strategic management－case study

Please read the two passages on Barry Diller/IAC and Southwest merger.

1.answer any 2 questions for BARRY DILLER/IAC

2.answer ALL questions for SOTHWEST MERGER.

A road to diversification: Barry Diller/Senior Executive/IAC

In an interview with Leslie Stahl, Barry Diller, once Paramount CEO, reflected upon seeing this primitive interactivity of computers, televisions, and phones and how it seized his curiosity. Diller saw a future where most shopping would be done by interacting with a screen. Even his wife indicated they were intrigued by this entire new world. She said Barry Diller can see something way before you can see anything. In the interview, Diller concurs that most of the public considered him to be losing his mind with the purchase of QVC and trading the glamour of Hollywood away. In Westchester, PA, Barry Dillermade his first fortune as his own boss. But, in a string of setbacks, he involved himself in a bidding war to buy Paramount only to make a mistake by not making the last bid. Learning from his mistakes and making other deals, he ended up losing QVC. Despite this, his gut feeling told him that interactive commerce would catch on so he purchased QVC’s competitor HSN. In the interview, Diller confirms that the public’s perception of his company is correct as a hodge podge but it’s an interactive conglomerate operating in financial services and flirt services.

Diller says that the development of his company has been a journey and they are figuring it out along the way. He says he knows now that many of his business related to one another and has united all his brands under one new corporate headquarters. He wanted to give his company, IAC, the same cache as other big internet companies. In comparison to Google, Barry Diller, says that IAC is an endless multiproduct company and his desire would be like Proctor and Gamble one day. With a personal fortune of well over a billion, Diller’s wife says he is driven by the vision. Shown in business meetings, Diller makes decisions quickly and his employees say that his ability to grasp new and difficult concepts is uncanny. With 20,000 employees, Diller runs intense meetings and he is the ultimate decider who controls the votes in the company. 

 Also check out:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/93257379-diller-s-iac-top-internet-stock-over-google-baidu.html/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/barry-dillers-third-act/

1. Describe Diller’s corporate-level strategy.
2. What do you think was Diller’s reason to diversify?
3. Is Diller’s approach value-creating diversification? Why or Why not?
4. Explain how IAC businesses and brands are related? Related diversification?

The Power of a Merger: Southwest

A typical price conscious consumer is the target of the merger between Southwest and AirTran. AirTran executives assert that with the merger, the potential exists to spread discount airfares farther is even greater. Discount carriers are known for stimulating competition and helping to lower airfares. Consolidation of major carriers such as United and Continental airlines brings the number of major carriers in the U.S. to only four.

In general the average consumer is finding fewer seats and higher prices and feels the airlines have worked hard to make flying not fun. Despite not pleasing to the customer, the industry is making money again with critical profit centers known as add-on fees. With $25 for a checked bag, $35 for phone reservations, and up to $300 to change a reservation, major airlines have made $2.4 billion in profits with $1.3 billion coming from add-on fees with $745 million from checked bags alone.

Southwest charges no fees for changing flights or for the first two checked bags and the merger with AirTran may help to lower ticked prices in the industry. Individuals say that wherever Southwest goes, they will pressure their competitors to refrain from excessive fees in the long haul.

Also check out http://www.southwest.com

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/southwest-ceo-gary-kelly-discusses-airtran-merger-11743399

1. What would make the arrangement between Southwest and AirTran a merger and not an acquisition?
2. What were the reasons that Southwest and AirTran had for merging? What approach(es) did they use?
3. What would cause the Southwest/AirTran merger not be successful?
4. What strategies would you recommend to Southwest should it need to restructure?