http://online.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-agrees-to-acquire-creator-of-minecraft-1410786190

Recently the popular Indie game Minecraft was purchased by Microsoft for a whopping 2.5 billion dollars. According to the above article, one of the main reasons for the purchase was to boost Windows phone sales, which have been struggling recently. Previously, Mojang—the company that created Minecraft—stated that there was no compelling reason to create Minecraft for the Windows phone system, as a very small percentage of phones operate on it. Now however, it seems Microsoft is using Minecraft as a tool to attract users to its platform by creating a Minecraft app that could have extra features compared to other platforms. It remains to be seen what Microsoft will do with regards to console. Currently Minecraft operates on Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s X-box. However, a strategy Microsoft may take to attract more gamers to the X-box franchise will be to make Minecraft exclusive to X-box. Another strategy Microsoft might take, and in my opinion the more likely one, is that Minecraft will remain on all platforms and Microsoft will just continue to operate Minecraft as Mojang did. I think this is the more likely option because Minecraft is already on both Platforms so it would be difficult to remove it and because making it exclusive to X-box would greatly diminish Minecraft’s consumer base, and therefore revenue for Microsoft. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft’s business strategy will be in the months to come.

The 2013 Times Colonist article, “Wild West of groundwater: Billion-Dollar Nestle extracting B.C.’s drinking water for free”, discusses how Nestle, a multi-billion dollar corporation, is able to extract and package ground water from BC for absolutely no cost. According to the article, British Colombia has highly outdated water act which enables anyone to extract groundwater from BC without paying any fees or even having to report the amount extracted. The fact that Nestle has been able to operate unregulated has left many residents of nearby towns distraught, as Nestle is extracting water from the same supply these towns use.   According to Ed Freeman’s explanation of the Stakeholder theory, “A business that doesn’t pay attention to quality of life in the community, doesn’t pay attention to issues of corporate responsibility, of sustainability, on its effects on civil society, that’s a business that’s soon to be regulated and to decline”. It seems that Freeman is correct in his former prediction, as legislators are trying to implement new regulations that would hold Nestle and companies like it more accountable and require payment for the extraction of water. According to renowned economist Milton Freedman the sole responsibility of a company is to maximize profit for its shareholders and this is the approach Nestle appears to be taking.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171