Question 1

Issuing and retiring stock is a means to raise extra capital and/or increase control within the company. Please research a company that has recently issued stock or retired stock. Why do you feel they made the choice they did and what was the economic effect of this decision. You can use financial website such as Yahoo Finance or MSNBC.

Respond to this... Best Buy had been struggling to deal with the pressure of Internet sales and increased competition. In 2015 the looked like they were turning the corner and becoming more profitable. The company was generating significant cash it did do a one time extra dividend, but made a plan to buy back One Billion of stock over the next three years. I think this is done so show confidence to the investors and by reducing the number of shares outstanding create move value for the shareholders. I do like that they made a 3 year plan so that if things do change they have the ability to adjust, as opposed to doing it all at once. Plus they cna choose when to do to help the stock price.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2015/03/03/best-buy-unveils-stock-buyback-plan-after-profit-surge/#2fdddf5836e5

Respond to this... The article tells why they issued stock and the economic effect. Here is the link to the article https://www.nyse.com/network/article/nyse-xactly?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=exchange_more.

The company went public in 2015; but it is a front news story on the New York Stock Exchange website today. This is about a company called Xactly. "The company he envisioned would build software to help companies design, track and manage how they pay their salespeople" (Dean). The company was founded in March 2005 and in 2015 Christopher Cabrera, the founder and CEO of Xactly along with his team decided to go public (Dean). The article says the decision to go public was a way for them to get financing to continue to grow their company. "We also check a lot of boxes in terms of transparency and accountability that the company is well run." "It gives us a much bigger megaphone from which to tell our story" (Dean).

Dean, J. (n.d.). A Year After its IPO, Xactly is Only Getting Started. Retrieved from New York Stock Exchange: https://www.nyse.com/network/article/nyse-xactly?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=exchange_more

Question 2

There are several key influences on pricing decisions that must be weighed and taken into account by management when selecting a cost system. These include:

• Customers
• Competitors
• Costs

Select an example of a pricing decision and using the above three influences, share how you believe these influences would each impact the decision. Also, include in your example the time horizon used, as well as how these influences would impact the timing element.

Respond to this...Well this is something that I have some experience in. Over the last 15 years I have had the responsibility to set prices for every hotel that I have managed. I use information from each of these categories to determine the price that will return the highest yield for the hotel. I take historical data for the hotel, I take into consideration the near future, usually 30 to 60 days out (90 days if needed for summer season), and I look at where my competition is pricing their hotel for the same time frame. It gets more complicated after that. You then need to have an honest conversation with yourself about how you compare to your competition. We have what is called a SWOT analysis that we complete at least once a year. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Completing this helps you to price your product against your competitors. I would look at location, amenities, shuttle services, relation to restaurants, shopping, etc. Additionally I would consider what their rooms are furnished with compared to mine, if they had just completed a remodel or if I had a new hotel in my comp set I would take that into consideration when setting my pricing. At my most recent hotel I was located slightly off the main road, while my comp set was directly off the freeway. I always priced myself slightly below the comp set because I knew people had to travel alittle farther to get to me, even though I knew that my hotel was nicer because of a recent renovation. However I knew that the distance was a deciding factor. Then I would close out certain dates that I knew we had large groups at the hotel so that other people could not book on 3rd party sites like Expedia. Alot goes into pricing any product. You have to do your due diligence to be successful otherwise you either leave money on the table or price to high and miss out of opportunities.

Question 3

High-risk vulnerabilities include non-authorized users accessing applications, guessable passwords, matching of user names and passwords, active user accounts with missing passwords, and unauthorized programs in application systems.

Medium-risk vulnerabilities include users' ability to shut down the system without being logged on, passwords and screen saver settings that were not established for PCs, and outdated versions of software stored on hard drives.

Low-risk vulnerabilities include the inability of users to change their passwords, user passwords not being changed periodically, and passwords smaller than the minimum size specified by the company.

Why do you think today's computer systems are so vulnerable?

Search magazines, newspapers, for a recent threat reported in the media. Provide the name of the source you used and the title of the article.

In thinking about security and control, how can a business ensure that its applications, networks, information, and people are secure?

Respond to this... Company data bases and computer systems are considered relatively safe by most people. The large amount of data stored within these systems make them a much larger target than the manual records of the past (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Data compromise results from a variety of breakdowns including technical and environmental factors as well as system security and poor management decisions (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Computer systems today are vulnerable to hacking, malware, vandalism, and numerous other threats.

A story recently released on the news blog site threatpost.com reveals the details of recent hacks to Hard Rock Café Hotels and Noodle & Company. In both cases, hackers breached the payment systems of the retailers stealing the personal information of their customers (Spring, 2016). The information compromised includes credit card numbers, expiration dates, and internal verification codes (Spring, 2016).

Given the large number of recent cyber-attacks and information system breaches, companies need to step it up in regards to information security. Increased security firewalls, data encryption and other security measures may help limit access to confidential information. Even with these increasingly stringent security procedures, companies will continue to face data breaches.

References

Laudon, Kenneth C., Laudon, J. P. (2015-01-01). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 14th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323270622/

Spring, T. (2016, June 29). Hard Rock Las Vegas, Noodle and Co. Confirm Hacks

[Blog post]. Retrieved from https://threatpost.com/

hard-rock-las-vegas-noodle-and-co-confirm-hacks/118966/