Walmart company has reported a higher net income now reaching $3.7 billion from July to September this year, a growth of $0.1 billion since the same quarter during 2012.

It seems like the giant company started cutting prices of its products, while investing as much as $250 million to improve the quality of its products and stores.
It also says that sales have been affected negatively by currency fluctuations, while the chief executive Mike duke thinks sales are affected mainly due to customers being uncertain about the economy, causing their spending to drawback as people prefer to save.

Still it seems like Walmart is setting up new offers and cheaper deals to costumers, in order to deal with competition which is becoming every time stronger. The main problem is that during the economic recovery process people have less time to spent as jobs start to recover while they still tend to save more rather than spend.

source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24941498

The blog post describes how McDonald’s has been one of few companies to become globally well known, on top of having a big consumer loyalty and being profitable. The reasons come down to having franchises all over the world which are shaped to different patterns in consumption. For example in India instead of meat they use chicken with typical food of that specific country as demand in South America isn’t the same as in India. Also the company by going public in 1965 allowed bigger investment into the company, allowing more ideas regarding market segments and consumer taste to enter the business. Then lately this company has reshaped again by consumption trends leading to healthier lifestyles given the big amount of people realizing fast foods are killing people all over the world, causing their products to change into salads and other healthier choices.

What we understand from this is that the reason for many companies’ success is due to the constant reshaping of products offered to consumers with constant changes in ideas opening up to different market segments at many different prices. An important point i think is that business become obsoletes when they are stuck in giving the same product without different approaches to consumers, which goes along to the amount of investment in market research.

Source:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/zeenaaltaher/2013/10/14/mcdonalds-how-does-the-company-do-it/

The reason behind Blackberry’s failure was due to the company’s internal factors, like failing to cope with technological advances of competitors like Samsung and Apple, which captured market demand with modern and more attractive devices.
Examples were the Z7 and Z10 models which were irrelevant for consumers and way behind competitors products.

What this demonstrates s that big falls in demand to even bankruptcy can happen to any profitable and well known business globally. In this case was mainly due to the inability to progress with new ideas and advancements which brought blackberry back. Still technology might not be the only reason why companies may stay behind, as resources and costs are of big importance, but its a main factor of why companies take over their competitors. Another good example is Blockbuster in the industry of video cassettes, facing bankruptcy by not being able to cope with technological advances taken over by modern DVD’s.

Sources:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/vivekthakkar/2013/10/07/blackberry-in-doom/

Tim Hortons is experiencing growths of 8% in profits for the last quarter of the year, as sales have improved in the United States. The company has experienced same-store sales increases of 3% in the US and 1.7% in Canada, while opening 13 restaurants in the US and 34 in Canada in this last quarter.
Tim Hortons has also introduced a new coffee option “Dark Roast”, aiming to increase consumption by possibly aiming at a new market segment.
The company’s net income rose to $113.9 million at the end of the third quarter from $105.7 million a year earlier and total revenue rose  3 percent to $825.4 million. Suggesting market research has been successful.

On the other hand Tim’s is experiencing fierce competition from McDonald’s Corp and Starbucks Corp as it remains under pressure from shareholders to boost returns as they might invest in other companies. Still Tim Horton’s shares listed on the Toronto stock exchange state that these have risen by 22% this year.

Source:

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/11/7/Tim-Hortons-posts-higher-profit.aspx

Canadian housing has lately started to increase with 198,282 housing starts last month, after a slowdown in the housing market in 2012, when the government mortgage lending rules became tighter, in order to prevent home buyers from taking on high debts. The many who feared (mainly economists at Canada’s big banks who are the major mortgage lenders) that there could be a bubble in the housing market are starting to suspect the creation of another one, now that housing prices are starting to accelerate quickly together with house starts increasing greatly.
Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC says that in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, together with British Columbia is where the biggest activity increase has been recorded, while the total projected units should be between 179,300 and 190,600.

In my opinion banks are the main drivers of housing prices to go up, given that loans in most of the cases is what allows people to buy houses by a mortgage. For Canada its a great business to buy a house and rent it, given the big number of immigrants that come to take advantage of Canada’s resources which bring various job opportunities. This makes hard for the government to tighten lending policies.

Source:

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/11/8/Housing-starts-climb-in-October.aspx

Twitter is soon turning public with the debate between a higher or lower IPO. With a provisional range value between $17-$20 for it’s stock, which would value the firm up to $11.1 billion. Speculation is lately arising about the overvalued price per stock, causing Twitter’s IPO to decline. Yet on the other hand, some investors like Doug Kass who claims that the share value will rise in the first month of trading, and consumers are willing to pay $32.50 per share. In my opinion regarding a firm’s IPO, the share value shouldn’t be overvalued, as there are numerous consequences to that. First and foremost, a continuous fall in the stock price would not only lead to bad reputation but   causes firm’s to focus in the short term growth instead of the long term growth. Managerial decisions may turn out to be riskier given investor’s pressure on immediate profit results.

On the other hand, a firm must consider not having the IPO valued too low, as it would reduce the possibilities of maximizing profits. In the case of ‘Twitter’, less money towards market research and development would be available.

reference:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21588940-microblogging-firms-shares-may-not-be-bargain-investors-are-hoping-going-cheep