Three Sisters Essay Example

Three Sisters Paper In the light of your study of Stanislavski and after seeing Miss Julie how would you direct the opening act of Three Sisters? The opening of Act One of Chekhovs Three Sisters, gives detailed stage directions, which offers valuable information on the main characters of the play; the three sisters, Irina, Masha and Olga. As a director, I would encourage the actors playing these roles to read the information, as it defines clearly the different characters of the sisters, and so can be used for characterisation. As a director, I am fully aware that Three Sisters is a realist play; therefore, this would prompt me to use Stanislavski methods to develop true to life portrayals of the characters. The following is a sketch of Act One: During the opening of the play the three sisters will sit in their designated areas and the audience will watch while Olga marks her books, Irina puts on make-up for her party, and Masha reads a book on the window seat, subdued. In the background (the ballroom), the table will be laid by a servant, which could be played by Anfisa, the old nurse. We will write a custom essay sample on Three Sisters specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Three Sisters specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Three Sisters specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The clip-clop sound of her heels as she rushes about will make stark contrast to the silence of the sisters. I aspire to obtain the audience to suspend their disbelief, and remain this through-out the play. This idea is heavily influenced by the theatre production of After Miss Julie. My intention is for the audience to see the closeness of the relationship between Olga and Irina. Moreover, to see how Masha is the recluse of the sisters, and overlooked by them due to her quietness and concealed emotions. Olga (as indicated by her regulation dark-blue dress of a high school teacher) is the mother figure for the sisters, especially Irina, who never really knew her mum. Irina seems distant from her sisters, as she is the only young one left, and she is still happy-go-lucky and enjoys her life without worry. Olga is the oldest, and uses this to boss the others sisters around. Olga is the only sister to work, and so is constantly moaning about her work. She revels in being the sister with authority, but also resents it, as she feels forced into work since her fathers death. Her movements should be very swift, and she should constantly be moving around, making herself busy, yet achieving nothing, reflecting a theme of the play. This will create humour for the audience, as they will see her fussing over everything, yet doing nothing. Her movements should be very rapid, restless, and hurried. Using Stanislavskis methods, I would find out the super objective of Olgas character, to create naturalism. Personally, I believe Olgas motivations in life are to return to Moscow, and find a husband. This is from the social context of the play, where many women believed they needed a husband to achieve true happiness, and also a husband would result in Olga not needing a job. To show this in the play I will show Olga being extremely interested in Tuzenback and flirtatiously behaving with him as he talks about Vershinin. This can be achieved by making lots of eye contact with him and her moving closer to him, until she hears he has a wife, and then she will sharply turn away. An objective of Olgas character is to continue working, although she says It wears me out, I believe she loves it and could not just sit at home like the other sisters. This arises one of the themes of the play work. None of the sisters worked previously as they are wealthy and do not have the need to work. I believe Chekhov used this to show that you need to work to have ambition and achieve in life. This is shown in the play, as all the sisters ambition is to return to Moscow, yet none of them does anything towards this ambition. Chekhov himself was born into a poor family, but worked hard and achieved an amazing amount. I think this highlights the social context of the play between rich and poor. Rich and poor is an underlying theme of Act One, and was an important issue in the era of the play. Natasha is of low class, and so discriminated against by the sisters who believe she is not good enough for their beloved Andrew. Masha in particular scrutinises everything about Natasha, from her clothes, which are downright pathetic to her make-up and hair. This shows a very materialistic viewpoint, and shows no intent to get to know Natasha, just judge her because of her class. This also shows how much the sisters love Andrew and do not want him getting hurt. I believe the sisters are very jealous of allowing another female into their household, which is why they resent Natasha. In Act One Natasha should be portrayed as a very timid young woman, this can be shown by her emotional outbursts and general uncertainty. Natasha and Andrew provide the only true love shown in Act One, and as they finish the Act, lead the audience to believe there will be much more to come. The couple give an optimistic out-look that good things can come out of bad situations, and I think this leaves the end of Act One on a happy and loving end. The sketch of the set of the play shows Masha is facing the audience she will be able to communicate with them, they will be able to see clearly her facial expressions, which will create an intimacy with the audience, and I hope result in the audience watching Masha and perhaps feeling sympathy for her. Being in at the side of the other two sisters also allows Olga and Irina to talk about Masha in whispers, and direct facial expressions at her, without her noticing. The description of Masha in a black dress, sits with her hat on her lap reading a book convey the isolation of her character. The black portrays seriousness, and hiding her feelings from the other sisters. I believe Masha is a character who tries to forget everything bad in her life. I think this results in her feeling severely depressed, as in the instance of the death of her father; bottling up her feelings has resulted in Masha not getting over the death, just replaying it repeatedly in her mind, effectively making her unable to think of anything else and become further withdrawn. She rarely speaks, and because of this, the sisters cannot help her. However when Masha does speak, it upsets the other sisters as Masha is the strong one, and causes them to break down with her; Olga particularly loses control. Masha is also depressed over her marriage; she believed her husband was intelligent and wise, and now she refuses to accept the reality that he is not this, and she does not love him. The audience will have an insight into the true Masha, an insecure person, who is deeply upset by her sisters relationship and her life in general. This will be shown by Masha observing the play, without allowing the other characters to see (which will create dramatic irony), and reacting to the action behind her, while facing the audience. Masha can use the audience as a friend, and watch them rather than interact with her sisters. Mashas facial expressions are very important in order to portray her character naturalistically. Due to this I would use Stanislavskis acting method of emotion memory, by asking the actress playing Masha to remember how it felt in a part of her life when she had no one to help her, and her life was disappearing before her eyes. I would then ask her to use these feelings with Masha, to create naturalism. Part of Mashas character resents the close relationship between Olga and Irina, and this leads to her feeling more isolated. This will be shown when Masha whistles. The whistle will be one of those pretend Im not here whistles but at the same time, the whistle will remind the other sisters of Mashas existence. There is a different side to Mashas character that occasionally shows a more ambitious and happy person; such as when she proclaims You only live once, where I believe Mashas voice should change from a bored, monotonous, pre-occupied, slow and quiet voice to a faster, excited, almost breathy voice. This will highlight the change of character and therefore the comedy-tragedy that Chekhov aimed will succeed. Both the sisters adore Irina, the youngest, but especially Olga, because of their mother-daughter type relationship. Again, the stage directions explain Irinas character, in a white dress, stands lost in thought. Irina is young and free, with no commitments in life, and has time to spend her day deep in thought. Her character is portrayed through her becoming very excitable at the thought of her oncoming party, and applying make-up and choosing her clothes. This shows that she has the time to spend doing these useless tasks, and demonstrates her need to dress-up to feel more important and grown-up, as well as impress the male guests. Irina is innocent and pure, as indicated by her white dress, but can be immature, such as when she remarks I know everything, which show she believes she has knowledge, which is expanded on later in the play when Masha remarks We know too much, while talking to Andrew about their education. I believe Chekhov is making a political point about how many people believe they know too much, when they know nothing. Chekhov was very philosophical (which reflects in many of his characters including Masha and Solyony), and once said Only Charlatans know everything and understand nothing. This is true to many characters of the play; for example Tuzenback, has never worked a day in his life, and believes he learns all he needs through newspapers. As a director, I would use this to create humour, by allowing the audience to laugh at these sad people, who have no grasp on reality. The theme of ambition plays a large part of Act One, as well as the rest of the play. All three of the sisters are striving towards moving back to Moscow, as this is where all their happy memories are. However, none of the sisters do anything towards their ambition, and so nothing changes in their lives. This again highlights how sad rich peoples lives can be, as they have no drive to do anything for themselves, as they can happily survive on what their family provides for them. To show this in the play I would have the characters constantly fussing over the clock (placed in the centre of the drawing room). This will represent how time is passing by in front of them without them realising, while they continue their petty lives. Each of the characters deep down knows they will not achieve their dream, but each of them long for it all the same. The theme of ambition also shows the frustration of the sisters, particularly Masha, to escape to the big city yet they only talk about it. Again, I believe Chekhov is making a social statement about the amount of people in Russia who wanted to change the out-dated social order at the time of the play, yet did nothing to achieve this goal. This theme is personal to Chekhov, as he DID return to his family in Moscow, showing you can achieve dreams with effort. I would achieve comedy throughout Act One using the various characters Chekhov included to provide comic relief for the audience, characters such as Tuzenback, Chebutykin, and Solyony, to distract from the awful tragedy of the majority of the play. These characters can be completely over-acted but still believable. These characters are typical nutty professors and they should all be dressed eccentrically, and constantly thinking of new ideas. The doctor is the typical result of doing too much work in his life, meaning he has been driven crazy. To achieve humour the actors must fully believe every word they say and make sure they take themselves seriously, even though they are clowns. These characters all flirt with the sisters, that also creates humour, and I believe they find it their duty to look after the sisters since their fathers death. This is another case of the characters believing they know more than they do. Another chance for comedy is how the three sisters smother Andrew, and clap at him and generally treat him like a child. Humour is achieved by making the sisters become over-enthusiastic mothers, fussing over Andrew, and showing off his achievements, such as the frames on the piano. The audience will be able to relate to this experience and so find it very funny. Ferapont can also be used to create humour because he can be played as a typical bewildered, deaf, old man. The setting of Act One will be very naturalistic, all props will be used (including knives, forks, table cloth, tables, samovar, chairs, cake, columns, curtains and swords), with fully made-up rooms, including appropriate flooring, curtains, and wallpaper, with everything looking aged, to fit with the period of the play. Many unused and often ugly but expensive ornaments will be placed around the ballroom, to show how the Prozorovs have lots of money for luxurious items, as well as painting scattered on the walls and an old bookcase. The ballroom table will also convey the wealth of the family, using ridiculous numbers of knives and forks around the immaculately placed plates, with flowers in the middle of the table, to indicate the springtime time of year. Lighting will be used to mimic natural sunlight streaming through the windows. The audience will be situated around the stage in a semi-circle, and the audience size will be small (around 250), so they will all be very close to the actors. This will make the audience feel more involved, and make the drama more realistic, personal, and believable. All costumes will be to date, and according to the stage directions and only natural make-up will be used. All male soldiers will be wearing military uniforms and civilian clothing. The pace of Act One will develop throughout, to prepare the audience for more tension and a climax in the following acts. In conclusion, I believe the relationship between the three sisters is the focus of Act One, and how they react to other people. I believe the solution to making this play work theatrically is to use Chekhovs idea of comedy and tragedy, to develop the naturalism of the play, as life often has highs and lows. The tragedy of the play creates tension and allows the audience to relate to characters, and then the comedy allows the audience to forget the problems and enjoy the play, as well as making the tragedy more obvious, and at times heartbreaking. To develop Act One I would continue to use Stanislavski methods to increase the naturalism of the play, and improve characterisation.

Lord of the rings Essays

Lord of the rings Essays Lord of the rings Paper Lord of the rings Paper Usually, when dealing with a piece of writing we will soon discover that reality influences it. What I mean is that the author is immerse in asocial, political, cultural and economic circumstances (within many other types of them) which will have a notorious effect on his production. It happens very often, I would say in most of the cases, that, conscious or unconsciously, personal experiences, ideologies and judgements have their way out from the writers mind through his work. Something that distinguishes The Lord of the Rings series is that this factual reference is very difficult to establish. From my point of view, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien manages to deal with issues that have to do with the deepest human nerve and its essence but without getting punctual so the novel becomes universally appealing and transcendental. This combination of an ample span but a profound sight makes for the admiration these books inspire. Love, loyalty, conflict between good and evil, friendship, pow er and many other aspects of human life are analysed through these pages and with such capability that one cant do anything but clap and admit that something great has derived from this mans work. They wont be changing for millennia so Tolkien has assured that even if civilisations pass, his work, unstained from history allegories, will remain interesting for people all around the globe. Although this feature might become also a major inconvenient when trying to give the text a thorough analysis given that it is more difficult to understand Tolkiens motivations and intentions a closer look to something critical in the novel as the creation of a parallel universe and to the writers greatest passion some conclusions can be made to get a nearer idea of Erus or Iluvatars making. What powerfully attracted my attention when Ifirst read the Lord of the Rings was the ability to give birth to a cosmos so plausible and

Quantitative Easing (Pros and Cons) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Quantitative Easing (Pros and Cons) - Essay Example main aim of quantitative easing is to inject money into the economy to stabilize nominal spending by purchasing assets from private or public sector. When the government uses their new central bank currency to purchase resources, it boosts the quantity of central bank currency held by financial institutions which in turn boost the sum of deposits retained by firms and households. The increase in the amount of assets held by firms and households increases spending which is healthy for a stable economic system. Since central bank is the sole supplier of the currency in circulation, it takes money in the form of reserve balances held by banks to make payments between different banks. Benford argues that such a scenario was witnessed in in England in order to reduce the rate of inflation to protect consumers from economic crisis and it succeeded to some extent. According to Benford, the bank may decide to generate this money electronically simply by increasing the balances on the reserve account so that it credits the bank reserve account when the bank purchases an asset. The central bank can also decide to purchase asset from a non banking institution by paying the amount directly via the seller’s bank thereby crediting the reserve account of the seller’s bank (Berger & Weber 36). By so doing, the asset of central bank increases which consequently increases the assets of commercial banks and the non bank institutions concerned. This ultimately leads to an increase in assets prices and spending and consequently reduces the rate of inflation to desired levels (Berger &Weber 37). Economists argue that this is a perfect method of expansion of supply of central bank money without increasing the rate of inflation in an economy (Benford 3). Controlling inflation is not easy due to pressure from financial hawks who are always interested in seeing high interest rates (Krugman). Since quantitative easing involves large amounts of currency, there needs to be se t properties to procure for it to be successful in the short term. Most of the purchases go to public organizations with private organization receiving less purchase with the aim of improving the conditions of the corporate credit. The injection of government money into the economy is helpful in increasing the liquidity in return for the assets which helps to improve the balance sheet of the private sector households and firms (Berger &Weber 37). Since money is highly liquid, its injection into the economy increases the buying of goods and services hence is a good manipulating tool for inflation. Purchase of assets by the government increases the prices of assets reducing the cost of borrowing from household and companies thus resulting to higher consumption and investment spending (Benford 3). When companies have cheaper access to

Political science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Political science - Essay Example Tough and legally fixed system of racism and segregation prevented the interracial contacts with Indians and Negros, which were brought to the USA as slaves, thus the spirit of nationalism between the settlers was strong from the very beginning. It is not easy to determine what American nationalism is. Americans are young nation and the process of ethnical consolidation in it has divergent character. Many national groups keep the elements of cultures of the countries they originate from. American nation is the nation, which consists of the people, who made their choice voluntarily and it is not based on ethnic communities. American values are not whims and not the results of the force of circumstances. They are given to American citizens by their history and fixed in their life experience, documents, traditions and customs. American values work for Americans, thus they live with them and are ready to die for

Mergers and Acquisitions Office Max Office Depot Essay

Mergers and Acquisitions Office Max Office Depot - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the term merger involves the combination of two companies, which work together for an achievement of one common goal. Basically, the merger is between the same industry as the objectives of the two companies are the same. Although there will be a difference of approaches and methods following by each of them, the result achieved will be industry oriented. Moving towards the acquisition, it is a term defining when a company buys the assets or equities of another and leaving the liabilities. In acquisition, the financial terms are led by both of the companies while in the merger, financed is one company oriented. Both merger and acquisition can take place between public trading companies or private trading companies, involving the access of shares to public and shares which are not registered. Acquiring or merger with a firm requires the high level of negotiations to balance and mutual understanding of the objectives. The study of the me rger of Exxon-Mobil is a merger of giant companies in the oil industry and this has been aimed to enhance the productivity of the two companies. The rate of a merger was high in the US in between 1994 to 2004, which was due to some major factors that are involved in the economy of the company and industry. The basic circumstances of the merger activity include the increasing number of merger particularly because of advancement in technologies, globalization of markets, intense nature of forms and sources to make industries deregulate, dynamic change in financial markets. Following these global trends of mergers, there some industry related trends as well. The oil industry of US is a large sized market and thus, it incorporates many challenges. Two major challenges of this industry are the addition of the future reserves within the country and the price fluctuations in the price of oil. The advantage of a large firm was firstly owned by only a few firms and is now one of the barriers to entry to the industry.

Mergers Of Abbey National And Santander Finance Essay

Mergers Of Abbey National And Santander Finance Essay As Watson Head (2007: 310-311) explained the terms Merger and Acquisition are used interchangeably but the differences are quite noticeable. The term Merger suggests the friendly reorganisations of assets into a new organization; the two similar sized organizations will then become one entity with both sets of existing shareholders. On the other hand, Acquisition or a Takeover suggests obtaining ones companys ordinary share capital by another one. In an acquisition the one of the organizations is larger in size and financial stability and has the dominant power over the other one. The Acquisition process is lengthy and very complicated in nature. Acquisition of any particular organization can have several motives, the acquirer may want to amplify their economies of scale, market share or to attain the financial synergy through declining the companys cost of capital. All these can be classified as: Horizontal Merger and Acquisition: Involves companies at the same stage of production in the same industry. i.e.: the acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft in 2010 Vertical Merger and Acquisition: This involves companies at different stage of production but within the same industry. The vertical integration can either be: Forward movement towards the production process, i.e: A furniture manufacturer merging with a retail furniture outlet. Backward movement towards securing the suppliers, i.e: A furniture manufacturer merging with a wood supplier. Conglomerate Merger and Acquisition: involves companies in unrelated business lines. i.e.: A clothing company acquiring a jewellery company. Trends in MA activity 2004 to 2010 in Europe Banking Industry: Figure 1: One in Five companies plans to go for large scale Acquisition in 2010 some industries expect to be even more active. Source: USB and BCG CEO/Senior Management MA survey- 2009 on 166 European Companies. As from the Figure:1 and Graph:1 , The MA trend in Retail and Insurance industries are in inclining nature, but we can observe an inclining trend in the Banking industry MA in Western Europe compared to the global trend. The Western Europe Banking sector MA shows a parallel movement with the global MA trend, suggesting that the Western Market is very susceptible to the overall market movement. The inclining nature of the MA in the Western Baking Sector (from mid 2005- mid 2009) suggests the upturn of the MA trend in the during the current recession crisis, the banks were making profits with the global trends in M&A; as these banks are also earning fees from their advisory and other services, such as; syndicated banking facilities to support leveraged bids. The trend also suggests the wave of cross-border MA with the movement of the global trend in order to expand the business. Graph 1: Trend in Global MA activity (2004-2010), compared to Eastern and Western Europe banking industry MA. Source: Bloomberg In the current recession years; with low interest rate, poor bond yields and high level of liquidity- the banking industry within the Western Europe is embracing the MA opportunity as many corporations have pushed back the bidding deals.  [1]   Table 1: MA trend from 1/01/2010 to 29/03/2010. Source: Bloomberg Acquirer Region Target Region Average Size (GBP million) Global Global 110.63M Global North America 174.94M Global Europe 79.60M Global Asia Pacific 65.29M Global Latin America Caribbean 331.65M Global Middle East Africa 106.65M North America North America 159.79M North America Europe 114.29M North America Asia Pacific 48.36M North America Latin America Caribbean 47.84M North America Middle East Africa 17.54M Europe North America 546.90M Europe Europe 65.42M Europe Asia Pacific 636.53M Europe Latin America Caribbean 1.14B Europe Middle East Africa 95.87M Asia Pacific North America 128.86M Asia Pacific Europe 41.68M Asia Pacific Asia Pacific 46.56M Asia Pacific Latin America Caribbean 180.35M Asia Pacific Middle East Africa 94.18M Latin America Caribbean North America 183.26M Latin America Caribbean Europe 455.35M Latin America Caribbean Asia Pacific 73.86M Latin America Caribbean Latin America Caribbean 506.03M Latin America Caribbean Middle East Africa 11.21M Middle East Africa North America 10.50M Middle East Africa Europe 485.98M Middle East Africa Asia Pacific 21.17M Middle East Africa Latin America Caribbean 7.62M Middle East Africa Middle East Africa 134.77M From the table above, the MA trend is inclining more towards emerging markets as the target regions; although, emerging markets are also opting for MA activities in the same or different emerging markets to expand the business. An Acquisition CASE: Abbey national PLC acquired by Banco Santander SA: Background of Abbey National PLC: The Abbey National Building Society was formed following the merger of the Abbey Road Building Society and the National Building Society in 1944  [2]  . In July 1989, Abbey became a public limited company and floated on the London Stock Exchange. With 12 million customers and assets of  £ 177 billion, it is ranked the sixth largest bank in the UK by assets and the fifth largest by deposits (with a 9% share of the market). Reflecting its origins as a building society, it is the second largest mortgage provider in the UK, with an 11% share of the market. Furthermore, with 15% of the market, at the time of acquisition, it was the third largest provider of insurance protection products and has a large distribution network with more than 700 branches (EMCC, 2008). Abbey had two main business divisions, Personal Financial Services and the Portfolio Business Unit. Background of Banco Santander Central Hispano SA: Santander is a bank that has transformed itself: from being a middle player in the Spanish banking market 20 years ago, it is now a major global bank operating in Spain, Portugal, Germany, the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as in Latin America. The group is currently the leading consumer bank in Europe and has over 10,500 branches globally (excluding those branches gained through the acquisition of Banco Real as a result of a deal with ABN AMRO). Santander is a technologically advanced bank, with an information technology platform that is regarded as a strong competitive advantage. Excluding Banco Real employees, the group currently employs approximately 130,000 people worldwide, of whom 50% are working in Latin America. There are also large numbers of employees working in the UK and Spain. (EMCC, 2008). Banco Santander was a small retail bank when it started its business in 1985, since then it initiated its local market growth through mergers and strategic alliances; and later implemented Low-scale cross-border expansion through strategic alliances and acquisitions. Gradually, the implementation of Large-scale cross border expansion took place. Chart 1: Banco Santander Acquisition Transaction Overview till January 2010. Source: Reuters Overview of the Acquisition: The objectivity of this particular acquisition/takeover was to diversify the business of Banco Santander PLC to mortgage and financial services; not to mention to explore the retail banking opportunities in the UK market. Therefore, the motive for this MA was to gain economies of scale through synergy and also to entering a new market in order to optimize their market share, hence; buying Abbey was a mean to enter into Europes second largest consumer financing market. In 2003 Abbey National PLC was pricey for Santander and in 2004, Abbey incurred losses from its entry into the money market and Santander decided to go ahead with the Acquisition plan in order to penetrate the UK market. Moreover, the secondary objective of this acquisition was to under-cut the local competition for Banco Santander with the hopes of obtaining higher profitability in the UK market. Moreover, Banco Santander already had the expertise in the retail banking and built a strategic alliance with the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1988. Therefore, Santander had already gathered banking knowledge and futuristic opportunities. As stated by Parada et al., (2009: 666-667) Acquiring Abbey National PLC would make Banco Santander the biggest bank in Europe and Latin America and dominating their business in the strong currencies- the Euro, US dollar and the Pound. The acquisition had boosted the companys operation in six segments: Retail Banking, Global Banking Markets, Corporate Banking, Private Banking, Group Infrastructure and Sold Life Businesses. After the acquisition Abbey National PLC became Santander UK PLC in January 2010.  [3]   Abbeys leadership position in the United Kingdoms mortgage lending market, together with its extensive branch network, represent for the shareholders of Banco Santander and of Abbey an opportunity to create value based on the application of the best business and technological practices of Banco Santander to Abbeys banking operations. Abbeys business heavily contributes to reinforce our pan-European franchise and provides the Group with a more balanced earnings stream.-(Emilio Botà ­n, Chairman of Banco Santander, July 2004).  [4]   Table 2: Overview of the Abbey National PLC acquisition. Source: Reuters As noted in Parada et al., (2009, 666-668) in 2004 Abbey was suffering from losses from entering in the whole-sale money market; therefore, Santander grabbed the opportunity to launch a friendly bid. Santander managed to overpower all the regulatory obstacles. Although the acquisition was initiated in 2004; but the tentative completion of this acquisition is expected to be at the end of 2010; given Abbey National PLC will be renamed as Santander UK PLC. Figure 2: The 3 steps of internationalization implemented by Santander in 2004. Source: Authors. Acquisition of Abbey National PLC Graph 2: The dimensions of Santander acquisition with its growth (2000 to 2004). Source: Bloomberg The graph above portrays the rising nature of Santander Share price after the Abbey acquisition at the end of year 2004. Defence Strategy implemented by Abbey National PLC: During the Acquisition offer, Abbey National PLC urged its rivals British banks to make counter-bid offer in order to push back the  £8.9 billion offer made by Banco Santander. Moreover Abbey spent out  £9 million worth of Legal documentation to its approximately 1.8 million shareholders in the hopes of bouncing off the Acquisition offer made by Banco Santander.  [5]   Valuation of the Acquisition: The asking price for the acquisition was  £10 billion and the sold price was  £8.9 billion. The terms of the Acquisition were based on the equity market capitalisation of the two companies over the three months prior to 23 July 2004. Based on the average closing market price for a Banco Santander Share on the Spanish stock market was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬8.70 and the average closing mid-market price for an Abbey Share on the London Stock Exchange was  £4.69 at an exchange rate of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1.5054:  £1, the terms of the represent a premium of approximately 28.4 % with a value of each Abbey Share at  £6.03 or 603 pence ( taking into account the 6 pence for dividend differential, see the financing section), and the entire issued ordinary share capital of Abbey at approximately  £8.9 billion.  [6]   Financing the Acquisition Bid: The acquisition was finance through the purchase of Abbey shares and Mixed Bid offer was initially offered to precede the acquisition; where, Santander (the largest bank in North American and Spain) offered one of its own shares and 31 pence in cash for each share of London-based Abbey shareholders.  [7]  The special dividend of 25 pence will be paid along with 6 pence (31 pence in total) worth dividend differential to compensate the Abbey National shareholders; as historically the dividend payment of Banco Santander was usually lower than Abbey National Dividend payment (Table:3). Later on, in November 2004, the acquisition was carried out through an exchange of one new Santander Share for each of Abbey share. 94.6% backing support (based on the share counting only 64.8 % shareholders agreed to the acquisition deal) was received from the Abbeys shareholders in order to proceed with the takeover. The deal was worth almost  £9 billion (or à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 13.5 billion to be exact; at the time of acquisition offer the exchange rate was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1.5054 to  £1). The enlarged company would be 76%-owned by existing Santander shareholders, with the rest in the hands of Abbey shareholders.  [8]   Regulatory Framework: The acquisition took place under section 425 of UK Companies Act 1985. Moreover, Santander had to provide many paper-works and detailed plans to the European Authorities regarding the Abbey Acquisition (See Appendix, Illustration: 2). As a result of the acquisition, Abbeys remaining private shareholders became entitled to one Santander share and the shares are traded in Euros in the Madrid Stock Exchange.  [9]   Table 3: Capital Value estimated for the Abbey Shareholders, Source: http://www.vernimmen.com/ftp/sch-abbey.pdf Cultural Differences: Although, the Spanish culture and British culture vary in many ways they run business. In British Culture, organizations rely mainly on their Human Resource, whereas, Spanish Culture relies more on the technological upgrading. Abbey National PLC had about 33% back-office employees; whereas, Santander had about 6% to 10% employees as back-end personnel. Therefore, after the acquisition the employee number in Santander PLC came down to 16 thousands from 24 thousands in the UK. At the time of acquisition Santanders cost to income was 42%, whereas in UK it was on about 50% or more.  [10]   The acquisition may be affected by different tax incentives and regulations. Any change in the Spanish Banking policy will affect the Santander UK subsidiary both economically and financially. Moreover at the time of acquisition in 2004, the UK national savings rate is only 14.7% of GDP, compared with over 23% in Spain. Therefore, the spending and saving nature in the UK are very diverse than in Spain. As quoted in the Guardian (2005): Santander .. treats its Spanish shareholders to an unusually attractive range of perks, from discounted medical insurance and dental care to cut-price hams and crates of wine.  [11]  . Therefore, such treatments in the UK can be perceived as manipulative technique due to the variance in these two cultures. Performance in Share Price and Stock Market- Post Acquisition: Since Banco Santander is a Spanish bank, the shares was listed in Spanish Stock Market and the shareholders had to face exchange rate volatility since the dividend were being paid in Euros; nonetheless, the Spanish taxation issue can be quite complicated to the UK shareholders. The Abbey shareholders were given the option to sell the shares to any Spanish Organization in the UK, but Abbey shareholders who held on to their Santander shares over time have to pay tax on any dividends they get.  [12]  Banco Santander new shares after the acquisition were not admitted to the Official List or to trading on the London Stock Exchange during the post period of the acquisition.  [13]   In 2009 Santander 1.1 million new current accounts with our 25 million customers, and reported to deliver more than 30% profit in five successive years after the acquisition. Chart 2: The Overview of UK Competitors. Source: H1 09 Reports Data and BBA Abstract by HSBC Graph 3: Santander UK PLC share price performance. Source: http://www.h-l.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/s/santander-uk-plc10-38-non-cum-stlg-pre/charts The Santander UK PLC is in the second place after Lloyds Banking Group in the Mortgage market share in UK with relatively reasonable Market share in Retail Banking (Chart: 2). Moreover, The EPS of Banco Santander has been performing quite poorly after 2005, it has declined from 0.337 in 2005 to 0.27 in 2009 (See Appendix, Illustration: 3 ). The share price of Santander UK PLC has been rising from the year 2005 (Graph: 3), partly because the dividend was 15% higher than that paid in the mid of the year 2005. As of in 2006, 25% higher dividend was paid. In 2008, Banco Santander announced its agreement to take over Alliance Leicester PLC (AL). Under the terms of the agreement Banco Santander will offer one Company share for every three AL shares. The European Commission had approved Banco Santander  £1.3 billion takeover of Alliance Leicester Plc. Moreover, in year 2008, Banco Santander had agreed to buy Bradford Bingley PLC retail deposits and branch network. Santander had agreed to pay about  £400 million to acquire 2.7 million Bradford Bingley customer savings accounts containing some  £21 billion of deposits. Therefore, Santander UK PLC is still at its growth stage in the UK Market and it is focusing more on acquiring local financial institutions. Reuters reported in October 2009 that, Banco Santander SA planes to maintain its policy of paying half its net profit in dividends in 2010. Moreover, according to the Yahoo Finance (April, 2010), Banco Santander SA has higher Dividend yield of 6.80 % and global Foreign Money Centre Banks Industry has the rate at 1.96%, which suggest a favourable investment option to the potential shareholders. The Santander Group is working towards the policy of maximizing shareholders profit. Moreover, as reported in Bloomberg, Banco Santander SA is seeking to list its UK business in London Stock Exchange listing from February 2010 in order to raise funds for possible future buy-up opportunities, the listing offering may value at more than  £15 billion. Banco Santander is looking for funds to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland PLC network of 300 branches. On the other hand, Santander UK is willing to sell 25% of its stake in order to be listed in FTSE 100 and also to pay out about  £1 billion a year in dividends to construe an attractive deal to the investors (Source: The Times). Conclusion: Although, there were many speculation against the Abbey acquisition due to its cross-border nature, but all the speculations were proven wrong. Although, this particular acquisition was the most talked about topic in the UK financial market, and many believed the acquisition would not create any value for the Abbey Shareholders. With proper understanding of the local market, Banco Santander had utilized its previous acquisition knowledge when it came to this acquisition. Banco Santander knows what its UK shareholders want and trying to live up that expectation to serve their UK shareholders. Banco Santander is seeking to expand its business in the UK. Although, till date the Abbey bank transformation is still under progress, but Banco Santander had been patient with the UK market because they know- slow and steady wins the race. Bibliography: Huws, U. OKeefe, B. 2008. Managing Change in EU Cross-Border Acquisition, Case example Santander and Abbey: Expansion Enabling access to new markets. EMCC Company Network, 1-4. Mayer-Sommer, A. P. , Sweeney, S. Walker, D.A. 2005. Effect of Bank Acquisition on Shareholder Returns. Bank Accounting and Finance, 1-7, June-July. Lausberg, C. Stahl, T. 2009. Motives and Non-Economic Reasons for Bank Mergers and Acquisitions. The Icfai University Journal of Bank Management, 8(1): 1-25.

Interracial Dating Explored in Save the Last Dance Essay -- Films Movi

Interracial Dating Explored in Save the Last Dance The movie, Save the Last Dance, goes along with all of our discussions and conversations about the visual difference between the black and white cultures and the stereotyping that Hollywood does of the two cultures. The movie shows the difference in the two cultures, according to Hollywood.you have your typical white middle-class suburban girl (Sarah) and your typical low-class black boy (Derrick). Save the Last Dance is a love story about the pros and cons that comes along with interracial dating. Hollywood displays Sarah as your typical white girl whose forced to move into a low-class neighborhood (with her father, Roy), which is inhabited mostly by blacks, after her mother dies in a tragic car accident on her way to one of her audition. The theme of the movie is really plain and simple. Sarah has always wanted to become a ballerina and attend Julliard, a school of performing arts in New York, however, after the death of her mother, she loses the passion for her dream. Like I mentioned above, Sarah was forced to move with her father, Roy, who lived in an old ratty house deep in a ghetto (inhabited mostly by blacks) in New York City. It had to have been a huge culture shock for Sarah, I mean, here is this white middle-class girl who feels that she?s to blame for her mothers death. And in an instant, she?s taken away from her home, neighborhood, and friends and forced to live and attend school in a black ghetto....

Challenges Faced by a Country for Economic Development Essay

An economy is flourishing and is shown to be beneficial and fruitful for the people living in it only when the growth of the economy goes up continuously. It is essential for a country to not only develop politically or socially but it also needs to demonstrate economic development in order to sustain in the international market and in order to come ahead of other countries. But it is not very easy for any economy to economically keep growing because an umpteen number of internal and external factors that affect the growth and the economic development and it is essential and crucial for the countries to address the issues and move ahead. There are some very common challenges that are faced by an economy that are discussed below. The presence of external imbalances in the global economy is one of the most influential causes that impose a challenge on the economic development of any country. There can be reasons such as political disruptions, changes in import-export scenario or foreign currency reserve changes that can lead to imbalance in a country that is external to an economy. But the disruptions taking place in one country can adversely affect the economy and economic growth of other countries as well. The monetary and fiscal policies adopted by the government of an economy also have a huge role to play in the economic development. These policies tend to impact the interest rates, money supply and foreign exchange rates of an economy and if the policies are not in the favor of the growth, they can become major challenges and major issues all over the country. Read more: Essay About Disadvantages of Population The change in trade situations can also affect the economies. Exports of a country help it in generating external revenues while imports can be done for different purposes such as facilitation of a manufacturing process, providing basic necessities to the people etc. And hence if there is an imbalance in the external trade that is taking place in a country, it can lead to severe turbulence and can adversely impact the economic growth. Other economic factors such as poverty, inflation rate, population also are dependent on an economy and also impact the economy. If a nation has higher level of poverty, it is more likely to have economic challenges and similarly high population is not desired and not advisable for high economic growth. And that is the reason why the governments usually try to avoid these unfavorable situations and try to maintain a balance in the countries by different measures. There are many more reasons why the economies face severe challenge of demonstrating growth and hence it is crucial for the countries to adopt different and new policies in order to avoid these challenges and facilitate growth. Reference: http://classof1.com/homework-help/international-economics-homework-help/ View as multi-pages

Early America essays

Early America essays America. No other word in any language sparks such a passion of energy in people. Why is this? Is it because of the prosperity that the United States is associated with? Maybe, it is the idea of complete freedom. Most people in less fortunate countries dream about a life in a new land. Most often America is the land which pops into their heads. If people in less fortunate countries dream of a new life in America, why has their been a decline of patriotism? Quite possibly it is the lack of education, in the history of our fine country. People have forgotten why we live in a free country, or how our country came to be. Possibly it is the fact that since we no longer realize the overwhelming odds we faced in the revolution, or the matter of why we succeeded from Britain. People take this country for granite. Two authors, Howard Zinn, and Thomas A. Baily have not forgotten why we broke away. These men have similar opinions on the social, political, and revolutionary origins of our country. North and South America were colonized by modern European countries. The way these countries interacted was the basis for society in Colonial America. For example, Spain influenced the colonial times by introducing slavery through the Native Americans. Because of Spains introduction of slavery, it became a way of life in fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth century America. Baily and Zinn both agree that Colonial America was directly influenced socially by the mixing of different cultures from the immigrants. Society was an important factor in colonial America....colonial society was not democratic and certainly not equalitarian; it was dominated by men who had money enough to make others work for them. And: Few of these men were descended from indentured servants, and practically none had themselves been of that class. Here, Zinn gives an example of how society worked....

Cask of Amontillado essays

Cask of Amontillado essays Edgar Allan Poes, The Cask of Amontillado is an excellent display of how you can take a very sane person, given the right circumstances, and make a malicious person out of him or her. Revenge is a feeling that has the ability to over come a persons grip on reality. The narrator Montressor feels that he was insulted greatly by our not so fortunate Fortunado. Montressor vows to have vengeance on Fortunados for his heinous crime. The old saying an eye for and eye, does not really apply to this Montressor. His view on this matter would be something more like an eye for and eye and while Im at it I might as well take and ear, an arm, one or two fingers which I will break first and then sever at each knuckle. This just shows you what type of demented state of mind revenge can put a person in. This story begins with Montressor explaining that Fortunado has insulted him and that he is going to pay dearly for his unjust act. He thinks of a plan to utilize Fortunados weakness, his connoisseurship. When he comes across Fortunado he tells that he thinks he might have been taken on a recent purchase of what he thought was Amontillado (a very high quality wine), knowing that Fortunado will not be able to resist a taste. It is ridiculously clever of Montressor how he plays Fortunado like a puppet, all the while just toying with him and acting if he has no interest in his services. He even actually pretends to be concerned with Fortunados illness, he states: My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. These vaults are insufferable damp. They are encrusted with nitre (Poe 157). Finally after long debate, still in fear of Fortunados well being, he agrees to take him to his vaults and share this priceless wine with him. Upon their arrival to the vaults Monty offers Fortunado an ...

Annette Jacksion's Small Craft Store to Web Conversion Essay

Annette Jacksion's Small Craft Store to Web Conversion - Essay Example The lack of an already existent website can be viewed as a handicap, besides the low number of staff appointed to run the business. Therefore, the shop must look towards expanding its team of employees and creating a website that is comprehensive in terms of the details of products, purchase catalogue, and the like. Thus, this project management and expansion needs some analysis to begin with. The PAPERS Methodology is useful in such a scenario, when process, customs, promotion and web support are the major criteria in the formation and growth of the company. For instance, the eBay website employs the support of the customers and users of the website. They act as dealers of products and intermediaries. The website not only provides a great forum for buying and selling of products, but also gives the dealers, buyers and sellers the opportunity to discuss and share opinions and knowledge on various products via forums. The implementation of the philosophy of the selling of products and dissemination of information is in tune with the architectural compatibility

Wittig reaction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Wittig reaction - Essay Example The latter chemical agent is commonly known as the witting reagent, it results into chemical agents known as alkene as well as triphenylphosphine oxide (Carrutthers, 1971). Discovered in 1954 by Georg Witting, it continues to be vastly used in the organic synthesis of alkene preparation. This procedure should not be misunderstood with, the Witting rearrangement chemical procedure which is based on a different theory. The witting reaction is normally applicable in the coupling of aldehydes and kentones, is the single substitution of phosphine ylides. The out coming data from the ylides test results is nearly exclusive with the z-alkene chemical agent product. As such for one to obtain the E-alkene chemical agent, there is need to apply ylides under stabilization which can also be substituted with unstablised ylides. This can be undertaken with the application of the Schlosser modification chemical tests, after which the Witting reaction chemical test can be performed (Vedejs et al, 20 00). The witting reaction has a variation known as the classical mechanism; this is the established theoratical procedure of the witting reaction chemical test. It involves the bulk steric of ylide, this interacts with sterochemicals to produce nucleophilic addittives. This gives rise to betaine, the carbon-carbon bond rotation produces betaine tht in turn produces oxaphosphetane. By eliminating the desireable z-alkene in addittion to triphenylphosphine oxide components, the simplified witting reagents are used in a sequenced procedure. The first sequence of this procedure begins with a combination of aldehyes and ketones, this is followed by the decomposition of betaine. This decomposition occurs to the fifth form, this stage is also known as the rate-determination level. However, with ylides under stablization the initial sequence is noticed to be the slowest. As such the general alkene formation rate is reduced with time, this results into a sizeable proportion of the akene produ ct in which case being the E-isomer. This creates an understanding of the reasons, behind the failure of the stablizing reagents in proper reaction with sterical hindered ketones (Vedejs et al. 2000). Witting reagents such as phosphorus ylides, are prepared in a formulated procedure. Phosphium salt is the known derivative of preparation; it is also a resulting chemical agent from the reaction of triphenylphosphine and alkyl halide. As such in order to create the witting reagent being ylide, phosphonium salt must undergo suspension in a solvent such like diethyl ether with treatment of strong base chemicals like phenyllithium which can also be substituted with butyllitium. This can be shown with the following chemical equation Ph3P+CH2R X? + C4H9Li > Ph3P=CH?R + LiX + C4H10, in this chemical procedure methylenetriphenylphosphorane is the simplified ylide in use (Vedejs and Marth, 1998). This yield is also a precursor to a more defined elaboration of the witting reagents, alkylation o ccurs as seen in this chemical equation Ph3P=CH2 by the main alkyl halide that creates a phosphonium salt substitution. The formulation of these salts, is deprotonated in the normal matter resulting into a chemical agent as identified by the following chemical equation Ph3P=CH?CH2R. The ylide which is the witting reagent is structured in such a way that is identified as phosphorane in written form. This is an established representation of the ylide form, being a vital contributor as carbon remains mildly nucleophilic. Its chemical structure is comprised of a ball-and-stick model arrangement, that is takes the physical form of a crystal structure. In terms of its reactivity, simplified phosphoranes are highly reactive and very unstable in