shares. So, to price this â€Å"option strategy†, we should start by pricing the call option through a binomial tree. We know that the final payoff is the max(0; S*1,1962 41,7984). If we knew U and D (which could be easily calculated if we knew the volatility of Cox’s stock), we could build a binomial tree, figure out the probabilities of the stock price going up or down, and obtain the price of the long call option. For the price of the put option, we would do exactly the same thing, except that the final payoff would be the max(0; 34,6875 S*1,4414). Again, using the same rationale, if we knew the volatility of the firm’s stock, we could figure out the put price. The thing here is that we are short and not long on this put, so our actual payoff would be the min(0; S*1,4414 34,6875). Also, instead, of paying the price we computed, as in the long call, we will be receiving this price. So, the actual value of this strategy would be the price of the call minus the price of this put. To that value, we would have to add the $50 that the investor would borrow. Illustrating this with a simple numerical example: U 1,1 t=0 t=3 Call Option D 0,9 S 38,25 42,075 t=0 t=3 rf (3yrs) 5,70% 34,425 C 0,2054 0,277 R 106% 0,000 pu 0,78 Value of Option Strategy S(0) 38,25 0,1520 Put Option K(call) 41,7984 t=0 t=3 K(put) 34,6875 P 0,0534 0,000 0,2625 Since we don’t know the volatility of Cox’s stock and for simplification, we assumed a U of 1,1 and a D equal to 0,9. Also, because we don’t know the current accurate value of firm’s stock, we assumed a simple average between 34,7 and 41,8 for S(0). With this, we found the future possible values of the stock. Then, we had everything we needed to calculate the final payoffs of both the put and the call. Having those, through the formula of the call and put, we obtained the values shown above. Subtracting the put price to the call, and adding the 50$, we found that the unitary FPS would be worth $50,1520. Valuation of Gannett acquisition Gannett’s acquisition can create a lot of value to shareholders. On one hand, by buying Gannett, the firm will gain additional cable assets that will increase its capacity and more customers. This would allow the firm to enhance its revenues. Moreover, operational savings on a local scale, economies of scope and scale, marketing gains and more market power are all examples of possible sources of value creation from this acquisition. It is possible to state that cable properties are, then, worth more when consolidated than separately. Even though the Gannett acquisition is still under negotiation, it is important to value it taking into account the estimated price of 2,7$ billion for this acquisition. In order to calculate the net present value (NPV) of this acquisition, we computed the total NPV of the firm if it did not purchase Gannett and the NPV of the firm with the purchase of Gannett in each possible scenario (through the issuance of debt, equity or a combination of both). So, we performed the following calculation: Gannett Price + (NPV with Gannett’s acquisition – NPV without Gannett’s acquisition). This computation allowed us to take into consideration only the incremental cash-flows of the Gannett’s project. Although this calculation seems straightforward to do, we had to make some assumptions relative to the valuation method to use and the necessary inputs. WACC-based models work best when a company maintains a relatively stable debt-to-value ratio. If a company’s debt-to-value ratio is expected to change, WACC-based models can still yield accurate results but are more difficult to apply. In such cases, it is recommended an alternative method, such as the adjusted present value (APV). APV specifically forecasts and values any cash flows associated with capital structure separately, rather than embedding their value in the cost of capital. The APV valuation model follows directly from Modigliani and Miller propositions, which propose that in a market with no taxes (among other things), a company’s choice of financial structure will not affect the value of its economic assets. According to this hypothesis, only market imperfections, such as taxes and distress costs, affect enterprise value. Since, during the period in which the firm is expected to do these acquisitions (1999 to 2003), the D/E ratio of Cox Communications is not expected to stay constant over time (due to the different possibilities of financing these acquisitions), we will use the APV method to value Gannett’s project. Afterwards, we will use the WACC to discount future cash flows, assuming that the firm will be able to maintain a certain target D/E ratio. As Gannett’s cable properties have similar characteristics to Cox’s, the inherent risk associated with the expected cash flows generated by this acquisition was assumed to be equal to the risk of Cox Communications. The APV is equal to the present value of the unlevered company discounted at the unlevered cost of equity (as if the firm was 100% equity financed) plus the present value of the tax shield (discounted at the cost of debt rd). . In order to compute the present value of the unlevered firm for the APV, we needed to calculate the total cash-flows in each year (cash-flow from operations plus cash-flow from investment) and then discount them at unlevered cost of equity (ru). This unlevered cost of equity is not directly observable and it must be estimated. Thus, in order to calculate it we used the CAPM equation: ru = rf + ? u * market risk premium, where rf stands for the risk-free rate and ? u for the unlevered beta. The CAPM assumes that investors are perfectly diversified and that the only risk that matters is the systematic component. The exhibits of the case provide us the risk-free for ten years (5,83% yield for 10-year Treasury Bonds) and we assumed the historical market risk premium of 6%. So, the only input missing to obtain the unlevered cost of equity was the unlevered beta, which was calculated through. ?lev stands for the levered equity beta of 0,68 (given in exhibit 2), ? d for the debt beta, t for the tax rate (equal to 35%, assuming the average tax rate in the US for this period) and D/E for the debt-to-equity ratio in 1998 (equal to 0,2 in exhibit 3). The debt beta was calculated trough the CAPM using a cost of debt assessed from industrial average yields, according to the credit rating the firm had. Thus, the cost of debt to employ in the valuation of Gannett’s assets should be the yield on A-rated bonds with maturity of 10 years – 6. 93%. With all this information, we were able to calculate a ? u of 0,6229. The unlevered cost of equity was, thus, 0,0957. Then, we had to re-lever the beta in order to adjust to the new D/E ratio of 1999 equal to 0,17. So, = 0,6917. With this value we computed the cost of equity re-levered using, again, the CAPM. All the results obtained and the data used for the computations are shown in the tables bellow. Then, we had all the necessary inputs to calculate the WACC: , where E/D+E (equity value) was calculated using the D/E ratio of 1999. Additionally, we calculated the tax shield in each year using the formula interest rate * tax rate * debt and discounted the tax shield values at the cost of debt to get the present value of the tax shield. The interest rates that we considered were calculated using the following formula for each year: -interests/ending total debt. The interest rates for each period are shown in the tables of the appendix. Since we only have data available until 2003, we needed to compute the terminal value. In order to do this, we assumed the cash flows of the company would grow at 8,5% rate, since it is stated that the additional services are expected to make cash-flows grow from 8% to 15% annually. Thus, the terminal value would be , where r is the WACC, since we assumed that after 2003 the firm will keep a constant debt-to-equity ratio. We also discounted this value until year zero. Adding the present value of cash flows with the present value of the tax shield and the terminal value gives us the total NPV of the firm. We performed similar calculations for all the possible financing scenarios so that it would be easier to compare them. The detailed results are shown below in the appendix. However, we present here a table that summarizes the final results. Funding this acquisition through debt gives a negative NPV of Gannett’s project. Therefore, this possibility of financing is excluded. The other two alternatives give a positive NPV to the project. The decision between these two has to be made not only considering the values for the NPV but also the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. Thus, even though the NPV of the project financed with equity presents a higher value than the one financed through feline PRIDES securities, we must take into consideration the constraints of both alternatives. Conclusions and recommendations From our analysis and valuation we take three major conclusions and a recommendation for Cox Communications. First of all, it is clear that Cox Communications is taking an aggressive position in the market, making many purchases and investing a lot, to be able to cope with the rhythm of an industry going through deep changes and increasingly competitive. Thus, for a firm to stand out in this business, it is essential to work hard to keep up with these transformations. Secondly, the firm is still largely owned by the Cox family which naturally has some demands when it comes to the decision-making process in the firm. The two greatest demands are that the family never loses the majority ownership and that the company does not lose its debt rating. In order to surpass these difficulties and, at the same time, keep up with the market, Cox Communications needs to take caution and make the decisions based on these criteria. It should also take into account the constraints imposed by the market presently, such as financing costs that will restrict the firm’s decisions. Lastly, the acquisitions that the firm was already planning to do plus the Gannett cable properties’ purchase would allow Cox Communications to grow immensely, with a much more significant presence in the market. Additionally, the firm would be able to better serve its clients and with the profits brought by these satisfied clients, have better results to present to the shareholders, which, ultimately, is every company’s goal. Taking all of this into consideration, and after valuing Gannett’s acquisition with all possible financing scenarios, we recommend that Cox does in fact purchase Gannett’s cable properties through Feline PRIDE Securities because that represents the only way of financing that better fulfills the Cox family’s requirements and has a positive NPV.

Policy and Planning for Sustainable Developments

Question: Write an essay on "Policy and Planning for Sustainable Development". Answer: Listing the Policy Directions It requires understanding the concept of sustainable livelihoods in policy directions. It limits experiences as well as concentrates on identification of characteristics in policy process in SL approach (Wiersema and Beck 2011). It brings out issues related to changes in paradigm as well as significance in the policy directions for the same. Changing role of the State implies access towards vulnerable to services. It is the withdrawal of State in provision of goods as well as services in restricted access on poorer households in geographical remotes areas at the same time. Increased focus on Gender is another issue from the last decade. It aids in organization as well as tries in ensuring programmes in inclusive of gender equality. Increased number of countries engages in introduction of legislative for right of women inheritance (Sanford 2011). Policy Directions implies frameworks and tools used by varied agencies as a whole. It uses all shares and basic concepts of sustainable livelihoods. Using such frameworks contains some important elements like an analysis for causing vulnerability. It includes trends, seasonality as well as fragility of natural resources. It stresses on matters like economic, social as well as political context. It includes an analysis of assets at individual as well as community level. It consists of human, social and physical natural resource assets for the same. It reveals context within livelihoods for policies concerning at micro as well as macro levels in an overall manner. It ensures livelihood strategies like restricted to consumption, production as well as exchange activities in the most appropriate way. It results in livelihood outcomes that are assessed in multi-dimensional form like greater sustainability of natural resources. It leads to reduced vulnerability as well as increased income i n the near future. It is important to understand the fact that shareholders reveals information regarding banking details as well as tax file number in case of dividend payments. It identifies the stakeholders as well as group company employees for providing services in group companies in desired form. It includes suppliers for collection of information in business-related purposes (Morris and Jamieson 2012). It ensures job applicants, employment as well as academic histories in providing health-related information. These policies explain on official private policy of Wesfarmers. It explains collection as well as disclosure of personal information. It aims at explaining at the rights in assessing as well as correcting the information in making complaint regarding handling personal information in the near future. Listing the key contents of Policy Directions The main key contents of Policy Directions include: The Sector Approach This component in policy decisions supports the SL approach in developing purpose. It promotes ways in response to perceived shortcomings of project-lead assistance. It is criticized as well as ignored on cross-sectional nature of livelihoods and non-participative in nature (Morris and Jamieson 2012). It increases the food security policy and planning for marginalization of main sectoral concerns in major line ministries. It inquires for more appropriate way forward for acknowledging the strengths of the sector approach. It is perfect way for increasing the future effectiveness in development. It aids in establishing realistic as well as effective management and budgetary frameworks at same sectoral levels. It helps in exploring ways in making the planning as well as policy process in participative and responsive at the same time. As per the recent Eritrean experience, it indicates facts on integration of essential sectoral process in the most appropriate way. Good Governance It is increasingly one of the important elements for aiding relationship in desired ways. It is the mechanism process as well as institutions whereby citizens and groups aim at articulating interests (Mohrman and Shani 2011). It exercises over legal rights as well as meeting obligations in mediating the differences in an overall manner. Right-based approach- It aims at overlapping with good governance on usage of legal system. It focuses on political system for advancement of disadvantaged groups in society in practical course of action. Establishment of rights ensures in form of legal framework resulting in form of political process for the same. It signed declarations on matters relating to global conventions. It incorporates rights in form of national legislation in progressive judiciary as well as legal system in accessing for broad spectrum in the population. Discussion and analysis as to why these directions are necessary Figure: Significance of Policy Decisions It mainly aims at providing provision for technical assistance in form of expatriate policy analysis as well as adviser in national governments. It ensures capacity-building as well as training for national advisors in civil service officers. It implements policy analysis for assisting donor community in providing effective as well as focused projects and programmes in budgetary support to national governments (Lister 2011). It reveals funding as well as training in assisting non-governmental partners in playing part in the policy process for the same. It plays role as multilateral as well as bilateral agencies in International NGOs in the policy process as formulated at various levels. It highlights the important process as well as different sections of the policy environment in the near future (Kroeze 2011). It is easy to conclude discussion on policy and planning on sustainable development. In the first option, it explains regarding policy making as well as Environmental Sustainab le Development policies for future analysis purpose. In the next stage, policies are taken into consideration. It views at the privacy policies of organization as well as management policies at the same time. It takes steps in ensuring service providers in protecting the privacy as well as securing personal information in general purpose. It renders cloud computing solutions as well as data storage in located overseas in case of information and under computer servers in and outside Australia. It is of prime responsibilities in communicating the policies to the potential stakeholders. It should be complied in legal obligations to shareholders as well as processing of payment. It enables third party service providers in providing information on companys information technology, legal advice as well as auditing and mailing services in an overall manner. It relates ways for share register as well as group employees for sharing of plan for future analysis purpose. It correspond ways with people as well as dealing with feedback at the same time. It requires information regarding people in regard with corporate sponsorships. It recruits as well as assesses corporate sponsorships and maintaining records in the most appropriate way. Discussion on the specific ESD principles Ecologically Sustainable Development reveals one of the greatest challenges faced by Australian governments, industry as well as business and community in the upcoming years. It uses as well as enhances community resources in the ecological process in maintaining total quality life in the near future (Ihlen, Bartlett and May 2011). ESD develops ways in meeting the needs of the Australian in the current scenario. It conserves ecosystems that benefits future generations for the same. It needs developing ways for environmental resources and maintaining future acknowledgement as far as possible. It utilizes resources in developing industry as well as generating employment for the same. It enables developing of coordinated approach for many reasons. It needs to consider integrated way for economic as well as social environmental implications in decisions actions in and around Australia. It needs to undertake long-term as well as short-term approach in taking decisions and actions in an ov erall manner (Idowu and Louche 2011). Discussion on why these contents are necessary in relation with ESD principles Ecologically Sustainable development helps in improving in the total quality of life that maintains ecological process. It requires enhancing individual as well as community well-being and welfare for the same (Husted and Allen 2011). It follows path in form of economic development for safeguarding welfare of future generations in the most appropriate way. It helps in providing equity in and between generations. It ensures providing biological diversity as well as maintaining essential ecological process in life-support systems. ESD helps in decision-making process that integrates long as well as short-term economic, social as well as environmental and equity considerations for future analysis purpose (Gottschalk 2011). It poses serious threats leading to environmental damage as well as lack of scientific certainty on an adverse manner. Role of State or Local governments in regards with Policy Direction Policy Directions enables developing strong as well as diversified economy in enhancement of capacity in case of environmental protection for recognition purpose (Furrer 2011). It requires maintaining as well as enhancing ways for international competitiveness in socially feasible ways. It is cost effective as well as flexible policy instruments in adopting improved valuation, pricing and incentive mechanisms. It is important to understand the fact that shareholders reveals information regarding banking details as well as tax file number in case of dividend payments. It identifies the stakeholders as well as group company employees for providing services in group companies in desired form. It includes suppliers for collection of information in business-related purposes (Morris and Jamieson 2012). It ensures job applicants, employment as well as academic histories in providing health-related information. These policies explain on official private policy of Wesfarmers. It explains coll ection as well as disclosure of personal information. It aims at explaining at the rights in assessing as well as correcting the information in making complaint regarding handling personal information in the near future. Data information includes reporting policies on Wesfarmers. It engages in dealings that engage in products for future analysis purpose. It takes into account dishonest, fraudulent as well as corrupt activity including bribery and other activities in breach of Wesfarmers in against Anti Bribery Policy (Carvallo and Cooper 2011). It deals with minimization of illegal activities like drug sale, violence as well as harassment and criminal damage towards property and other breaches of State or Federal Law. It potentially damages the company and requires in finding ways in reducing it as far as possible. It employs third party like unsafe work practices, environmental damage as well as health risk or abuse of Wesfarmers property and resources for the same. It gives rise t o cause financial loss to Wesfarmers as well as damage towards reputation in detrimental to Wesfarmers interests in the near future (Blowfield and Murray 2011). Discussion on the policy directions in implementation by State or Local Government As far as State Government is concerned, it adds setting strategic and policy framework for making necessary changes in making institutional arrangements for ensuring ESD principles. It establishes in effective collaboration arrangements in reviewing the charters as well as corporate plan in relevant government agencies including ESD objectives (Dringoli 2011). Success requires essential changes patterns in decision-making process as well as actions by groups and individuals. It ensures bringing significant changes in increased level of awareness in development and environmental problems for ultimate solutions. Government carries away with ESD related actions as well as actions in unequal burden for particular regions in society. It includes appropriateness of policies as well as progress on implementation in varied regions. Reference List Baxter, R. and Woodside, A. (2011).Interfirm networks. Bingley: Emerald Group Pub. Blowfield, M. and Murray, A. (2011).Corporate responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carvallo, A. and Cooper, J. (2011).The advanced smart grid. Boston: Artech House. Chakrabarty, B. (2011).Corporate social responsibility in India. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Contractor, F. (2011).Global outsourcing and offshoring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dringoli, A. (2011).Corporate strategy and firm growth. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Furrer, O. (2011).Corporate level strategy. London: Routledge. Gottschalk, P. (2011).Corporate social responsibility, governance and corporate reputation. New Jersey: World Scientific. Husted, B. and Allen, D. (2011).Corporate social strategy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Idowu, S. and Louche, C. (2011).Theory and practice of corporate social responsibility. Heidelberg: Springer. Ihlen, ., Bartlett, J. and May, S. (2011).The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Kroeze, C. (2011).Technology and sustainability. Amsterdam: Techne Press. Lister, J. (2011).Corporate social responsibility and the state. Vancouver: UBC Press. Loosemore, M. and Phua, F. (2011).Responsible corporate strategy in construction and engineering. London: Spon Press. Mohrman, S. and Shani, A. (2011).Organizing for sustainability. Bingley: Emerald Group Pub. Morris, P. and Jamieson, A. (2012).Translating corporate strategy into project strategy. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Sanford, C. (2011).The responsible business. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Wiersema, M. and Beck, J. (2011).Corporate strategy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Pub.