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Assignment Please read the instructions carefully. You need to write 6 sentences for each article which includes what i have given in instructions.

Instructions

For the two articles below:

Write a few sentences explaining how the article is relevant to Verizon or Sprint Mobile. How and why would you expect it to affect stock prices, and whether they were affected in the way you expected (do this in terms of expected future earnings). Because traders buy or sell stocks immediately as new information becomes available, stock prices respond rapidly. Be sure to include the date of the article. You should be able to distinguish whether the news was relevant to only one of your stocks, your industry, or the whole market by noting the relative price changes - if only one of your stocks went up while the market was down, the news affected only your stock; if both your stocks moved differently from the market, the news probably affected your industry as a whole; if your stocks moved in tandem with the market, the news probably broadly affected the whole economy. You should also be able to explain why the news affected just one company, the industry, or the whole market. The articles selected should be balanced chronologically and topically.

Below are stock prices from Nov 16th through 19th

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ (U.S.: NYSE)

Sprint Corp. S (U.S.: NYSE)

Time

close

S&P 500

Time

Close

S&P 500

NOV

16

4:03PM EST

45.04

1.49

16

4:00PM EST.

4.21

1.49

17

4:00

45.08

-0.13%

17

4:03

4.4

-0.13%

18

4:05

45.38

1.62%

18

4:00

3.99

1.62%

19

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45.76

-0.11%

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4:00

4.05

-0.11%

20

20

1.Sprint Promotion Sends Investors Running

The carrier should be more focused on improving profitability and free-cash-flow generation.

Updated Nov. 19, 2015 1:15 p.m. ET

Sprint (S: NYSE)
By Evercore ISI ($3.99, Nov. 19, 2015)After days of hinting at a “big announcement,” Sprint released new pricing plans which offer a 50% discount to plans from T-Mobile US, Verizon Communications and AT&T -- while also covering up to $650 of switching costs.

If a 50% discount from Sprint (ticker: S) sounds familiar, that’s because it is essentially the same as the company’s earlier “cut your bill in half” promotion -- though, notably, this time it extends to T-Mobile ( TMUS ) customers as well as those from Verizon ( VZ ) and AT&T ( T). And, while this may drive some uptick in subscriber attraction, we note: 1) we believe the most cost-sensitive subscribers likely took advantage of this offer the first time around; 2) we do not agree with Sprint’s contention that transitioning subscribers are likely to opt for higher data plans versus the discounted offerings; and 3) the offer comes at a time when Sprint should be more focused on improving profitability and free-cash-flow generation (and is somewhat contradictory to other recent initiatives such as increasing unlimited pricing by $10 and attempting to cut $2.5 billion in annual costs from its budget). It is this last point -- on the impact to profitability -- that appears to have upset investors the most, sending Sprint shares down 9.3% Wednesday.

Prior to (and on) Sprint’s fiscal-second-quarter call, the company announced that it would seek to cut $2.5 billion in costs. We saw these costs cuts, along with Sprint’s decision to not participate in the 600 megahertz (MHz) auction, to use off-balance-sheet financing, and raise its unlimited pricing by $10, as evidence that Sprint was attempting to improve its cash flow position. However, as part of this current promotion, Sprint is offering up to $650 in reimbursements for early termination fees (ETFs) and other fees (provided you turn your phone in). Because we believe that the most cost-sensitive subscribers may have already taken advantage of this offer the first time around, the corresponding increase in subscriber traction may not be enough to offset the negative implications to profitability and free cash flow.

Sprint sees potential upside from more data, same price. The emphasis of the promotion is to cut your bill in half. Despite this, Sprint believes subscribers are likely to opt for the same nominal value plans, but twice the data. We do not agree. If Sprint’s intention was to see customers double their data, the pitch should have been “double your data,” not “take 50% off.”

Customers can trial the offer for 28 days. If they are not satisfied, and have purchased a device through Sprint, they can return the device with no restocking fee. Importantly, the offer is for activations from Nov. 20 through Jan. 6 and the promotional pricing will run for 24 months. While the offer is available to new Sprint customers, current Sprint subscribers can get a free [Apple (AAPL)] iPad with one year of free service, if they sign a two-year contract. Sprint expects the iPad offer to reduce churn (as customers with more devices become “stickier”).

Based on our last published model, our discounted-cash-flow-driven year-end 2016 price target is $4. [We rate Sprint at Hold.]

-- Jonathan Schildkraut
-- Justin Ages

The companies mentioned in Hot Research are subjects of research reports issued recently by investment firms. Their opinions in no way represent those of Barrons.com or Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Some of the reports’ issuers have provided, or hope to provide, investment-banking or other services to the companies being analyzed. Share prices at the time the report was issued and the date of the report are in parentheses.

7:39 am ET
Nov 19, 2015

2.The Morning Download: Ford CEO Says

By

Steve Rosenbush

CONNECT

Good morning. Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields says that wireless updates for vehicle software have more or less arrived. That’s going to lead to big changes in the way people build and use cars, which are bound to adopt more characteristics of mobile phones. CIO Journal’s Rachael King has the story.

Ford launched Sync Connect with the 2017 Ford Escape at the LA Auto Show this week. The platform lets drivers unlock or start the vehicles from their smartphones. “Sync Connect will serve as the platform to offer over-the-air updates allowing us to go beyond the infotainment system such as updating other parts of the vehicle like the engine or driver-assist technologies,” said Mr. Fields, speaking at a press event Wednesday in San Francisco.

Wireless updates mean that phones don’t have to be brought into the shop or replaced every time that the operating system is brought up to date, or that a security patch is available. And of course, they facilitate the use of apps and the development of ecosystems. Now, the automobile, which until now has more or less remained the same during its long life cycle, is about to become much more dynamic.

Macquarie taps Barclays BCS -4.34% IT Executive as CIO. Justin Raoul Moffitt, an 18-year IT veteran with Barclays, steps in as CIO at Macquarie starting in February 2016, a company spokesman said.

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ (U.S.: NYSE)

Sprint Corp. S (U.S.: NYSE)

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close

S&P 500

Time

Close

S&P 500

NOV

16

4:03PM EST

45.04

1.49

16

4:00PM EST.

4.21

1.49

17

4:00

45.08

-0.13%

17

4:03

4.4

-0.13%

18

4:05

45.38

1.62%

18

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3.99

1.62%

19

4:00

45.76

-0.11%

19

4:00

4.05

-0.11%

20

4:00

45.39

0.38

20

4:00

3.83

0.38

21

21

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29 Sep 2019

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Assignment Please read the instructions carefully. You need to write 6 sentences for each article which includes what i have given in instructions.

Instructions

For the two articles below:

Write a few sentences explaining how the article is relevant to Verizon or Sprint Mobile. How and why would you expect it to affect stock prices, and whether they were affected in the way you expected (do this in terms of expected future earnings). Because traders buy or sell stocks immediately as new information becomes available, stock prices respond rapidly. Be sure to include the date of the article. You should be able to distinguish whether the news was relevant to only one of your stocks, your industry, or the whole market by noting the relative price changes - if only one of your stocks went up while the market was down, the news affected only your stock; if both your stocks moved differently from the market, the news probably affected your industry as a whole; if your stocks moved in tandem with the market, the news probably broadly affected the whole economy. You should also be able to explain why the news affected just one company, the industry, or the whole market. The articles selected should be balanced chronologically and topically.

article:1 China Aims to Build Its Own Secure Smartphones

State-owned and private tech firms team up to cut cord to U.S. suppliers

An employee inspects a circuit board in a manufacturing facility at ZTE's headquarters in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen, China. Photo: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg News

By

Eva Dou in Beijing and

Juro Osawa in Hong Kong

Updated Nov. 20, 2015 6:02 p.m. ET

China is seeking to make its own secure smartphones, in an attempt to insulate its handsets from U.S. surveillance.

The effort involves both state-owned companies and some of the country’s savvier technology firms and marks the latest step in Beijing’s quest to build a homegrown tech industry that cuts out U.S. suppliers.

Chinese officials have long chafed at U.S. companies’ dominance in smartphone operating systems and processors—the parts of a handset most vulnerable to hacking. In China, the world’s largest smartphone market, almost all handsets are either Apple Inc. iPhones or are powered by Google’s Android operating system.

For years, China’s lagging technology meant there was little it could do. The country’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, last year switched publicly to a Chinese-made smartphone, the ZTE Nubia Z5, after being criticized for using an iPhone, yet the Chinese device ran on Android and included a Qualcomm Inc. processor, according to its specifications list.

Now, a number of Chinese technology companies are making progress toward cutting the cords to Western technology. China is encouraging that effort, spurred by revelations in 2013 from former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the NSA had placed surveillance “back doors” in some American gear sold overseas.

Chinese smartphone maker ZTE Corp. is working on a secure smartphone for government agencies using an operating system developed in-house, and a processor chip from a Chinese supplier, a spokesman said. The country’s largest chip-design company, Spreadtrum Communications Inc., separately said it would begin mass producing a set of chips that run a Chinese operating system by year-end.

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has joined with China’s Ministry of Public Security to develop a mobile operating system for police officers that it bills as more secure.

ENLARGE

A worker examines machinery used to adhere components to smartphone circuit boards at ZTE’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Photo: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg News

All of the efforts target a niche group of government agencies and state-owned enterprises and are unlikely to appeal to the average consumer. ZTE’s secure phone, for example, will come without camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connections to minimize security risks.

The trend is unlikely to have much impact on the market share in China of U.S. mobile components and software. Analyst James Yan of market-research firm IDC estimates secure phones might make up 3% of China’s smartphone sales next year, or about two million units. But if more made-in-China operating systems and processors make their way into consumer handsets, that could potentially pose a challenge for Google’s Android and for Qualcomm.

Qualcomm, whose processors accounted for 52% of the smartphone market last year, according to Strategy Analytics, declined to comment.

Alphabet Inc. ’s Google, whose Android system ran 82.8% of the world’s smartphones in the second quarter of this year, according to IDC, didn’t immediately have a comment.

Other U.S. tech companies already are feeling a chill in China. U.S. networking- and computing-gear makers such as International Business Machines Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. have recorded sales declines, as government agencies and state-owned enterprises buy more from domestic counterparts such as Chinese server maker Inspur Group Co. and telecommunications-gear supplier Huawei Technologies Co.

Cisco doesn’t provide sales figures for specific countries, but has said the Snowden disclosures affected its China sales. IBM has attributed sales setbacks to China’s economic slowdown. Both companies say they don’t build “back doors” into their technology.

In smartphones, Chinese banks have begun to buy more domestic brands, though formal quotas were suspended earlier this year because of U.S. pressure. China had wanted to require that 50% of new smartphone purchases at financial institutions meet “secure and controllable” standards, according to a copy of the suspended rules reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

China’s push to build homegrown secure handsets also has economic benefits: The components that are crucial to security are also some of the most profitable.

But even with made-in-China processors, modems and operating systems, Chinese secure phones will likely include plenty of foreign components, albeit less-sensitive ones.

A spokesman for ZTE said it isn’t possible to use exclusively Chinese-made hardware and software in a smartphone, but to meet the needs of government agencies it is trying to use domestic suppliers as much as possible.

Other Chinese phone makers, including Coolpad Group Ltd. and Qihoo 360 Technology Co. , are scrambling for a piece of the market too, touting security features such as data encryption in their new handsets this year.

“Right now the security sector is very hot,” said Chris DeAngelis, Beijing-based general manager at consultancy Alliance Development Group. “The government is looking for nonforeign technologies as much as possible to prevent various back doors.”

Leo Li, chief executive of Spreadtrum, said his company will begin sales this year of special chipsets that will let phone users switch between Android and an encrypted operating system made by Chinese company Yuanxin Technology Co.

“Your voice is encrypted. Your data is encrypted. It is very secure,” he said.

But just because a phone has domestically made guts doesn’t mean it is secure, said Bryce Boland, Asia chief technology officer for network-security company FireEye Inc. A hacker could still siphon data directly from a telecom operator, he said. New operating systems are also likely to have more vulnerabilities.

China isn’t alone in seeking a high-security smartphone for government work. The U.S. NSA developed its own domestic version in 2009, although it this year switched to a new system based on Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones with customized secure software. The NSA-developed phone was “overtaken by technology by the time it was actually delivered,” Debora Plunkett, the NSA’s information assurance director, told National Defense Magazine in 2012.

Lao Yao, secretary-general of the China Smartphone Alliance, said some Western governments work with BlackBerry Ltd. of Canada to custom make high-security phones for their officials, but that China and Western companies don’t trust each other enough for this to be an option. “China has no choice but to develop its own operating system to maintain security,” he said.

—Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this article.

Write to Eva Dou at [email protected] and Juro Osawa at [email protected]

article 2: Sprint to Get Cash Infusion With Deal to Sell and Lease Back Devices

Transaction, for $1.1 billion, would essentially act as a loan

ENLARGE

Sprint, the No. 4 wireless carrier in the U.S. by subscribers, has been working to improve its network. Photo: mike blake/Reuters

By

Ezequiel Minaya and

Ryan Knutson

Updated Nov. 20, 2015 1:54 p.m. ET

Sprint Corp. took a big, if unusual, step on Friday to address its cash woes and take some risk off its books.

The carrier, which has been losing customers and money for years, said it would get a $1.1 billion cash infusion through a deal to sell certain handsets and other devices it has leased to its customers. The purchaser is a newly formed entity—backed by Sprint parent SoftBank Group Corp.—that will rent the devices back to the carrier.

Sprint said the transaction essentially serves as a loan that will cost it less than tapping debt markets, freeing up much-needed resources for network investment and operations.

Sprint, the No. 4 wireless carrier in the U.S. by subscribers, has struggled with competition and a difficult network overhaul. Its network has improved recently, and in the most recent quarter, Sprint added 237,000 of the more desirable postpaid phone subscribers, although 199,000 of those came from converting its own customers from prepaid arrangements. In an effort to boost subscriber gains, Sprint also launched a promotion this week to sell wireless service for half the price charged by rivals.

The carrier, which is based in Overland Park, Kan., has more than $30 billion in total debt, and hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2006. It reported a loss of $585 million for its latest quarter. In September, Moody’s downgraded Sprint’s bonds to B3, citing concerns about the company’s turnaround plan. The carrier has said it has no plans to tap debt or equity markets in the foreseeable future.

Advertisement

The deal to sell 2.5 million device leases to the new entity, called Mobile Leasing Solutions LLC, will help reduce one of Sprint’s biggest expenses: the cost of purchasing millions of new iPhones and other devices. The carrier in turn leases them to individual subscribers, who must either return the phone at the end of the lease or pay extra to buy it outright.

Sprint’s relationship with SoftBank, which owns more than 80% of Sprint, as well as with phone-distribution firm Brightstar Corp., which was founded by Sprint’s CEO, helps give the carrier access to favorable terms on the deal with Mobile Leasing Solutions. The latter was formed by a group of equity investors including SoftBank, and has secured debt financing from several lenders, including international banks and leasing companies.

Sprint Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati said Sprint expects to execute additional deals roughly every quarter, and is also working on a similar structure to finance network construction. Mr. Robbiati said the implied cost of funds was in the “mid-single digits,” which is well below the carrier’s high-yield alternatives, although he wouldn’t provide a specific number.

Reaction to the deal was mixed. Analysts at Evercore said they were “cautious of whether the deal improves [Sprint’s] actual business model or instead just moves some of the risk off balance sheet.” Analysts at Macquarie Securities said the deal was “a major positive for Sprint shares” and would dramatically improve the company’s cash-burn rate, helping it focus on new growth.

Sprint shares fell more than 5% on Friday.

The newly formed entity will rely on Brightstar to resell the used devices at the end of each lease. Sprint said it envisions the deal including only high-end devices, which have the highest resale value. Used phones are easily sold in developing markets overseas; they are also useful for insurance programs that replace broken phones.

In the wake of the deal, Sprint revised its annual outlook for adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization to a range between $6.8 billion and $7.1 billion, down from a previous forecast of $7.2 billion to $7.6 billion. The transaction is expected to close in early December.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at [email protected] and Ryan Knutson at [email protected]

Sprint Corp. took a big, if unusual, step on Friday to address its cash woes and take some risk off its books.

The carrier, which has been losing customers and money for years, said it would get a $1.1 billion cash infusion through a deal to sell certain handsets and other devices it has leased to its customers. The purchaser is a newly formed entity—backed by Sprint parent SoftBank Group Corp.—that will rent the devices back to the carrier.

Sprint said the transaction essentially serves as a loan that will cost it less than tapping debt markets, freeing up much-needed resources for network investment and operations.

Sprint, the No. 4 wireless carrier in the U.S. by subscribers, has struggled with competition and a difficult network overhaul. Its network has improved recently, and in the most recent quarter, Sprint added 237,000 of the more desirable postpaid phone subscribers, although 199,000 of those came from converting its own customers from prepaid arrangements. In an effort to boost subscriber gains, Sprint also launched a promotion this week to sell wireless service for half the price charged by rivals.

The carrier, which is based in Overland Park, Kan., has more than $30 billion in total debt, and hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2006. It reported a loss of $585 million for its latest quarter. In September, Moody’s downgraded Sprint’s bonds to B3, citing concerns about the company’s turnaround plan. The carrier has said it has no plans to tap debt or equity markets in the foreseeable future.

The deal to sell 2.5 million device leases to the new entity, called Mobile Leasing Solutions LLC, will help reduce one of Sprint’s biggest expenses: the cost of purchasing millions of new iPhones and other devices. The carrier in turn leases them to individual subscribers, who must either return the phone at the end of the lease or pay extra to buy it outright.

Sprint’s relationship with SoftBank, which owns more than 80% of Sprint, as well as with phone-distribution firm Brightstar Corp., which was founded by Sprint’s CEO, helps give the carrier access to favorable terms on the deal with Mobile Leasing Solutions. The latter was formed by a group of equity investors including SoftBank, and has secured debt financing from several lenders, including international banks and leasing companies.

Sprint Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati said Sprint expects to execute additional deals roughly every quarter, and is also working on a similar structure to finance network construction. Mr. Robbiati said the implied cost of funds was in the “mid-single digits,” which is well below the carrier’s high-yield alternatives, although he wouldn’t provide a specific number.

Reaction to the deal was mixed. Analysts at Evercore said they were “cautious of whether the deal improves [Sprint’s] actual business model or instead just moves some of the risk off balance sheet.” Analysts at Macquarie Securities said the deal was “a major positive for Sprint shares” and would dramatically improve the company’s cash-burn rate, helping it focus on new growth.

Sprint shares fell more than 5% on Friday.

The newly formed entity will rely on Brightstar to resell the used devices at the end of each lease. Sprint said it envisions the deal including only high-end devices, which have the highest resale value. Used phones are easily sold in developing markets overseas; they are also useful for insurance programs that replace broken phones.

In the wake of the deal, Sprint revised its annual outlook for adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization to a range between $6.8 billion and $7.1 billion, down from a previous forecast of $7.2 billion to $7.6 billion. The transaction is expected to close in early

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ (U.S.: NYSE)

Sprint Corp. S (U.S.: NYSE)

Time

close

S&P 500

Time

Close

S&P 500

NOV

16

4:03PM EST

45.04

1.49

16

4:00PM EST.

4.21

1.49

17

4:00

45.08

-0.13%

17

4:03

4.4

-0.13%

18

4:05

45.38

1.62%

18

4:00

3.99

1.62%

19

4:00

45.76

-0.11%

19

4:00

4.05

-0.11%

20

4:00

45.39

0.38

20

4:00

3.83

0.38

21

WEEKEND

21

WEEKEND

22

WEEKEND

22

WEEKEND

23

4:01

44.99

-0.12%

23

4:00

3.79

-0.12%

24

24

25

25

You are a financial consultant. Your client owns shares of Nike. You are to write a memo to your client explaining to them what the Nike stock split means and how it will affect their portfolio of stocks. You will need to read the article and study the section on stock-splits from the book. Your memo must be professionally written, using the proper voice for your audience. It must be completely free of spelling and grammatical errors. If there are any errors in your memo, you will earn a zero until you submit it free of errors. I suggest you take it to the writing lab for help.

The memo is due at midnight on February 23, 2016. This memo is worth 50 points.

The aritcle is this

Investor News Details

NIKE, Inc. Announces New $12 Billion Share Repurchase Program, 14 Percent Increase in Quarterly Dividend, and Two-for-One Stock Split

11/19/2015

Download this Press Release ()

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) announced today that its Board of Directors approved a new four-year, $12 billion program to repurchase shares of NIKE’s Class B Common Stock. The Company anticipates that the current $8 billion share repurchase program will be completed before the end of fiscal 2016, and the new program will commence upon the completion of the current program.*

Repurchases under the Company’s new program will be made in open market or privately negotiated transactions in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b-18, subject to market conditions, applicable legal requirements, and other relevant factors. This share repurchase plan does not obligate the Company to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and it may be suspended at any time at the Company’s discretion. NIKE had approximately 678 million shares of Class B Common Stock outstanding as of November 16, 2015.

“In a growing sports industry, NIKE is the clear leader,” said Mark Parker, President and CEO of NIKE, Inc. “We are built for growth, while also staying committed to creating shareholder value over the long term. We’ve proven it time and again, having returned over $23 billion to shareholders over the last 14 years through share repurchases and dividends. Moving forward, we see even greater potential for NIKE as we continue to unlock new markets, new experiences and new products.”*

The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend on the Company’s outstanding Class A and Class B Common Stock of $0.32 per share, on a pre-split basis, payable on January 4, 2016 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 9, 2015. The dividend represents a 14 percent increase over the previous pre-split quarterly rate of $0.28 per share. This is the fourteenth year in a row the Company has increased its annual dividend, over which time the dividend has increased by a factor of more than 10.

The Board of Directors also approved a two-for-one split of both NIKE’s Class A and Class B Common shares. The stock split will be in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend payable on December 23, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business December 9, 2015.

Upon completion of the split, the outstanding shares of NIKE’s Class A and Class B Common Stock will increase to approximately 353 million and 1.36 billion, respectively, based on the outstanding shares as of November 16, 2015. The Company expects its common stock to begin trading at the split-adjusted price on December 24, 2015.

About NIKE, Inc.

NIKE, Inc., based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly-owned NIKE, Inc. subsidiary brands include Converse, which designs, distributes and licenses casual sneakers, apparel and accessories; and Hurley, which designs and distributes a line of action sports and youth lifestyle apparel and accessories. For more information, NIKE’s earnings releases and other financial information are available at http://investors.nike.com. Individuals can also visit http://news.nike.com/ and follow @Nike.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151119006678/en/

Source: NIKE, Inc.

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