Divestiture Restructuring in the Media Industries: A Financial Market Case Analysis

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to restructuring in the media industries. Most of this attention has been directed at mergers and acquisitions and the associated increase in industry concentration. What has been largely overlooked is the extent of restructuring that reduces the size of media firms—divestitures. This article examines several cases of major media divestitures and calibrates the impact of these sell-off and spin-off restructuring events on the value of divesting firms. The analysis uses case studies and event study methodology. Given that the overall role of managers of large firms is to maximize the value and stock price, this event methodology directly measures the impact of divestitures on this ultimate goal of maximizing firm value. Case analysis examines the managerial strategies that motivated the divestiture event to explore the complexities of the divestiture as it unfolded. Event analysis results confirm abnormal returns that have the potential to significantly enhance the value of divesting firms.     

Violence against women students in the UK: time to take action

Sexual and gendered violence in the education sector is a worldwide concern, but in the UK it has been marginalised in research and policy. In this paper we present findings from the National Union of Students' study Hidden Marks, the first nationwide survey of women students' experiences of violence. This research established high levels of prevalence, with one in four respondents being subject to unwanted sexual behaviour during their studies. We analyse why the issue of violence against women students has remained low profile in this country, whereas in the USA, where victimisation rates are similar, it has had a high profile since the 1980s and interventions to tackle it have received a significant amount of federal support. We urge UK policymakers, universities, students' unions and academics to address the problem, and make suggestions about initial actions to take.     

The effects of high school math curriculum on college attendance: Evidence from the NLSY97

Using a sample of youth who graduated from high school in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this paper examines the impact of high school math curriculum on the decision to go to college. Results that control for unobserved differences between students and their families suggest that a more rigorous high school math curriculum is associated with a higher probability of attending college and of attending a 4-year college. The household fixed effect results imply that students who take an advanced academic math curriculum in high school (algebra II or precalculus, trigonometry, or calculus) are about 17 percentage points more likely to go to college and 20 percentage points more likely to start college at a 4-year school by age 21 compared to those students whose highest math class was algebra I or geometry.     

A dynamic approximation of balanced gymnastics landings

A gymnast can balance after an uneven parallel bar dismount by contacting the ground with an appropriate body position and angular velocity. Balanceable gymnastics landings were predicted by dividing landing into two parts: a short duration impact phase when foot-mat contact forces are high, and a subsequent longer balancing phase during which the gymnast exerts active control at the joints to attenuate the resulting post-impact velocities and achieve a desired motionless terminal configuration. This paper identifies controllable sets of pre-impact landing positions and velocities for a typical female collegiate gymnast that are feasible targets for the end of flight following a single- and double-backward somersault uneven bar dismount with forward mass centre (CM) velocity. Simple algebraic impulse-momentum models for the impact phase determine impulses necessary to stop the feet and slow angular velocity. After impact, a dynamic analysis is needed to determine stability because non-negligible post-impact angular and linear velocities are possible. For almost all successfully balanced landings, ground contact occurs with the CM positioned above the feet and between the toe and heel, because the linear impact impulses that stop the feet also contribute to an angular impulse that slows angular momentum. Only at the largest pre-impact angular velocities following a double-somersault dismount can contact occur with the CM in front of the toe. The gymnast is in balanceable preimpact orientations longer when rotating more slowly and with a smaller angular momentum; therefore balance may be more likely after performing a single-somersault dismount with a large moment of inertia.     

Is peer review still the content industry's upper house?

Key points

• Although ‘peer review’ has quasi‐sacred status, times are changing, and peer review is not necessarily a single and uniformly reliable gold standard.
• For publishers, peer review is a process not an outcome.
• Academics understand peer review, but are often ignorant about the quality checking mechanisms within wider publishing.
• Self‐publishing has led to the much wider availability of publishing services – these now being used by all stakeholders in publishing.
• How should universities evaluate comment and ideas that were first disseminated within a non‐academic market?
• Rather than an upper house, is peer review today more of a galley kitchen?