Day: October 7, 2013

As of September the 3rd Microsoft announced that it would buy out Nokia for 5.44 billion Euros. This would be an easy way for Microsoft to enter the phone market directly and bring more innovation to the market than Nokia. We see that this not only good for Microsoft but also for Nokia as now the shareholders in Nokia will face a rise in the value of shares and profits due to its buy out by Microsoft.

We see that this has also cemented Nokia as a Microsoft carrier for its phones. This is profitable to Microsoft as android was growing at a very fast rate. This protects the future of Microsoft as a Operating System on phones as Nokia is now the only phone company that uses the Operating System.

This buy out also means that Microsoft will have the design team and the patents from Nokia which means that they save money which would have been spent on research and development. This also allows them to have access to the employees that have years of experience in the industry.

For the consumers on the other hand this means that the lack of competition will lead to fewer options in the windows phone market and will also lead to slow release of new apps and updates.

Websites Used,

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/2/4688530/microsoft-buys-nokias-devices-and-services-unit-unites-windows-phone

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/sep13/09-02announcementpr.aspx

In October the US government announced its shutdown, the first time in 17 years. The question that arises from this is that how does this shutdown affect the USA’s and the worlds businesses and economy ?

We have seen the immediate affect of the shutdown in many government related organisations across the USA like Lockheed Martin, who had to put 3000 employees on unpaid leave in leu of the shutdown. This shutdown will also affect the US economy as many important organisations which rely on the government to collate imformation on the economy, the US government are a large source for economic data for many large multinationals and other american companies. This shutdown has impeded the slow growth in employment after the economic crisis and if the shutdown were to go on would only lead to more layoffs and maybe shutdown in companies like lockheed that earn a large part of their revenue from deals with the US government.

If this shutdown were to last longer it could have adverse effects on the global economy as the rising unemployment would lead to a drop in demands for imports and thus hurt many economies around the world. Due to the importance of the USA in international markets a prolonged period of the shutdown could also lead to a drastic drop in the value of the dollar as the markets around the USA all begin to collapse.

Website used,

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/05/us-shutdown-what-will-happen-who-affect

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-10-05/news/42745288_1_government-shutdown-usec-inc-employee-furloughs