This is my strategy assignment which I am uploading. Instructions as to what is to be done are clearly mentioned. It is from Masters course from a very reputed American college. I hope I get an up to the mark assignment to submit for a nice grade.

Format of the Mid-term

– You will find three recent newspaper articles describing a strategic move or a strategic

decision in this document. Choose two out of these three articles and, for each of the two

articles you have selected, answer the following two questions:

– Q

1

: What is (are) the issue(s) for the main company in the article? How do you

assess the company’s strategic

decision(s)?

What additional information and what

specific analyses would you conduct to fully understand the issue(s) and the

decision(s)?

– Q2: What alternative recommendation would you consider in response to the

issue(s)? What additional information/analyses would you need for this

alternative recommendation? How could it be implemented?

– For each article, the combined answers to these two questions should be no longer than 2

single-spaced pages, in 12-point Times New Roman, with a 1-inch margin all around.

You can add as many appendices as you feel necessary, but remember that the page limit

for the mid-term (excluding exhibits) is 4 pages, i.e., 2 pages per newspaper article.

– You do not need to seek additional information beyond what is provided in the articles.

Automobiles

Geely to build satellites for self-driving cars

CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD — BEIJING

Geely is aiming to be the first China carmaker to design and build satellites to support its autonomous

driving programme, the latest step by founder Li Shufu in his bid to build an industry leader.

Geely, which owns Swedish brand Volvo Cars, Malaysia’s Proton, and a stake in Mercedes-Benz owner

Daimler, will invest Rmb2.27bn ($325m) in a new development centre and factory to manufacture

satellites this year, the company said yesterday.

The announcement makes Geely the first known Chinese carmaker with plans to build its own satellites.

Mr Li’s move sparked comparisons in China media with Elon Musk, founder of electric carmaker Tesla

and private space exploration company SpaceX.

Last month Geely drew comparisons with Volkswagen when Mr Li’s holding group announced plans to

merge Geely Automobile and Volvo Cars, moving the company towards becoming the first global Chinese

carmaker.

Che Jun, Communist party boss of China’s eastern Zhejiang province, where Geely is based, said that the

complex would be built in Taizhou city and that construction had begun.

The centre will design, test and manufacture low-orbit communication satellites, purpose-built to improve

geolocation of vehicles and to support their connected functions, Geely said.

Geely has been pouring money into new technologies from self-driving cars to flying taxis, spending

Rmb20bn on research and development in the past year.

The investments are part of the group’s spend on global expansion, such as buying a $9bn stake in

Daimler.

The announcement comes as the coronavirus outbreak in China has deepened a downturn in its car market,

setting it up for a third consecutive year of declining sales.

Geely to build satellites for self-driving cars – Financial Times (US), 3/4…

https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/FTUS/PrintArticle.aspx?d

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1

Google in talk to pay French media for news

Google is talking to some of France’s biggest news publishers about making

direct payments for content, a potentially significant shift by the search platform

towards a model used by Facebook in the US.

Exploratory discussions with media groups including Le Monde and Le Figaro

have touched on developing new products that would include financial deals to

license news. Google has also spoken to some US media groups about the plans,

according to people familiar with the matter.

“We want to help people find quality journalism — it’s important to informed

democracy and helps support a sustainable news industry,” said Richard Gingras,

Google vice-president for news, who said the group was “looking at more ways to

expand our ongoing work with publishers”.

While the discussions are at an early stage and several models are being considered, there are echoes with

Face-book’s recent shift in approach. In October the social media platform launched a news tab feature in

the US following multimillion-dollar deals with outlets including BuzzFeed, the New York Times and the

Wall Street Journal.

After years of lambasting big internet platforms for failing to pay for content, Robert Thomson, the chief

executive of News Corp, described Facebook’s move as a “powerful precedent that will echo around

editorial newsrooms”.

France is a test ground for Google’s change of approach because of the fierce political reaction to its

response to the EU’s new copyright directive, which the country is the first member state to implement. To

the anger of French ministers who denounced the approach as against “the spirit and letter” of the law,

Google said it would show only headlines to news stories in France, sidestepping the need to reach

licensing deals to pay for snippets of journalism. In the past the group has warned that aggressive

application of the copyright directive could force it to withdraw its news service from Europe altogether.

Google insists it will, on principle, refuse to “pay for links”. But it has privately acknowledged to French

publishers that it wants to extend its support for journalism, potentially through new products that would

give some brands greater prominence and reach as well as direct income.

Travel & leisure. Sport

All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE

Ratings and rights deals won in first year but early mistakes are still to be confronted

Shahid Khan, the Pakistani-American billionaire, took his 13-year-old son to an Extreme Championship

Wrestling event in Philadelphia in 1996, he did not envisage they would be launching their own wrestling

business 23 years later.

Tony Khan, with his father’s backing, launched All Elite Wrestling in January 2019. A year on and the

Jacksonville-based organisation is proving a worthy opponent to industry behemoth World Wrestling

Entertainment.

AEW aims to offer fans a calendar of compelling storylines supported by a smaller roster of fighters,

relative to the WWE, featuring both big names and the next generation of would-be superstars.

The approach has helped AEW win US and UK ratings battles and secure big rights deals.

All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE – Financial Time… https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/FTUS/PrintArticle.aspx?d…

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“Tony’s always been a big wrestling fan. A few years ago he said it was the perfect time to start a

wrestling organisation. I thought the odds were very much against us,” said Shahid Khan, owner of

English Premier League football club Fulham and the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team.

“As a parent, this is one of those times you’re glad you were totally wrong.”

The sport’s dominant force is WWE, a listed company with a history dating from the 1950s and annual

revenues of $1bn. It has had several incarnations, rode high in the Attitude Era in the 1990s and last year

signed record broadcasting rights contracts.

But WWE lost more than $1bn in market value last month after Vince McMahon, chief executive, fired

two top executives, citing “different views on how to best achieve strategic priorities” in a move that

pushed the stock to its lowest level since May 2018.

In results this month WWE said annual revenues had climbed to a record high driven by rights deals —

but revenue from live events fell 13 per cent to $125.6m from $144.2m in 2018 as it cut the number of

events and average attendance fell.

Raj Giri, president of WrestlingInc, a website covering the sport, said that “what AEW has been able to do

in its short time is unprecedented. But it’s not significantly responsible for WWE’s waning popularity —

that was happening long before AEW was formed”.

Tony Khan said AEW was not seeking market hegemony, instead offering a “different take on wrestling”

that had attracted a “fan base that is significantly younger than our competitors” and which is “very

appealing to advertisers”.

AEW hosts live events and airs quarterly pay-per-view shows as well as a weekly primetime Wednesday

slot for Dynamite, its flagship offering. Launched on TNT in October, the show attracts an audience of

about 905,000, according to Nielsen data.

In anticipation, WWE moved NXT, which focuses on younger fighters and is its third significant offering

alongside Smackdown and Raw, from its subscription streaming service to USA Network, the national

broadcaster, in September. It has claimed viewership victory in only two to three weeks since going head

to head, however.

“The old established competitor is now counter-programming us,” said Shahid Khan. “It’s great, they’re

helping to grow the audience, which is what it’s all about. We want to create a bigger pie and get a piece of

it.”

AEW last month announced an extension of its $175m deal with WarnerMedia’s TNT to the end of 2023

and plans for another show. “I never believed we would be in this position so early into year two,” said

Tony Khan.

He sees a lot to learn from industry forebears, particularly, World Championship Wrestling. “I’m not

taking positive business lessons from other companies,” he said. “Most of the lessons I’m taking are

examples of what not to do.”

Funded by Ted Turner, the CNN founder, WCW resurrected wrestling’s southern style in the 1990s; an

antithesis to the borderline slapstick WWE (then WWF) offering. Despite its flagship show Nitro winning

the Monday night ratings war against WWE’s Raw for 84 consecutive weeks from June 1996, its

popularity plummeted and the company was bought by WWE in 2001.

All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE – Financial Time… https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/FTUS/PrintArticle.aspx?d…

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“The audience was there for those wars to go on for decades if they had produced competitive shows and

run them logically, but that didn’t happen,” said Tony Khan. “WCW was badly mismanaged. They teased

audiences with matches that never materialised and lost tens of millions of dollars on talent, some earning

six figures without ever working. It was a real disservice to fans.”

Ex-WWE stars such as Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley and Cody Rhodes have joined AEW, with others set to

follow. But AEW is having to confront early mistakes. A large talent roster so early on has led to criticism

of reduced exposure for some stars, particularly female, and with a second show will have to avoid

oversaturated programming.

The Khans know the honeymoon does not last and must work hard to keep an unforgiving audience. “It

costs millions of dollars a month for production before factoring in employees, week to week is high six

figures and the touring costs are millions alone,” said Tony Khan. “But we have a very good chance to be

profitable in 2020 and beyond. It’s very exciting.”

All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE – Financial Time… https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/FTUS/PrintArticle.aspx?d…