Bertelsmann AG Financial Analysis Essay -- essays research papers fc

Bertelsmann AG Financial Analysis Report History   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bertelsmann AG was founded in July 1835 by Carl Bertelsmann as a print shop. Initially the company concentrated on Christian books and songs. In 1849 Carl Bertelsmann’s son Heinrich took over the publishing business, which employed 14, and extended the inventory of the publishing house to novels. At the time of his death in 1887, the staff had grown to 60.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Next to head the company was Johannes Mohn, son-in-law of Heinrich. The company’s growth slowed during this period and the focus was redirected to theological subjects. In 1910 he introduced paid vacation to the company. By 1921, when he turned control of the company over to his son Heinrich, the company had grown to 85 people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Under the leadership of Heinrich Bertelsmann, the company experienced rapid growth and by 1939, the publishing house had grown to employ 400 people. New marketing channels were added as the readership became more mainstream in the late 1920’s. On the verge of World War II, the company moved from classical literature and fiction to include books with militaristic themes and eventually published books with nationalistic, racial and anti-Semitic content. The publisher insured its survival for most of the war by linking itself with the Nationalist Socialist ideology. Trouble started in 1944 when it was shut down by the German government as non-essential to the war effort and then crippled in March 1945 during an allied air raid on Gutersloh, in which only some of the printing machines survived.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After the war, the publisher was rebuilt by the fifth generation to lead Bertelsmann, Reinhart Hohn, whose influence continues to the present. He took the company from a medium-size printing company to a media conglomerate. In 1950 he established the Reader’s Circle, which bypassed the traditional marketing channels and allowed books to go directly to the reader. Within a year, it had 100,000 members and by 1954 membership had reached 1,000,000. The LP label Ariola Records was founded in 1958 which signaled the company’s entry into the music market. Bertelsmann entered the film industry with the purchase of Ufa Filmproduktionsgesellschaft in 1964. Mohn’s transition of the company culminated in 1971 with incorporation. He remain... ...tor-Presse Stutgart. The Sales to Asset Ratio of the Gruner + Jahr group is very high, at 1.90 (corporate is .81) which could indicate that demand is very strong. Sales to Asset Ratio of Random House is close to the corporate ratio at 1.02. The parent company also has a strong cash position, so operations in this division will have solid financial backing. Whether these efforts will be successful cannot be determined at this time, but Bertelsmann has a rich history and culture upon which to build. Bibliography Apuzzo, Matt. â€Å"Lawsuit: Sony BMG Blacklisted Agent†. Associated Press. 1 April 2005. 5 April 2005. . Bernstein, Leopold A. Financial Statement Analysis. Homewood, Illinois: Ricard D. Irwin Inc., 1978. Bertelsmann Media Worldwide. 4 April 2005. . Bertelsmann Media Worldwide. 2004 Annual Report. Blelefeld. 4 March 2005. Bertelsmann Media Worldwide. 2003 Annual Report. Blelefeld. 15 March 2004. Bertelsmann Media Worldwide. Press Conference, â€Å"Corporate Development and Strategy†. Berlin. 17 March 2005. Surman, Matt. â€Å"Bertelsmann Profit Rises in 2004.† Business Week Online 17 March 2005. 4 April 2005 . Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. â€Å"Bertelsmann AG.† 4 April 2005. .

Internet Filters Essay

When browsing the Internet, users may encounter a filter. Filters are programs that remove or block certain items from being displayed. Four widely used Internet filters are anti-spam programs, web filters, phishing filters, and pop-up blockers. An anti-spam program is a filtering program that attempts to remove spam before it reaches an Inbox or forum. Spam is an unsolicited email message or posting sent too many recipients or forums at once. The content of spam ranges from selling a product or service, to promoting a business opportunity, to advertising offensive material. Spam also may contain links or attachments that contain malware. If an email program does not filter spam, many anti-spam programs are available at no cost on the web CITATION Clark p 35-37 l 1033 (Clarck 35-37). Web filtering software is a program that restricts access to certain material on the web. Some restrict access to specific websites; others filter websites that use certain words or phrases. Many busines ses use web-filtering software to limit employee’s web access CITATION Fin14 l 1033 (Finch and Redder). Some schools, libraries, and parents use this software to restrict access to minors. A phishing filter is a program that warns or blocks users from potentially fraudulent or suspicious websites. Phishing is a scam in which a perpetrator sends an official looking email message that attempts to obtain someone’s personal and/or financial information. Some phishing messages ask people to reply with their information; others direct them to a phony website or a pop-up window that looks like a legitimate website, which then collects their information CITATION Lan14 l 1033 (Lane). Some browsers include phishing filters. A pop-up blocker is a filtering program that stops popup ads from displaying on webpages. A pop-up ad is an Internet advertisement that suddenly appears in a new window on top of a webpage. Many browsers include a pop-up blocker. People also can download pop-up blockers from the web at no cost CITATION Fin14 l 1033 (Finch and Redder).

The Symposium A Philosophers Guide To Love Essay

The Symposium: A Philosophers Guide to Love As much as our society has become involved in the advancement of feminism and the equality of the sexes, there is one fact that neither gender can ignore; none can survive without the other. Love and the want of a soul mate keeps each member of man and womankind in constant search of the perfect person with whom to become one. Yet if this bond is a necessity of the human race then why has the meaning, purpose and pursuit of it eluded us for so many generations. There has yet to be a one universal explanation of love and there has yet to be one who understands its powers fully. As we see from Platos Symposium, even the wisest of men in a time when the search for knowledge was seen as†¦show more content†¦In any case it seems that the main reason Phaedruss point is valid is because in one of the driving forces in a relation is fear; fear of inferiority, fear of humiliation, and fear that they may lose the other persons respect. Phaedrus soon builds on this point by stating that a true test of ones love for their mate is the value of their life. Comparisons between the fates of Achilles and Orpheus are brought up to emphasize his point. As we learn from the legend of Achilles, a man was rewarded for the value he put on his friends life. Achilles sacrificed his own life in an attempt to obtain revenge for his friend. For this act Achilles was rewarded and seen as a hero. Yet on the opposite side of the spectrum we learn of Orpheus who was punished for his selfishness in that he would sooner have his loved one die than threaten his own existence. Because of this, Orpheus was punished. These examples help Phaedrus to show how the bonds of love can make a man dare to die for another. Later on in the text we find a less dignified motive behind the sacrifice of ones self for another from the woman who teaches Socrates the meaning of love. We are once again faced with the idea of respect as one of the driving forces in love. The woman proposes that the main motive behind the sacrifice may be that it is a way to gain immortality. By dying for another they would be considered a hero.. This may have been a valid reasoning during Platos era becauseShow MoreRelatedComparing The Theaetetus And The Nature Of Love1602 Words   |  7 Pagesbetween the nature of knowledge in the Theaetetus and the nature of love in the Symposium. The concept of philosophy brings together the nature of knowledge and love. Notably, Diotima calls Love a lover of wisdom which in Greek means literally a philosopher (Benjamin Jowett, trans. Plato, Symposium and Phaedrus 27). Philia means, love and sophia means wisdom. The main topic of Plato’s Symposium is the question â€Å"what is love†. It is a record of six speeches by different academics that all tellRead MorePlatoï ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½s Symposium, And Ovids The Art Of Love1109 Words   |  5 Pagesancient China’s greatest philosophers once said when asked to explain what love is, â€Å"[it] is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.† Since the beginning of time, writers and philosophers have been trying to discover the origins of this â€Å"attack,† and many attribute different reasons for this immense feeling. In both Plato’s Symposium, and Ovid’s The Art of Love, Aristophanes and Ovid attempt to address the genesis of love by asking: what is theRead MoreHomosexual Relationships Involving The Great Deities And Heroes1362 Words   |  6 Pagesconsidered by our moral standards unappropriated and negligible, such that they had to be distorted in some way before the stories reach the public. The Greeks in Plato’s Symposium, however, are loud and proud of their homosexuality. 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However, Augustine’s ascent illustrates how Platonists fail to realize their rise places too much value in lovingRead MoreThe Renaissance And A Literal Translation Means Rebirth Essay1521 Words   |  7 Pages1400’s. Throughout the Middle Ages little was taught and that of which was taught emphasized heavily on logic. Scholastics were taught with strict practice; humanists broke away from this form of education, instead choosing for an education based on symposium which w ould allow them to create a small, tight knit community. Humanism was generally associated with the disregarding of God; however, Petrarch, arguably the most notable Renaissance humanist, respected the teachings and philosophical foundationsRead MoreThe Question of Socrates Obedience3243 Words   |  13 Pagesstate? In other words, was Socrates right to obey the orders of the state of Athens to take poison, or should he have acted to preserve his own life by choosing exile or escaping? In The Trial and Death of Socrates, the question is posed to the philosopher whether it is right to act in ones own best interest or to obey the State. Crito argues that the States punishment of Socrates is unjust, but Socrates argues rather that authority comes from God and that to flee the States decision would be likeRead MoreEssay on Emersons Transcedentalist Beliefs2008 Words   |  9 Pagesthis Concord, Massachusetts man has set his place as a hero in American literature and philosophy (Bloom 13). nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The first, most important thing to mention about Ralph Waldo Emerson is that he was not a Transcendentalist philosopher (Bloom 1). Ralph Emerson was a poet, critic, essayist, and a believer of morals (Bloom 2). Many people look at what he wrote in his books and essays, and they took his ideas from his speeches and turned them into a way of life. His ideas and beliefsRead MoreRenaissance and the Reformation Essay example2166 Words   |  9 PagesHumanism is not a formal philosophy; therefore, Petrarch cannot be considered a true philosopher, but rather a grand thinker leading the movement away from medieval thinking. In the Middle Ages the main school of thought was Scholasticism, which emphasized logic and rational theology. Scholastics were taught with strict practice; humanists despised this form of education, instead opting for an education based on symposium which would allow them to create a tight knit community. Many people associate