Format of the Mid-term - You will find three recent newspaper articles describing a strategic move or a strategic decision in this document. Choose two out of these three articles and, for each of the two articles you have selected, answer the following two questions: - Q1: What is (are) the issue(s) for the main company in the article? How do you assess the company’s strategic decision(s)? What additional information and what specific analyses would you conduct to fully understand the issue(s) and the decision(s)? - Q2: What alternative recommendation would you consider in response to the issue(s)? What additional information/analyses would you need for this alternative recommendation? How could it be implemented? - For each article, the combined answers to these two questions should be no longer than 2 single-spaced pages, in 12-point Times New Roman, with a 1-inch margin all around. You can add as many appendices as you feel necessary, but remember that the page limit for the mid-term (excluding exhibits) is 4 pages, i.e., 2 pages per newspaper article. - You do not need to seek additional information beyond what is provided in the articles. Automobiles Geely to build satellites for self-driving cars CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD — BEIJING Geely is aiming to be the first China carmaker to design and build satellites to support its autonomous driving programme, the latest step by founder Li Shufu in his bid to build an industry leader. Geely, which owns Swedish brand Volvo Cars, Malaysia’s Proton, and a stake in Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler, will invest Rmb2.27bn ($325m) in a new development centre and factory to manufacture satellites this year, the company said yesterday. The announcement makes Geely the first known Chinese carmaker with plans to build its own satellites. Mr Li’s move sparked comparisons in China media with Elon Musk, founder of electric carmaker Tesla and private space exploration company SpaceX. Last month Geely drew comparisons with Volkswagen when Mr Li’s holding group announced plans to merge Geely Automobile and Volvo Cars, moving the company towards becoming the first global Chinese carmaker. Che Jun, Communist party boss of China’s eastern Zhejiang province, where Geely is based, said that the complex would be built in Taizhou city and that construction had begun. The centre will design, test and manufacture low-orbit communication satellites, purpose-built to improve geolocation of vehicles and to support their connected functions, Geely said. Geely has been pouring money into new technologies from self-driving cars to flying taxis, spending Rmb20bn on research and development in the past year. The investments are part of the group’s spend on global expansion, such as buying a $9bn stake in Daimler. The announcement comes as the coronavirus outbreak in China has deepened a downturn in its car market, setting it up for a third consecutive year of declining sales. Geely to build satellites f ...

1. Format of the Mid-term
- You will find three recent newspaper articles describing a
strategic move or a strategic
decision in this document. Choose two out of these three
articles and, for each of the two
articles you have selected, answer the following two questions:
- Q1: What is (are) the issue(s) for the main company in the
article? How do you
assess the company’s strategic decision(s)? What additional
information and what
specific analyses would you conduct to fully understand the
issue(s) and the
decision(s)?
- Q2: What alternative recommendation would you consider in
response to the
issue(s)? What additional information/analyses would you need
for this
alternative recommendation? How could it be implemented?
- For each article, the combined answers to these two questions
should be no longer than 2
single-spaced pages, in 12-point Times New Roman, with a 1-
inch margin all around.
You can add as many appendices as you feel necessary, but
remember that the page limit
for the mid-term (excluding exhibits) is 4 pages, i.e., 2 pages
per newspaper article.
- You do not need to seek additional information beyond what is
provided in the articles.

2. Automobiles
Geely to build satellites for self-driving cars
CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD — BEIJING
Geely is aiming to be the first China carmaker to design and
build satellites to support its autonomous
driving programme, the latest step by founder Li Shufu in his
bid to build an industry leader.

3. Geely, which owns Swedish brand Volvo Cars, Malaysia’s
Proton, and a stake in Mercedes-Benz owner
Daimler, will invest Rmb2.27bn ($325m) in a new development
centre and factory to manufacture
satellites this year, the company said yesterday.
The announcement makes Geely the first known Chinese
carmaker with plans to build its own satellites.
Mr Li’s move sparked comparisons in China media with Elon
Musk, founder of electric carmaker Tesla
and private space exploration company SpaceX.
Last month Geely drew comparisons with Volkswagen when Mr
Li’s holding group announced plans to
merge Geely Automobile and Volvo Cars, moving the company
towards becoming the first global Chinese
carmaker.
Che Jun, Communist party boss of China’s eastern Zhejiang
province, where Geely is based, said that the
complex would be built in Taizhou city and that construction
had begun.
The centre will design, test and manufacture low-orbit
communication satellites, purpose-built to improve
geolocation of vehicles and to support their connected
functions, Geely said.
Geely has been pouring money into new technologies from self-
driving cars to flying taxis, spending
Rmb20bn on research and development in the past year.
The investments are part of the group’s spend on global
expansion, such as buying a $9bn stake in
Daimler.
The announcement comes as the coronavirus outbreak in China
has deepened a downturn in its car market,
setting it up for a third consecutive year of declining sales.
Geely to build satellites for self-driving cars - Financial Times
(US), 3/4...
https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/FTUS/PrintArticle.

4. aspx?d...
1
Google in talk to pay French media for news
Google is talking to some of France’s biggest news publishers
about making
direct payments for content, a potentially significant shift by
the search platform
towards a model used by Facebook in the US.
Exploratory discussions with media groups including Le Monde
and Le Figaro
have touched on developing new products that would include
financial deals to
license news. Google has also spoken to some US media groups
about the plans,
according to people familiar with the matter.
“We want to help people find quality journalism — it’s
important to informed
democracy and helps support a sustainable news industry,” said
Richard Gingras,
Google vice-president for news, who said the group was
“looking at more ways to
expand our ongoing work with publishers”.
While the discussions are at an early stage and several models
are being considered, there are echoes with
Face-book’s recent shift in approach. In October the social
media platform launched a news tab feature in
the US following multimillion-dollar deals with outlets
including BuzzFeed, the New York Times and the
Wall Street Journal.
After years of lambasting big internet platforms for failing to
pay for content, Robert Thomson, the chief
executive of News Corp, described Facebook’s move as a
“powerful precedent that will echo around
editorial newsrooms”.
France is a test ground for Google’s change of approach because

5. of the fierce political reaction to its
response to the EU’s new copyright directive, which the country
is the first member state to implement. To
the anger of French ministers who denounced the approach as
against “the spirit and letter” of the law,
Google said it would show only headlines to news stories in
France, sidestepping the need to reach
licensing deals to pay for snippets of journalism. In the past the
group has warned that aggressive
application of the copyright directive could force it to withdraw
its news service from Europe altogether.
Google insists it will, on principle, refuse to “pay for links”.
But it has privately acknowledged to French
publishers that it wants to extend its support for journalism,
potentially through new products that would
give some brands greater prominence and reach as well as direct
income.
Travel & leisure. Sport
All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE
Ratings and rights deals won in first year but early mistakes are
still to be confronted
Shahid Khan, the Pakistani-American billionaire, took his 13-
year-old son to an Extreme Championship
Wrestling event in Philadelphia in 1996, he did not envisage
they would be launching their own wrestling
business 23 years later.
Tony Khan, with his father’s backing, launched All Elite

6. Wrestling in January 2019. A year on and the
Jacksonville-based organisation is proving a worthy opponent to
industry behemoth World Wrestling
Entertainment.
AEW aims to offer fans a calendar of compelling storylines
supported by a smaller roster of fighters,
relative to the WWE, featuring both big names and the next
generation of would-be superstars.
The approach has helped AEW win US and UK ratings battles
and secure big rights deals.
All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE -
Financial Time...
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aspx?d...
1 of 3 2/16/2020, 4:57 PM
“Tony’s always been a big wrestling fan. A few years ago he
said it was the perfect time to start a
wrestling organisation. I thought the odds were very much
against us,” said Shahid Khan, owner of
English Premier League football club Fulham and the
Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team.
“As a parent, this is one of those times you’re glad you were
totally wrong.”
The sport’s dominant force is WWE, a listed company with a
history dating from the 1950s and annual
revenues of $1bn. It has had several incarnations, rode high in
the Attitude Era in the 1990s and last year
signed record broadcasting rights contracts.
But WWE lost more than $1bn in market value last month after
Vince McMahon, chief executive, fired
two top executives, citing “different views on how to best
achieve strategic priorities” in a move that
pushed the stock to its lowest level since May 2018.
In results this month WWE said annual revenues had climbed to
a record high driven by rights deals —
but revenue from live events fell 13 per cent to $125.6m from

7. $144.2m in 2018 as it cut the number of
events and average attendance fell.
Raj Giri, president of WrestlingInc, a website covering the
sport, said that “what AEW has been able to do
in its short time is unprecedented. But it’s not significantly
responsible for WWE’s waning popularity —
that was happening long before AEW was formed”.
Tony Khan said AEW was not seeking market hegemony,
instead offering a “different take on wrestling”
that had attracted a “fan base that is significantly younger than
our competitors” and which is “very
appealing to advertisers”.
AEW hosts live events and airs quarterly pay-per-view shows as
well as a weekly primetime Wednesday
slot for Dynamite, its flagship offering. Launched on TNT in
October, the show attracts an audience of
about 905,000, according to Nielsen data.
In anticipation, WWE moved NXT, which focuses on younger
fighters and is its third significant offering
alongside Smackdown and Raw, from its subscription streaming
service to USA Network, the national
broadcaster, in September. It has claimed viewership victory in
only two to three weeks since going head
to head, however.
“The old established competitor is now counter-programming
us,” said Shahid Khan. “It’s great, they’re
helping to grow the audience, which is what it’s all about. We
want to create a bigger pie and get a piece of
it.”
AEW last month announced an extension of its $175m deal with
WarnerMedia’s TNT to the end of 2023
and plans for another show. “I never believed we would be in
this position so early into year two,” said
Tony Khan.
He sees a lot to learn from industry forebears, particularly,
World Championship Wrestling. “I’m not

8. taking positive business lessons from other companies,” he said.
“Most of the lessons I’m taking are
examples of what not to do.”
Funded by Ted Turner, the CNN founder, WCW resurrected
wrestling’s southern style in the 1990s; an
antithesis to the borderline slapstick WWE (then WWF)
offering. Despite its flagship show Nitro winning
the Monday night ratings war against WWE’s Raw for 84
consecutive weeks from June 1996, its
popularity plummeted and the company was bought by WWE in
2001.
All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE -
Financial Time...
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aspx?d...
2 of 3 2/16/2020, 4:57 PM
“The audience was there for those wars to go on for decades if
they had produced competitive shows and
run them logically, but that didn’t happen,” said Tony Khan.
“WCW was badly mismanaged. They teased
audiences with matches that never materialised and lost tens of
millions of dollars on talent, some earning
six figures without ever working. It was a real disservice to
fans.”
Ex-WWE stars such as Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley and Cody
Rhodes have joined AEW, with others set to
follow. But AEW is having to confront early mistakes. A large
talent roster so early on has led to criticism
of reduced exposure for some stars, particularly female, and
with a second show will have to avoid
oversaturated programming.
The Khans know the honeymoon does not last and must work
hard to keep an unforgiving audience. “It
costs millions of dollars a month for production before factoring
in employees, week to week is high six
figures and the touring costs are millions alone,” said Tony

9. Khan. “But we have a very good chance to be
profitable in 2020 and beyond. It’s very exciting.”
All Elite Wrestling enters the ring to grapple with WWE -
Financial Time...
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