Linked in Case Essay Example for Free

Linked in Case Essay When attempting to determine the valuation of LinkedIn it helps to understand some of the issues involved. The most accurate way to value a stock’s price is using discounted cash flows. The problem with this approach is that it is nearly impossible to predict with any accuracy what the long-term cash flows are for a given company; especially a company that is young or that might be using an innovative and new business model. Additionally, knowing what long-term cash flows look like requires knowledge of the long-term growth rate, operating margin, weighted average cost of capital, discount rate and reinvestment rate. This makes using discounted cash flows especially difficult young companies. The discounted cash flow, in Exhibit #1 below, shows an imputed value of $109 per share versus the current market price of $246 per share. This calculation is based on an industry average weighted average cost of capital of 10% and a discount rate of 4%. However the key point is that the model assumes that revenues will grow from $972M in 2012 to $4,029M in 2018 or 415%. The fact that the market price is higher than $109 per share indicates that investors believe that the potential for revenue growth is even higher than 415%. Another potential valuation issue relates to LinkedIn’s revenue recognition method. LinkedIn recognizes its Hiring Solutions Revenue from job postings when the posting is displayed or over the contract period, whichever is shorter. This may cause revenues to be overstated in the current year if a contract runs into the next fiscal year. The overstated revenues would be extrapolated and multiplied into the future causing investors to over value the stock. In 2010 Hiring Solutions Revenue accounted for 42% of total revenues. There are many factors that can cause investors to increase or decrease their valuation of a company. One important characteristic that impacts a company’s valuation is competitive advantage. LinkedIn is believed to have high barriers to entry as it takes time for members to build their network which makes members reluctant to start over with a competing product. This creates a low membership turnover environment for LinkedIn. These two characteristics often cause investors to forecast steeper revenue growth rates and thereby assign a higher value to a stock. Another important characteristic that impacts a company’s valuation is gross margin. Companies like LinkedIn that have a high gross margin generate more  cash which causes a higher stock valuation using a discounted cash flow analysis. All things being equal, gross margin percentage should have a direct impact on the price to revenue multiple. As we can see from LinkedIn’s financial statements its gross margin increased from 75% in 2008 to 87% in 2012. EBITDA as a percentage of revenues has a similar effect on the discounted cash flow stock valuation. An increasing EBITDA to revenue ratio over time will cause a larger stock valuation. As we can see from LinkedIn’s financial statements its EBITDA to revenues ration increased from 8.9% in 2008 to 14% in 2012. The rate of growth in sales units is also an important characteristic considered during valuation. Obviously, the faster you are growing, the larger, and larger future revenues and cash flows will be, which has direct implications for a DCF. High growth also implies that a company has tapped into a powerful new market opportunity, where customer demand is seemingly insatiable. This is especially true when the company being valued has a very large customer base. A large customer base makes a company less dependent on any one customer for its revenue. The business model of LinkedIn is based on the revenues per user. Therefore the number of active people on this social network is the crucial factor in the company valuation. Still, the number of new members LinkedIn is adding each year is slowing. Membership increased 36 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, down from 39 percent in prior period and 43 percent in the third quarter. LinkedIn is compensating for the trend by adding mobile and web services to keep users on the site for longer. The disposable income of a company’s customers can also impact its valuation. LinkedIn is sometimes described as Facebook for professionals. One important difference between Facebook and LinkedIn relates the disposable income of its members. Generally, professionals are easier to make money off of than consumers, so LinkedIn will presumably be able to make more money per user than Facebook. LinkedIn is still primarily a U.S. company, so it can presumably expand to Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other regions. However, the revenue per member is still much higher for U.S. members than members outside of the U.S. Competitors and market share also impact valuation. LinkedIns Talent Solutions group continues to win share from Monster.com. Sales increased  90% to $161 million last quarter while sales at Monster fell 10% to $211 million. LinkedIn shows signs of becoming the preferred recruiting tool. Increasingly, users are willing to pay for greater access as indicated by last quarter’s 79% increase in membership revenue which was $59 million. Also, the global expansion has pushed membership over 200 million users, up from 100 million in March 2011. After discussing the various issues and factors effecting the valuation of LinkedIn there are many reasons that I would not buy the stock. I believe that the current market price of $246 per share, which reflects speculated growth rate over 500%, is way too optimistic. Even at the $109 price reflect in the Exhibit #1 discounted cash flow the growth rate would have need to be over 400% which I feel is still too high. LinkedIn acknowledges they have a short operating history in a new and unproven market, which makes it difficult to evaluate future prospects and may increase the risk that it will not be successful. Linked in also acknowledges that even if it can achieve a 400% growth rate that it could still fail in its ability to build the infrastructure to reliably and securely meet this demand. I also do not like the risk of investing in a company like LinkedIn where management holds a controlling interest so that the minority shareholder cannot influence management. LinkedIn also has no plans to pay dividends so investors have no possibility to get any return on investment without selling their stock. Lastly, while LinkedIn is a market leader in professional networking it does have some large competitors including Viadeo, XING, Monster and even Facebook. Some investors worry that if Facebook decided to pursue the professional networking market that it would easily overcome LinkedIn. For these reasons I feel that LinkedIn represents a very high risk investment and many current investors are likely to lose money.

Female Discrimination In The Labor Force Essay -- Gender Discriminatio

Female Discrimination in the Labor Force   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the past decades there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women participating in the labor force. This expansion has unfortunately shown how women are still being treated as inferior citizens when comparing their wages and the jobs they are hired for to that of men. Many women in similar occupations as men, and having the same qualifications are only paid a fraction of what their male counterparts are paid. The only reasonable explanation that can be found for this income gap is discrimination. This unfair treatment shown throughout the handouts illustrate how far people still have to go before equal treatment becomes standard.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The increase in female participation started occurring during the 1970's. The number of women in the civilian labor force jumped from 23 million in the 1960's to 31 million in the 1970's. This leap would continue and increase in the 1980's and on into the 1990's. The result, in 1995, is a female labor force that numbers over 60 million. This comprised 46 percent of the civilian work force (10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A reason for the rise in participation by women may be in the way women saw marriage and children. Fewer women saw marriage as a settling down. Women who had children began to return to their jobs. The number of working women that were either married or had children or both increased dramatically. In 1965, women with children under 18 years of age numbered 35.0 percent of the labor force. This number increased to 47.4 percent in 1975. In ten years it was 62.1 percent and finally in 1995 it had grown to 69.7 percent (7). This showed that the female attitude towards having children and marriage has changed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to the handouts, in 1970 women were paid poorly when compared to their male counterparts. The female worker had a median yearly earning of 19, 101 dollars. This was only 59.4 percent of what the males made. This does start to change in the 1980's as female earnings rose to 60.2 percent of men's. Five years later it had reached 64.6 percent. By 1990, the female's earnings had risen to 71.6 percent of what a man would make (2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Women in the workplace have always been discriminated against. Ever since the first women started to work... ... that women were in some way not as accomplished or competent as men. Yet, a more in depth investigation would show that women are just as qualified, if not more so, than men. A principal of equal pay for equal work should be employed by all businesses and would definitely close the income gap.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most people want to correct the unequal treatment of women in the work force. One method that can be used to support equality would be to introduce a federal legislation to guarantee equal pay for equal work if there isn't one already. The logistical problem with this solution though would be great. How would people measure the value of one person's work to another's? Who would decide this and how would it be implemented? Much still has to be done before this important issue is laid to rest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People's attitudes towards women in the work force is slowly starting to change. More opportunities are appearing for women workers. The unequal treatment of working women will take years to change, but change is occurring. This topic will remain until the day people are treated and paid equally based upon their abilities and not anything else.

How do the newspaper and television channels present the news? Essay

Comment on use of language; fact and opinion; visual images; bias and viewing audience. Newspapers and television channels both present the news by giving different accounts of the same basic stories. Newspapers give different accounts depending on if they are tabloid and Broadsheet, whereas television gives different accounts depending on which channel the viewers decide to watch. To study television and newspapers, there are four channels to look at BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, and there are three newspapers: The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and The Sun. There are also the websites and radio programmes to use. On use of language, the way the newspapers present the news all vary depending on what type of newspaper and what the story is. Tabloid newspapers are looking to gain interest of the reader, so their language might contain gossip and can be very criticising. Broadsheet however has more facts; it is aimed for mature readers, and contains more facts and tries to give a straight report. Using two tabloids and one Broadsheet, the comparison is apparent straight away. The daily mail (Friday 3rd of January 2003) on the second page of the Daily Mail, there is a story all about Madonna and what she is wearing. The language in this report is quite informal with the words, â€Å"cool†, and â€Å"chic†. The article does use standard English most of the time, however. The start of the article doesn’t use the pyramid form of writing used in other articles. The whole article doesn’t tell the reader much apart from the fact that Madonna wears a lot of tracksuits. In the Sun (Friday 3rd January 2003) the fourth and fifth pages are taken up by a holiday they are starting with a lot of promotion to their newspaper. This shows the newspaper is more interested in it’s own affairs instead of the news. The next page has a double page on the twin killings from New Year’s day. The caption is â€Å"1 Twin lives†¦l One twin dies.† This is a very bold caption and brings the interest so the reader will want to find out about the twins and how they died. The first paragraph uses a pyramid style by telling the reader when, where, what, why, who, and how. The story is a very formal story. Other articles in the paper are more gossipy, and many of the stories are the same ones as in the Daily mail. The Daily Telegraph is very different. On the front page there is the gun shoot-out and the article has a more informative style. The first paragraph also uses pyramid writing, but there is more information. Some of the stories are the same as the Daily Mail and The Sun, but others are not in either of the tabloids. (E.g. full coverage on national news, and also there are more pullouts.) There are more articles from around the world in the Daily Telegraph, and all the articles are in Standard English. There aren’t as many picture in The Daily Telegraph either. The titles and subtitles all try to use rhyming, metaphors, repetition and alliteration to catch the reader’s eye. In the news, the reports are always done in Standard English. At the start of every report there is always a signature tune that shows the programme has started, and is repeated at the end of the program. In the reports, some of the people who speak might speak in their dialect. Channel 4 November 25th 6:00pm, there is a report on the fight fighters strike. When the fire fighters come on to talk about it, they all speak in their own dialect, which generally is from London or Liverpool. This can make it quite hard to understand, it also adds stereotype. Some reporters like to put in some of their own words into Standard English to make sure that everyone knows its them, (e.g. Simon Cowl saying, â€Å"You guys.†) Also the slight accent of reports can help to identify when they are on the news. Language in the news can sway which way the reader thinks about a story. The reporter can use bias in their language to get the reader’s sympathy. In Channel 4 news (November 25th 6:00PM) there was a report on the fire fighters strike. The reporter’s body language showed she was with the fire fighters, standing out in cold, with hat, gloves, scarf, moving away from the brazier while talking about fire fighters striking on minimal pay so near to Christmas. This language suggests that Tony Blair is callous for making the fire fighters strike to get their point across. Fact and opinion can be used more in different types of newspapers. Tabloids share more opinion while Broadsheet contains more fact (although that isn’t always the case.) The Daily Telegraph has two different clear pages of opinion, one is an editorial comment and the other is comment from the readers. This presents the news in a different way to giving facts all the time. The editorial comment can be from a main news story and shows the views of the editor. In the Daily Telegraph (January 3rd 2003) there are two pages, both are full of opinion and are about reports that are main stories. The editorial comment is found in a supplement called ‘comment.’ When commenting most of the letters and notes in these pages are opinions. There is another area of comment and this is Letters to the editor. On further inspection of comments I found a page on www.dailytelegraph.com, which gave the views of a lot of people. The main articles all have facts in the first two or three paragraphs, and after that there could be some opinion from the reporter. Traditionally, the Daily Telegraph’s 3rd page was more like a tabloid story. The stories here would have a lot of opinion and would be about people in the media. This has died down and now although the stories can still be about people in the media, they have a more formal approach. The Tabloids however both don’t show any sign of an editorial comment or a comment page. There is though, a lot more opinion on stories from show business and royalty. Stories such as Madonna, vicar’s and floods contain pictures and a lot of opinion after the pyramid first paragraph. The tabloids present the news by giving a lot of opinion on celebrity stories, as this is what people want to read. Channel 4 (November 25th 6:00pm) contains facts and opinions. In each report containing politics there is normally a video of a politician with a voice over from a reporter. This can sometime be a stream of short facts on what the politician is saying. The politician can often still be heard-this gives a sense of authenticity. Reporters often end on a statement. An example of this is BBC1 (6:00pm, Monday 25th November.) â€Å"They are not giving up.† This is about the fire fighters strike and shows a bold fact to close with. Facts and figures can be used to support stories and to show that the reporters know what they are talking about. These can often be used quickly in a stream so the listener feels bombarded and will accept the facts straight away. There is a reporter called Mark Mardell who uses a lot of opinion in his speech. â€Å"You see, I think† He often starts off with that phrase, which shows he is going to give his opinion. Mark Mardell also uses hand beats to stress what he is saying as if he is agreeing with himself: this is all opinion. There are a lot of visual images in newspapers, which come in the format of cartoons, pictures, and photos. Of all eight newspapers researched, it was a tabloid- the Daily Mail- contained the most photos, (not including adverts) with a total of 126 altogether. The Daily Telegraph was found to have the least pictures with an average of 46 photo’s every paper. Images can replace words, in fact in the Daily Mail; there was a whole article in cartoon. (January 3rd 2003,) There was a double page article on Les and Amanda, labelled ‘Dear Les’ This shows a very long story of Les and Amanda in 18 short captions, so anyone busy, or not wanting to read too much can go and read the page and story in a minute. Photos can often bring reality of a situation. Seeing a sight from a bombing and the victim’s make the deaths become real instead of a name on a page. Cartoons can often reflect on certain stories and show a funny side of them. Photos can show the person who is writing the article, which helps identify a certain writer at a glance. Visual images can show half the information of a story and make the reader continue and want to read the article to find out the rest of the information. In the news visual content is used. The news reporter often includes Power Points and other video footage to stress facts. In BBC1 (6:00pm Monday 25th November) there are pictures of Tony Blair for political messages. The fire fighters are shown almost always standing next to braziers to stress the fact that they are striking in the cold to get fairer pay for stopping fires. The camera will portray firefighters as good people, standing with their wives or their children to show how innocent people are affected. The reporters walk towards the camera away from the brazier to relate the fire strike to them. The camera often homes in on a TV outside, with their channel news on, through the brazier. When politics is discussed, a reporter standing outside 10 Downing Street is often used to show it’s political. Reporters often make hand movements to agree with themselves so to stress points and to get others to agree. Newspapers can be bias in certain points. If an article is going to be better if the newspaper slags off a certain person, then they will. The papers can give only one side of the story. All three newspapers (January 3rd) all give accounts of how a vicar was meant to have â€Å"kissed a parishioner,† but every paper has it in a view biased to the parishioner. This will make a better story then someone protesting his innocence. Bias can always be seen though in some shape or form. Unless there were two separate accounts in the one article about what happened from the different point of view, then the article is always going to sway to one side. Bias can sometimes be used as a way to form opinion, although the two are quite different as bias can be found in fact, but opinion can’t. Reporters can give a biased opinion, as I have lightly covered. As I said earlier, body movements can often show how someone feels about a subject. Being out in the cold suggests that they are supporting the fireman, as does certain ways the reporter can move their arms, they can suggests that the other side is being unjust by raising hands up in a gesture of â€Å"unfairness.† The voice-over’s of certain political statement (e.g. the Channel 4 25th November 2002) can be biased without the reader knowing. It is easy to subliminally show bias and the viewing might not even notice because it is a voice-over and must be correct. Many reporters can show bias by the level of their voice, which can drop when the reporter doesn’t agree. Reporters can get round bias by asking rhetorical question instead of saying their view; this however might make the reader answer in a biased way, and back one side of an argument. All opinion is bias. An example to answer is this essay , would it be called biased or opinionated? The viewing audience of newspapers comes with the two types of newspapers: Tabloid and Broadsheet. Tabloids generally contain show business, royalty, and gossip this gives a lower reading age of seven, whereas Broadsheet is a more formal, ‘harder reading’ approach which is more mature. The stories in tabloids often are easy to read with big images and smaller pages. This is so any person can pick up a cheap paper and read it quickly and easily. Pyramid writing keeps the reader interested and can keep the reader going and reading the article to the end. Smaller pages of the tabloid gives impression of easy to read, standing up. Broadsheet gives a sitting down approach with big pages. News reporters keep the viewing audience intact when they are speaking. Channel 4 news is more formal so there are slightly older respected newsreaders, which stand up (apart from Trevor Macdonald), and the reporters don’t smile as much as other channels. BBC 1 6:00pm news shows an upbeat news, the channel knows that the viewers are going to be quite young and so the reports don’t go into excess detail and really show everything. The BBC1 10:00pm shows a lot more detail and also contain ‘gorier’ pictures of events happening because the viewing audience is a lot older. There is also a newsround for kids that contain a lot of show business and has suitable stories for the age range. Apart from Newspapers and television, news is also reported on radio and by the website. Every national newspaper has a website; this gives the opportunity for up to date news. Radio gives a chance for travel reports and gives a summary of reports with any further development to them. In conclusion Television and Newspapers both present the news in different ways. Broadsheet’s are formal with facts and an input by the readers, whereas Tabloid seem to contain more show business, although both newspapers have the same main stories-although they are not always prioritised- the stories are normally all there in some form. Television, the 6:00/7:00pm news often goes into not as much detail as the 10:00pm newsreels. Newspapers and television both, try to present the news to get maximal readers/viewers, even if they have to stretch the truth or leave out some facts and replace them with opinion. Information used: BBC1 News 6:00Pm 25th November 2002 Channel 4 news 6:00Pm 25th November 2002 The Sun 3rd January 2003 The Daily Mail 3rd January 2003 The Daily Telegraph 3rd January 2003 WWW.DailyTelegraph.com 18th January 2003 Rachel Sweeney 10a1 1021 (A5)

Harry s Death - Original Writing - 1401 Words

Harry lunched to life as he heard the springs of his military crib rattle beneath him. His hands reached blindly in the dark for his gun, gritting his teeth together. He was about five seconds away from pulling the trigger when Louis’ slightly shrill voice filled his ears. â€Å"Bloody hell Harry, put that thing down it’s me.† Harry did just that. â€Å"What are you doing? Your bed is over the other side of the room. I wasn’t expecting to see you.† â€Å"I couldn’t sleep. Figured I would talk to you.† Harry fell silence in the darkness before scrubbing his eyes with the backs of his fists feeling exhaustion rear its ugly head and creep in bed beside him. His lids and head hung heavy. He wanted sleep, needed it. Though it was rare for he and Louis†¦show more content†¦This felt both new and familiar. He couldn’t help but ask, â€Å"What are you doing?† Louis’ breath grew closer until his lips were pressing into Harry’s neck, soft and warm, though slightly cracked from the blistering winter. â€Å"Nothing†¦ sorry.† Louis didn’t pull back. â€Å"Someone is going to see us and we are going to be bloody arrested.† Harry wasn’t sure when but sometime between him starting to speak to Louis and him concluding to speak, Louis’ hand had found his waist and stayed there. â€Å"What are they going to arrest us for Harry? We’re just two friends talking to one another.† â€Å"Talking to one another while bloody snuggling in bed Louis, you know what it will look like if we get caught. We look like-† Harry cut himself off, saying no more. â€Å"We look like a couple?† Louis finished it for him with the inclination of his brow. â€Å"But we aren’t† â€Å"But we could be.† Again there was nothing but silence. This silence was killing Louis. He needed something, anything to go off because right now god only knew where they stood. It was clear Harry’s shocked silence wasn’t ending any time soon, so Louis filled it the only way he could. â€Å"Say something,† He begged. Louis could hear Harry sucking in a breath through his teeth, a nervous habit he had since he was young. Harry never told Louis this, but his mother had shared it with Louis once when she came down to see Harry in Paris for a weekend. Her name was Anne and she seemed to like Louis very much. She said she was