Swedish furniture giant IKEA, has decided that IKEA Canada will purchase a 20 turbine wind farm site in Alberta. The far should be completed by late 2014, and will cost roughly $90-million dollars. The buy is part of IKEA’s goal to become completely energetically self sufficient by a target date of 2020. The southern Alberta wind farm will be the second largest in IKEA’s arsenal, after one of the many in Europe. 

From an outsider perspective I believe it’s a fantastic idea; not many companies can say they’re not worried about the cost of energy going up, but now IKEA can. Being completely self-sufficient is an advantage is a sense that the company runs itself. From a consumer’s view it also gives IKEA a “greener” view. Using wind turbines is more environmentally responsible than other sources of energy, and it portrays a very unique and fresh view of the company. I don’t see much of a down sound, the company is it’s own boss in a sense when it comes to energy supply. IKEA is a perfect example of a sustainable company, and if it keeps making decisions like these will be successful for a long time.

H.J Heinz Company has recently decided to to shut down three factories, cutting roughly 1350 jobs. One of the plants shutting down is in Leamington, Ontario a factory that has been running for over 100 years. The factory shut down will take away 740 jobs from the small southern Ontario town. The decision comes from Heinz’s new owners Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Warren Buffet) and global investment fun 3G Capital, which bought Heinz for $28 billion June. 

The factory shut down really is the classic, long time blue collar “I heard they’re shutting the mill down”. It’ll probably come as much of a blow to the historical-emotional side of it’s workers as well as the fact that they’ll be out of work. However two other plants in St. Mary’s, Ontario and Toronto will benefit by adding 470 jobs to their workforce.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/heinz-to-close-ontario-plant-cut-800-jobs/article15442338/

Recently the social media giant Facebook put forth a $3 billion dollar offer to purchase Snapchat. Snapchat is a picture messaging platform where users send pictures and then after a few seconds they disappear. Despite the fact that Snapchat has only been around for roughly 2 years it has grown to about 9 million users sending over 350 million Snaps daily. The choice to decline the offer comes from founder Evan Spiegel. According to a source with knowledge of the matter, the company is currently being sought after by multiple investors, including a $4 billion dollar investment proposal from China’s Tencent Holdings.

Facebook’s eagerness to absorb Snapchat stems from the fact that there is a decline in Facebook popularity. Facebook recently acquired photo media platform Instagram for $1 billion dollars, and looks to continue in the social media battle.

With it’s recent IPO Twitter becomes more and more threatening; added to that is the fact that Facebook isn’t alone in it’s ambitions to expand. Twitter recently bought Vine, a short-video social media app.

In order to maintain company growth and profitability I agree with Facebook’s attack on purchasing Snapchat, Instagram and whichever social media platforms are on the rise. Apps are simply “trending” in nature and a fad only lasts for so long. It’s smart to try and create a monopoly, or at least aim for oligopoly. I see Facebook vs Twitter as a parallel to Coke vs Pepsi. May the best team win.

I completely agree with Natalie Hayworth’s statement, saying that it is a bold and risky move to hold out and decline Facebook’s offer. If Snapchat loses market power to the next trendy app then a mistake would have been made, but on the contrary if Snapchat remains a dominant social media app it’s payoff’s will be huge.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/nataliehayworth/2013/11/17/winner-or-loser/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/facebook-snapchat-3-billion_n_4268859.html

An $11 billion dollar merger between American Airlines and US Airways has finally cleared the runway and is underway. The combination of the two airline giants will create a company that services 140 million passengers flights all across the world. Roughly 90,000 employees and about 951 planes will be the result of the combination of the two companies that will continue to be called American Airlines, yet under control of US Airways’ CEO Doug Parker.

In order to prevent monopolistic dominance for the consumer, the Justice Department has stated that the agency will force the new super giant to give up multiple gates at LaGuardia (NYC), LAX (L.A.) and Reagan National Airport (Washington, D.C.). The gates will be auctioned off to competitors with lower cost budgets, thus ultimately serving in the favour of consumers. After the government confirmed backing the deal, share prices of AMR, American Airlines parent comany, rose roughly 26%

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-airline-merger-20131113,0,1206080.story#axzz2kVCRdGz8

Yellow Media, best known for it’s Yellow Pages phone books is in the process of cutting roughly 300 jobs by early 2014. The cut-backs stem from the company’s desire to turn more digital. Company CFO Ginelle Maille says the Montreal based company is “changing the dynamics of [their workforce in order to] accelerate digital media growth”. According to the company 43% of revenues come from the digital frontier.

In addition to the cut-backs, Yellow Media will be ushering in 45 year old CEO Julien Billot on January 1st to replace long time CEO Marc Tellier. Billot will be leaving his Head of Media Division position at Solocal Group. After months of searching, Yellow Media believes that Billot will be able to lead the company into the digital media age after his experience with Solocal (formerly known as PagesJuane Group) a company with similar services.

http://www.thestar.com/business/economy/2013/11/12/yellow_media_cutting_300_jobs_by_early_2014_in_shift_to_digital_from_print.html

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/21/yellow-media-ceo-julien-billot/?__lsa=c33b-bc58

After a recent sale of 45% percent stake of Vodaphone to Verizon Wireless for $130 billion dollars, Vodaphone is being hunted for another deal, but this time by AT&T. AT&T is considering a takeover bid of the British telecommunications company in attempt to capitalize on the growth in Europe. An analyst from Berenberg, Paul Marsch estimates that AT&T would have to pay roughly £80 billion pounds ($127 billion US dollars) for Vodaphone. AT&T is reportedly exploring other targets as wll, such as UK telecommunications company EE. EE operates under EE, Orange and T-Mobile brands and is the largest mobile-network operator in the UK. Be that as it may, AT&T’s chief executive Randall Stephenson believes that Vodaphone is the company that will provide instant impact in the market that the company is looking for.

With Verizon and AT&T both looking for European expansion, the two biggest US mobile-network companies may possibly end up battling on the other side of the globe as well. Vodaphone in my opinion has monopolistic power in the situation; Verizon has already made its move and with AT&T being so hungry for expansion, they will be willing to pay with inelastic desperation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10419960/Vodafone-shares-rise-on-ATandT-takeover-talk.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10281668/Vodafone-seals-biggest-deal-in-a-decade-with-130bn-Verizon-sale.html