At&T vs Skype Essay

This analysis provides an overview of the current and prospective opportunities for Skype, a Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) company. The report finds that Skype’s revenue has decreased dramatically in the last three years mainly due to the increase in competition. Josh Silverman, president of Skype, realizes some decisions must be made in order to remain an industry leader. The company’s current growth plan strategy includes three phases. Phase 1 though already completed, was to become operational on at least one platform, with one revenue system, and focus on one market with one primary service. Phase 2 consist of developing many platforms, diversified revenue streams, many conversation modes, many regions and market targets. Phase 3 encompasses multiple market segments, established products, regional ubiquity, and mature target markets. Though Skype is well developed there are still potential growth opportunities. These opportunities include expansion of existing calling plans and prices, incenting existing users to ‘sell’ Skype to new users and collaborating with cell phone providers. With the market growing rapidly the next phase taken by Skype is crucial in their development. By using the current opportunities Silverman can advance the company as well as attack other providers in the industry. SYNOPSIS OF CASE FACTS Skype is a software application that essentially allows users to use any telephone or videoconference services over any internet connection. This transmission is called VoIP (as shown in Appendix A) and because of the reasonable long-distance and local call packages this option has become an attractive economical alternative to landline or traditional cell phone plan. Josh Silverman, president of Skype, is faced with making the next strategic move that will put Skype in a better position to successfully compete in the telecommunications industry. In order for Silverman and his leadership team to proceed with the next steps it is recommended that they first assess the economic environment. It is important to understand the economic environment that it currently has, as well as the predictions for growth within the industry. Finally, Skype’s key success factors (KSF’s) include cost, building relationships with mobile operators, globalization and word of mouth promotion by existing users. If Skype can focus on one of these KSF’s and be uniquely different where it sets them apart from rivals then Skype will continue to see growth in users and revenue. In terms of market size and growth rate, The VoIP market increased 66% from 2005-2006 with a projected continual increase of growth for decade upwards of 150%. This growth was due to the inclusion of an expansion to other ways of utilizing VoIP services. From internet to cell phone usage, the forecasts called for VoIP applications to create $32.2 billion in profit with over 270 million users. As of 2009, Skype would not be considered a major competitor within the VoIP Market. Comcast Corporation, which held 31.5% of the market, was the leader by 15.3%. Time Warner was in second with 16.2%, and Cox Enterprises, Inc. at 9.6% was only 1.3% ahead of Vontage Holdings Corp. with 8.3%. The rest of the market, which was considered as â€Å"other†, encompassed 34.4% in which Skype captured a small share. All of the major competitors growth rates from 2005-2009 were declining rapidly. For Skype, this was good news because the projections in growth of U.S. and Europe users from 2005-2011 showed 17% increase in the U.S. and 37% increase in Europe. ​Although major players had a traditional stronghold on the telephone industry, Skype services created a substantial technological pull that provided a major shift in the macro environment for these majority companies. In addition, the transition from PTSN to VoIP technology also sparked regulatory and social conversations of change. And according to our textbook, â€Å"since macroeconomic factors affect different industries in different ways†¦it is important for managers to determine which these represent the most strategically relevant factors† (Thompson, Peterraf, Gamble, Strickland, 2012). For Skype, this environment was ripe with opportunities for growth, and the company decided to strategically chart their progressive growth into diversification through a phased plan incorporating the one to any platform functionalities. In addition, Skype would need to be concerned about new technology which provided potential new entrants an opportunity to gain market share . ​ The VoIP industry is in the growth stage of the lifecycle process in 2009. The landline telephone market is in decline due to f the attractive and less expensive option of VoIP technology, which can utilize the increasing amount of cheaper internet connectivity. Other markets such as the cell phone market are starting to introduce technology that based on current projections over half of the cell phone market will be VoIP based technologies by 2019. ​Skype’s virtual market encompasses a global strategy due to the unlimited potential and increasing deployment of fiber optic networks internationally. The barriers to entry are reasonable because they already have achieved substantial growth and success within one platform. Additionally, gaining access to technologies through innovation, acquisitions, and mergers are ways to go from their one to any platform in the future. The Company to work to establish itself in markets that are emerging, and where other players have not focused. STRATEGIC ISSUES AND KEY PROBLEMS SWOT analysis, see Appendix B was performed highlighting the positives and negatives within the company. Skype has succeeded in the market primarily due to aggressive pricing. However, the competitive pricing also puts Skype at a disadvantage. Although Skype’s growth numbers show a 47%, 72% and 61% increase in registered users, Skype minutes and Skype out minutes, respectively, in fourth quarter of 2008, Skype witnesses a decrease in revenue growth, 46% to 26% from Q308 to Q408, respectively. The company uses a broad differentiation strategy to appeal to buyers and offers competitive pricing, suggesting that buyers can reduce fees associated with long-distance and local calls that are incurred with their current telephone provider. A defined strength is word of mouth advertising which has ultimately kept down operating costs. Everyone loves Skype because it is largely free. The executive team at Skype is faced with crafting a strategy that will put Skype in a position to compete with heavy hitters in the market like Comcast (31.5% of the market share), Time Warner Cable, Cox Enterprises and Vonage Holdings. A key strategy for Comcast was the acquisition of AT&T’s cable operations. This move increased Comcast’s membership by expanding business geographically into 6 other states. Please refer to Appendix C for competitive matrix. DRIVING FACTORS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS Skype has several driving factors for the recommended solutions. One, the ‘fan base’ is instrumental in promoting the application. According to the executive outlook, ‘Skype becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby creating an incentive for existing users to encourage new users to join’ (Thompson, Peterraf, Gamble, Strickland, 2012). Secondly, Skype offers competitive pricing and plans which has attracted many users but a slight modification of addendum to the plan would promote profitability. Finally, acquisitions of competitors have been successful for other rivals, yet it could be expensive and not something that Skype could afford to do now. An alternative would be to continue to collaborate with cell phone providers. RECOMMENDATIONS The leadership team at Skype should focus on modifying and building out the calling plan to boost revenues. Skype-to-Skype minutes has seen the greatest growth between Q307 and Q408, 72%, however this plan is free. The addition of a small fee to this service or offering a prepaid bundled package could dramatically increase revenue in this area. Another strategy is to continue collaborating with cell phone providers making it easier for users to access Skype from mobile devices, not just desktops or laptops. Market penetration with mobile devices could increase membership and revenue. Also, Skye could partner with major W-Fi hotspot providers to have a â€Å"Skype Here† promotion where places like Starbucks would partner with Skype to encourage people to Skype from their stores. This would increase the time that a customer could spend in the store, and refresh the idea of Skyping from with a pleasure activity like getting a cup of coffee. This could lead to promotions with Skype as well. For example, if a member spends 300 minutes Skyping at a certain Starbucks then they would get a coupon for a free coffee at that location. With IM, Facetime, and other Communications applications the struggle is to keep Skype in the consumers mind as the preferred method of making communication, as opposed to the other methods. Lastly, offer incentives to existing users to encourage new users to join Skype. The incentive payout would have to line-up with the price points of the calling plans. ​Another area that Skype should explore is the corporate or B2B communications, companies spend thousands each year using conference calls, or virtual meetings. Skype should design a simple method for business to offer a fixed price conference calling plan on a per employee basis. The corporate market is largely untapped and corporations typically have a robust IT infrastructure that lends itself well to Skype. ​

Bag of Bones CHAPTER EIGHT

Buddy Jellison was just the same, all right same dirty cooks' whites and splotchy white apron, same flyaway gray hair under a paper cap stained with either beef-blood or strawberry juice. Even, from the look, the same oatmeal-cookie crumbs caught in his ragged mustache. He was maybe fifty-five and maybe seventy, which in some genetically favored men seems to be still within the farthest borders of middle age. He was huge and shambly probably six-four, three hundred pounds and just as full of grace, wit, and joie de vivre as he had been four years before. ‘You want a menu or do you remember?' he grunted, as if I'd last been in yesterday. ‘You still make the Villageburger Deluxe?' ‘Does a crow still shit in the pine tops?' Pale eyes regarding me. No condolences, which was fine by me. ‘Most likely. I'll have one with everything a Villageburger, not a crow plus a chocolate frappe. Good to see you again.' I offered my hand. He looked surprised but touched it with his own. Unlike the whites, the apron, and the hat, the hand was clean. Even the nails were clean. ‘Yuh,' he said, then turned to the sallow woman chopping onions beside the grill. ‘Villageburger, Audrey,' he said. ‘Drag it through the garden.' I'm ordinarily a sit-at-the-counter kind of guy, but that day I took a booth near the cooler and waited for Buddy to yell that it was ready Audrey short-orders, but she doesn't waitress. I wanted to think, and Buddy's was a good place to do it. There were a couple of locals eating sandwiches and drinking sodas straight from the can, but that was about it; people with summer cottages would have to be starving to eat at the Village Cafe, and even then you'd likely have to haul them through the door kicking and screaming. The floor was faded green linoleum with a rolling topography of hills and valleys. Like Buddy's uniform, it was none too clean (the summer people who came in probably failed to notice his hands). The woodwork was greasy and dark. Above it, where the plaster started, there were a number of bumper-stickers Buddy's idea of decoration. HORN BROKEN WATCH FOR FINGER. WIFE AND DOG MISSING. REWARD FOR DOG. THERE'S NO TOWN DRUNK HERE, WE ALL TAKE TURNS. Humor is almost always anger with its makeup on, I think, but in little towns the makeup tends to be thin. Three overhead fans paddled apathetically at the hot air, and to the left of the soft-drink cooler were two dangling strips of flypaper, both liberally stippled with wildlife, some of it still struggling feebly. If you could look at those and still eat, your digestion was probably doing okay. I thought about a similarity of names which was surely, had to be, a coincidence. I thought about a young, pretty girl who had become a mother at sixteen or seventeen and a widow at nineteen or twenty. I thought about inadvertently touching her breast, and how the world judged men in their forties who suddenly discovered the fascinating world of young women and their accessories. Most of all I thought of the queer thing that had happened to me when Mattie had told me the kid's name that sense that my mouth and throat were suddenly flooded with cold, mineral-tangy water. That rush. When my burger was ready, Buddy had to call twice. When I went over to get it, he said: ‘You back to stay or to clear out?' ‘Why?' I asked. ‘Did you miss me, Buddy?' ‘Nup,' he said, ‘but at least you're from in-state. Did you know that ‘Massachusetts' is Piscataqua for ‘asshole'?' ‘You're as funny as ever,' I said. ‘Yuh. I'm going on fuckin Letterman. Explain to him why God gave seagulls wings.' ‘Why was that, Buddy?' ‘So they could beat the fuckin Frenchmen to the dump.' I got a newspaper from the rack and a straw for my frappe. Then I detoured to the pay phone and, tucking my paper under my arm, opened the phone book. You could actually walk around with it if you wanted; it wasn't tethered to the phone. Who, after all, would want to steal a Castle County telephone directory? There were over twenty Devores, which didn't surprise me very much it's one of those names, like Pelkey or Bowie or Toothaker, that you kept coming across if you lived down here. I imagine it's the same everywhere some families breed more and travel less, that's all. There was a Devore listing for ‘RD Wsp HI1 Rd,' but it wasn't for a Mattie, Mathilda, Martha, or M. It was for Lance. I looked at the front of the phone book and saw it was a 1997 model, printed and mailed while Mattie's husband was still in the land of the living. Okay . . . but there was something else about that name. Devore, Devore, let us now praise famous Devores; wherefore art thou Devore? But it wouldn't come, whatever it was. I ate my burger, drank my liquefied ice cream, and tried not to look at what was caught on the flypaper. While I was waiting for the sallow, silent Audrey to give me my change (you could still eat all week in the Village Cafe for fifty dollars . . . if your blood-vessels could stand it, that was), I read the sticker pasted to the cash register. It was another Buddy Jellison special: CYBERSPACE SCARED ME SO BAD I DOWNLOADED IN MY PANTS. This didn't exactly convulse me with mirth, but it did provide the key for solving one of the day's mysteries: why the name Devore had seemed not just familiar but evocative. I was financially well off, rich by the standards of many. There was at least one person with ties to the TR, however, who was rich by the standards of everybody, and filthy rich by the standards of most year-round residents of the lakes region. If, that was, he was still eating, breathing, and walking around. ‘Audrey, is Max Devore still alive?' She gave me a little smile. ‘Oh, ayuh. But we don't see him in here too often.' That got the laugh out of me that all of Buddy's joke stickers hadn't been able to elicit. Audrey, who had always been yellowish and who now looked like a candidate for a liver transplant, snickered herself. Buddy gave us a librarian's prim glare from the far end of the counter, where he was reading a flyer about the holiday NASCAR race at Oxford Plains. I drove back the way I had come. A big hamburger is a bad meal to eat in the middle of a hot day; it leaves you feeling sleepy and heavy-witted. All I wanted was to go home (I'd been there less than twenty-four hours and was already thinking of it as home), flop on the bed in the north bedroom under the revolving fan, and sleep for a couple of hours. When I passed Wasp Hill Road, I slowed down. The laundry was hanging listlessly on the lines, and there was a scatter of toys in the front yard, but the Scout was gone. Mattie and Kyra had donned their suities, I imagined, and headed on down to the public beachie. I'd liked them both, and quite a lot. Mattie's short-lived marriage had probably hooked her somehow to Max Devore . . . but looking at the rusty doublewide trailer with its dirt driveway and balding front yard, remembering Mattie's baggy shorts and Kmart smock top, I had to doubt that the hook was a strong one. Before retiring to Palm Springs in the late eighties, Maxwell William Devore had been a driving force in the computer revolution. It's primarily a young people's revolution, but Devore did okay for a golden oldie knew the playing-field and understood the rules. He started when memory was stored on magnetic tape instead of in computer chips and a warehouse-sized cruncher called UNIVAC was state-of-the-art. He was fluent in COBOL and spoke FORTRAN like a native. As the field expanded beyond his ability to keep up, expanded to the point where it began to define the world, he bought the talent he needed to keep growing. His company, Visions, had created scanning programs which could upload hard copy onto floppy disks almost instantaneously; it created graphic-imaging programs which had become the industry standard; it created Pixel Easel, which allowed laptop users to mouse-paint . . . to actually fingerpaint, if their gadget came equipped with what Jo had called ‘the clitoral cursor.' Devore had invented none of this later stuff, but he'd understood that it could be invented and had hired people to do it. He held dozens of patents and co-held hundreds more. He was supposedly worth something like six hundred million dollars, depending on how technology stocks were doing on any given day. On the TR he was reputed to be crusty and unpleasant. No surprise there; to a Nazarene, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And folks said he was eccentric, of course. Listen to the old-timers who remember the rich and successful in their salad days (and all the old-timers claim they do), and you'll hear that they ate the wallpaper, fucked the dog, and showed up at church suppers wearing nothing but their pee-stained BVDS. Even if all that was true in Devore's case, and even if he was Scrooge McDuck in the bargain, I doubted that he'd allow two of his closer relatives to live in a doublewide trailer. I drove up the lane above the lake, then paused at the head of my driveway, looking at the sign there: SARA LAUGHS burned into a length of varnished board nailed to a handy tree. It's the way they do things down here. Looking at it brought back the last dream of the Manderley series. In that dream someone had slapped a radio-station sticker on the sign, the way you're always seeing stickers slapped on turnpike toll-collection baskets in the exact-change lanes. I got out of my car, went to the sign, and studied it. No sticker. The sunflowers had been down there, growing out of the stoop I had a photo in my suitcase that proved it but there was no radio-station sticker on the house sign. Proving exactly what? Come on, Noonan, get a grip. I started back to the car the door was open, the Beach Boys spilling out of the speakers then changed my mind and went back to the sign again. In the dream, the sticker had been pasted just above the RA of SARA and the LAU of LAUGHS. I touched my fingers to that spot and thought they came away feeling slightly sticky. Of course that could have been the feel of varnish on a hot day. Or my imagination. I drove down to the house, parked, set the emergency brake (on the slopes around Dark Score and the dozen or so other lakes in western Maine, you always set your brake), and listened to the rest of ‘Don't Worry, Baby,' which I've always thought was the best of the Beach Boys' songs, great not in spite of the sappy lyrics but because of them. If you knew how much I love you, baby, Brian Wilson sings, nothing could go wrong with you. And oh folks, wouldn't that be a world. I sat there listening and looked at the cabinet set against the right side of the stoop. We kept our garbage in there to foil the neighborhood raccoons. Even cans with snap-down lids won't always do that; if the coons are hungry enough, they somehow manage the lids with their clever little hands. You're not going to do what you're thinking of doing, I told myself. I mean . . . are you? It seemed I was or that I was at least going to have a go. When the Beach Boys gave way to Rare Earth, I got out of the car, opened the storage cabinet, and pulled out two plastic garbage cans. There was a guy named Stan Proulx who came down to yank the trash twice a week (or there was four years ago, I reminded myself), one of Bill Dean's farflung network of part-timers working for cash off the books, but I didn't think Stan would have been down to collect the current accumulation of swill because of the holiday, and I was right. There were two plastic garbage bags in each can. I hauled them out (cursing myself for a fool even while I was doing it) and untwisted the yellow ties. I really don't think I was so obsessed that I would have dumped a bunch of wet garbage out on my stoop if it had come to that (of course I'll never know for sure, and maybe that's for the best), but it didn't. No one had lived in the house for four years, remember, and it's occupancy that produces garbage everything from coffee-grounds to used sanitary napkins. The stuff in these bags was dry trash swept together and carted out by Brenda Meserve's cleaning crew. There were nine vacuum-cleaner disposal bags containing forty-eight months of dust, dirt, and dead flies. There were wads of paper towels, some smelling of aromatic furniture polish and others of the sharper but still pleasant aroma of Windex. There was a moldy mattress pad and a silk jacket which had that unmistakable dined-upon-by-moths look. The jacket certainly caused me no regrets; a mistake of my young manhood, it looked like something from the Beatles' ‘I Am the Walrus' era. Goo-goo-joob, baby. There was a box filled with broken glass . . . another filled with unrecognizable (and presumably out-of-date) plumbing fixtures . . . a torn and filthy square of carpet . . . done-to-death dishtowels, faded and ragged . . . the old oven-gloves I'd used when cooking burgers and chicken on the barbecue . . . The sticker was in a twist at the bottom of the second bag. I'd known I would find it from the moment I'd felt that faintly tacky patch on the sign, I'd known but I'd needed to see it for myself. The same way old Doubting Thomas had needed to get the blood under his fingernails, I suppose. I placed my find on a board of the sunwarmed stoop and smoothed it out with my hand. It was shredded around the edges. I guessed Bill had probably used a putty-knife to scrape it off. He hadn't wanted Mr. Noonan to come back to the lake after four years and discover some beered-up kid had slapped a radio-station sticker on his driveway sign. Gorry, no, ‘t'wouldn't be proper, deah. So off it had come and into the trash it had gone and here it was again, another piece of my nightmare unearthed and not much the worse for wear. I ran my fingers over it. WBLM, 102.9, PORTLAND'S ROCK AND ROLL BLIMP. I told myself didn't have to be afraid. That it meant nothing, just as all the rest of it meant nothing. Then I got the broom out of the cabinet, swept all the trash together, and dumped it back in the plastic bags. The sticker went in with the rest. I went inside meaning to shower the dust and grime away, then spied my own bathing suitie, still lying in one of my open suitcases, and decided to go swimming instead. The suit was a jolly number, covered with spouting whales, that I had purchased in Key Largo. I thought my pal in the Bosox cap would have approved. I checked my watch and saw that I had finished my Villageburger forty-five minutes ago. Close enough for government work, Kemo sabe, especially after engaging in an energetic game of Trash-Bag Treasure Hunt. I pulled on my suit and walked down the railroad-tie steps which lead from Sara to the water. My flip-flops snapped and flapped. A few late mosquitoes hummed. The lake gleamed in front of me, still and inviting under that low humid sky. Running north and south along its edge, bordering the entire east side of the lake, was a right-of-way path (it's called ‘common property' in the deeds) which folks on the TR simply call The Street. If one were to turn left onto The Street at the foot of my steps, one could walk all the way down to the Dark Score Marina, passing Warrington's and Buddy Jellison's scuzzy little eatery on the way . . . not to mention four dozen summer cottages, discreetly tucked into sloping groves of spruce and pine. Turn right and you could walk to Halo Bay, although it would take you a day to do it with The Street overgrown the way it is now. I stood there for a moment on the path, then ran forward and leaped into the water. Even as I flew through the air with the greatest of ease, it occurred to me that the last time I had jumped in like this, I had been holding my wife's hand. Touching down was almost a catastrophe. The water was cold enough to remind me that I was forty, not fourteen, and for a moment my heart stopped dead in my chest. As Dark Score Lake closed over my head, I felt quite sure that I wasn't going to come up alive. I'd be found drifting facedown between the swimming float and my little stretch of The Street, a victim of cold water and a greasy Villageburger. They'd carve Your Mother Always Said To Wait At Least An Hour on my tombstone. Then my feet landed in the stones and slimy weedstuff growing along the bottom, my heart kick-started, and I shoved upward like a guy planning to slam-dunk home the last score of a close basketball game. As I returned to the air, I gasped. Water went in my mouth and I coughed it back out, patting one hand against my chest in an effort to encourage my heart come on, baby, keep going, you can do it. I came back down standing waist-deep in the lake and with my mouth full of that cold taste lakewater with an undertinge of minerals, the kind you'd have to correct for when you washed your clothes. It was exactly what I had tasted while standing on the shoulder of Route 68. It was what I had tasted when Mattie Devore told me her daughter's name. I made a psychological connection, that's all. From the similarity of the names to my dead wife to this lake. Which ‘Which I have tasted a time or two before,' I said out loud. As if to underline the fact, I scooped up a palmful of water some of the cleanest and clearest in the state, according to the analysis reports I and all the other members of the so-called Western Lakes Association get each year and drank it down. There was no revelation, no sudden weird flashes in my head. It was just Dark Score, first in my mouth and then in my stomach. I swam out to the float, climbed the three-rung ladder on the side, and flopped on the hot boards, feeling suddenly very glad I had come. In spite of everything. Tomorrow I would start putting together some sort of life down here . . . trying to, anyway. For now it was enough to be lying with my head in the crook of one arm, on the verge of a doze, confident that the day's adventures were over. As it happened, that was not quite true. During our first summer on the TR, Jo and I discovered it was possible to see the Castle Rock fireworks show from the deck overlooking the lake. I remembered this just as it was drawing down toward dark, and thought that this year I would spend that time in the living room, watching a movie on the video player. Reliving all the Fourth of July twilights we had spent out there, drinking beer and laughing as the big ones went off, would be a bad idea. I was lonely enough without that, lonely in a way of which I had not been conscious in Derry. Then I wondered what I had come down here for, if not to finally face Johanna's memory all of it and put it to loving rest. Certainly the possibility of writing again had never seemed more distant than it did that night. There was no beer I'd forgotten to get a sixpack either at the General Store or at the Village Cafe but there was soda, courtesy of Brenda Meserve. I got a can of Pepsi and settled in to watch the lightshow, hoping it wouldn't hurt too much. Hoping, I supposed, that I wouldn't cry. Not that I was kidding myself; there were more tears here, all right. I'd just have to get through them. The first explosion of the night had just gone off a spangly burst of blue with the bang travelling far behind when the phone rang. It made me jump as the faint explosion from Castle Rock had not. I decided it was probably Bill Dean, calling long-distance to see if I was settling in all right. In the summer before Jo died, we'd gotten a wireless phone so we could prowl the downstairs while we talked, a thing we both liked to do. I went through the sliding glass door into the living room, punched the pickup button, and said, ‘Hello, this is Mike,' as I went back to my deck-chair and sat down. Far across the lake, exploding below the low clouds hanging over Castle View, were green and yellow starbursts, followed by soundless flashes that would eventually reach me as noise. For a moment there was nothing from the phone, and then a man's raspy voice an elderly voice but not Bill Dean's said, ‘Noonan? Mr. Noonan?' ‘Yes?' A huge spangle of gold lit up the west, shivering the low clouds with brief filigree. It made me think of the award shows you see on television, all those beautiful women in shining dresses. ‘Devore.' ‘Yes?' I said again, cautiously. ‘Max Devore.' We don't see him in here too often, Audrey had said. I had taken that for Yankee wit, but apparently she'd been serious. Wonders never ceased. Okay, what next? I was at a total loss for conversational gambits. I thought of asking him how he'd gotten my number, which was unlisted, but what would be the point? When you were worth over half a billion dollars if this really was the Max Devore I was talking to you could get any old unlisted number you wanted. I settled for saying yes again, this time without the little uptilt at the end. Another silence followed. When I broke it and began asking questions, he would be in charge of the conversation . . . if we could be said to be having a conversation at that point. A good gambit, but I had the advantage of my long association with Harold Oblowski to fall back on Harold, master of the pregnant pause. I sat tight, cunning little cordless phone to my ear, and watched the show in the west. Red bursting into blue, green into gold; unseen women walked the clouds in glowing award-show evening dresses. ‘I understand you met my daughter-in-law today,' he said at last. He sounded annoyed. ‘I may have done,' I said, trying not to sound surprised. ‘May I ask why you're calling, Mr. Devore?' ‘I understand there was an incident.' White lights danced in the sky they could have been exploding spacecraft. Then, trailing after, the bangs. I've discovered the secret of time travel, I thought. It's an auditory phenomenon. My hand was holding the phone far too tightly, and I made it relax. Maxwell Devore. Half a billion dollars. Not in Palm Springs, as I had supposed, but close right here on the TR, if the characteristic under-hum on the line could be trusted. ‘I'm concerned for my granddaughter.' His voice was raspier than ever. He was angry, and it showed this was a man who hadn't had to conceal his emotions in a lot of years. ‘I understand my daughter-in-law's attention wandered again. It wanders often.' Now half a dozen colored starbursts lit the night, blooming like flowers in an old Disney nature film. I could imagine the crowds gathered on Castle View sitting cross-legged on their blankets, eating ice cream cones and drinking beer and all going Oooooh at the same time. That's what makes any successful work of art, I think-everybody goes Oooooh at the same time. ‘You're scared of this guy, aren't you? Jo asked. Okay, maybe you're right to be scared. A man who feels he can be angry whenever he wants to at whoever he wants to . . . that's a man who can be dangerous. Then Mattie's voice: Mr. Noonan, I'm not a bad mother. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Of course that's what most bad mothers say in such circumstances, I imagined . . . but I had believed her. Also, goddammit, my number was unlisted. I had been sitting here with a soda, watching the fireworks, bothering nobody, and this guy had ‘Mr. Devore, I don't have any idea what ‘ ‘Don't give me that, with all due respect don't give me that, Mr. Noonan, you were seen talking to them.' He sounded as I imagine Joe Mccarthy sounded to those poor schmucks who ended up being branded dirty commies when they came before his committee. Be careful, Mike, Jo said. Beware of Maxwell's silver hammer. ‘I did see and speak to a woman and a little girl this morning,' I said. ‘I presume they're the ones you're talking about.' ‘No, you saw a toddler walking on the road alone,' he said. ‘And then you saw a woman chasing after her. My daughter-in-law, in that old thing she drives. The child could have been run down. Why are you protecting that young woman, Mr. Noonan? Did she promise you something? You're certainly doing the child no favors, I can tell you that much.' She promised to take me back to her trailer and then take me around the world, I thought of saying. She promised to keep her mouth open the whole time if I'd keep mine shut is that what you want to hear? Yes, Jo said. Very likely that is what he wants to hear. Very likely what he wants to believe. Don't let him provoke you into a burst of your sophomore sarcasm, Mike you could regret it. Why was I bothering to protect Mattie Devore, anyway? I didn't know. Didn't have the slightest idea of what I might be getting into here, for that matter. I only knew that she had looked tired, and the child hadn't been bruised or frightened or sullen. ‘There was a car. An old Jeep.' ‘That's more like it.' Satisfaction. And sharp interest. Greed, almost. ‘What did ‘ ‘I guess I assumed they came in the car together,' I said. There was a certain giddy pleasure in discovering my capacity for invention had not deserted me I felt like a pitcher who can no longer do it in front of a crowd, but who can still throw a pretty good slider in the old back yard. ‘The little girl might have had some daisies.' All the careful qualifications, as if I were testifying in court instead of sitting on my deck. Harold would have been proud. Well, no. Harold would have been horrified that I was having such a conversation at all. ‘I think I assumed they were picking wildflowers. My memory of the incident isn't all that clear, unfortunately. I'm a writer, Mr. Devore, and when I'm driving I often drift off into my own private ‘ ‘You're lying.' The anger was right out in the open now, bright and pulsing like a boil. As I had suspected, it hadn't taken much effort to escort this guy past the social niceties. ‘Mr. Devore. The computer Devore, I assume?' ‘You assume correctly.' Jo always grew cooler in tone and expression as her not inconsiderable temper grew hotter. Now I heard myself emulating her in a way that was frankly eerie. ‘Mr. Devore, I'm not accustomed to being called in the evening by men I don't know, nor do I intend to prolong the conversation when a man who does so calls me a liar. Good evening, sir.' ‘If everything was fine, then why did you stop?' ‘I've been away from the TR for some time, and I wanted to know if the Village Cafe was still open. Oh, by the way I don't know where you got my telephone number, but I know where you can put it. Good night.' I broke the connection with my thumb and then just looked at the phone, as if I had never seen such a gadget in my life. The hand holding it was trembling. My heart was beating hard; I could feel it in my neck and wrists as well as my chest. I wondered if I could have told Devore to stick my phone number up his ass if I hadn't had a few million rattling around in the bank myself. The Battle of the Titans, dear, Jo said in her cool voice. And all over a teenage girl in a trailer. She didn't even have any breasts to speak of. I laughed out loud. War of the Titans? Hardly. Some old robber baron from the turn of the century had said, ‘These days a man with a million dollars thinks he's rich.' Devore would likely have the same opinion of me, and in the wider scheme of things he would be right. Now the western sky was alight with unnatural, pulsing color. It was the finale. ‘What was that all about?' I asked. No answer; only a loon calling across the lake. Protesting all the unaccustomed noise in the sky, as likely as not. I got up, went inside, and put the phone back in its charging cradle, realizing as I did that I was expecting it to ring again, expecting Devore to start spouting movie cliches: If you get in my way I'll and I'm warning you, friend, not to and Let me give you a piece of good advice before you. The phone didn't ring. I poured the rest of my soda down my gullet, which was understandably dry, and decided to go to bed. At least there hadn't been any weeping and wailing out there on the deck; Devore had pulled me out of myself. In a weird way, I was grateful to him. I went into the north bedroom, undressed, and lay down. I thought about the little girl, Kyra, and the mother who could have been her older sister. Devore was pissed at Mattie, that much was clear, and if I was a financial nonentity to the guy, what must she be to him? And what kind of resources would she have if he had taken against her? That was a pretty nasty thought, actually, and it was the one I fell asleep on. I got up three hours later to eliminate the can of soda I had unwisely downed before retiring, and as I stood before the bowl, pissing with one eye open, I heard the sobbing again. A child somewhere in the dark, lost and frightened . . . or perhaps just pretending to be lost and frightened. ‘Don't,' I said. I was standing naked before the toilet bowl, my back alive with gooseflesh. ‘Please don't start up with this shit, it's scary.' The crying dwindled as it had before, seeming to diminish like something carried down a tunnel. I went back to bed, turned on my side, and closed my eyes. ‘It was a dream,' I said. ‘Just another Manderley dream.' I knew better, but I also knew I was going back to sleep, and right then that seemed like the important thing. As I drifted off, I thought in a voice that was purely my own: She is alive. Sara is alive. And I understood something, too: she belonged to me. I had reclaimed her. For good or ill, I had come home.

The Presidential Powers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Presidential Powers - Essay Example Presidents can get the congressional support by building up public support for their policies. Thus, the presidential powers are limited and it can be argued that the constitutional powers given to the president are the weakest. The actual constitutional powers given to the president can be limited and different from those given to the Congress. It can not be said that the president is ‘too powerful’ or more powerful than the Congress. Under the constitution, the presidential powers are limited to institutional and political. The president serves as the chief executive which is the head of the executive branch according to the constitution. This implies the presidential powers as being the chief administrative officer within the division of labor in the executive branch. The president also serves as the Commander-In-chief of the armed forces but in limited powers and as the financial manager of the federal budget approver (Ginsberg 309). The president holds the responsib ility to manage the National Budget but ultimately Congress has to approve it. Furthermore, the president has the authority to sign the bills into laws and has the power to veto them, but again the Congress has the powers to over-ride his veto. The Congress must also approve the decisions made by the president to assign judges to the Supreme Court and other high positions like Foreign Ambassador. The president has a role on the law enforcement on the condition that he takes care of the law being executed fairly. But over the years, the Congress has also been involved in the law enforcement duties and the presidential powers have turned out to be in rough proportion to the responsibilities and power of the national government. The formal powers of the president include many significant leadership roles that can be majorly divided into two authorities: domestic policy and foreign affairs. In the domestic arena, the president has the powers as the chief executive and the authority to o versee the execution and the implementation of the law. The president can also influence the legislative and judicial branches significantly. Thus, through these powers, the president can form a long-lasting influence on the nation’s domestic policies. Moreover, the constitution gives the Congress and the president different responsibilities for the war. The president is allowed to wage wars as commander in chief whereas Congress has the power to declare wars and fund them.  

Death be not proud because I could not stop for death Essay

Death be not proud because I could not stop for death - Essay Example Donne treats death as a person in his poem and contradicts its power. He tells death not to be so proud as it is not as scary as it shows people it is. The writer tells death that it isn’t as powerful as it thinks it is and he contradicts its strength. The writer says that people don’t die when they meet death and neither will he himself. He compares death with ‘rest and sleep’ (Donne 11), the two things which are peaceful and not scary at all. He says that the good people know that death doesn’t bring pain rather pleasure. The poem further goes on to explain death as a slave and the writer accuses death of being associated with elements such as poison, sickness, and war. He says that he could just have some drugs and fall asleep which is just the same as death would be. Death is considered to be just a short sleep that humans take and then the good ones wake up again to eternity (Donne 11). Since this happens, death is not eternal and death dies whi ch means it has no power. The beginning of the poem focuses on the theme of death and the speaker addresses death as a proud person with an attitude problem who thinks himself as the most powerful. The speaker says that death considers himself as someone who can boss around and overpower the people. It is a powerful force that scares people and people wish to escape it. He is treated as the king as everyone thinks it is here to do something terrible (Donne 11). However, the speaker says that he isn’t afraid and he knows that death isn’t as scary as it shows everyone. The speaker confronts death and tells him that he isn’t scared as he knows that people think wrong. The poem then forms further elements that death is not actually death and it dies with reference to the Christian tradition that everyone will rise for eternity. This means that death is not real and it is not forever.

Envs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Envs - Essay Example The product is cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). Mc Donald’s french fries also contain derivatives of wheat and dairy. I used to eat McDonald’s french fries every week, sometimes even more especially when I hang out with my friends more often than usual. However, I have recently come across a number of articles claiming that McDonald’s french fries contain a considerable amount of trans-fat oil and so I have limited my consumption of the product since then. However, the rest of the world still apparently enjoys eating McDonald’s french fries as millions of pounds of the product are being consumed everyday. This probably explains, in part, the health issues faced by the world’s population since a small pack of french fries could amount to 250 calories, 13 grams of fat with 2.5 grams of that being saturated fat, and 140mg of sodium. The unknown composition of â€Å"natural flavorings† is likewise seemingly not a concern for Mc Donald’s french fries consumers. McDonald’s is apparently among the leaders in the industry when it comes to environmentally-conscious policies. The company website mentions that all of McDonald’s bags, tray liners and cup carriers are made from 100 percent recycled paper while packaging of hot foods including french fries are made from cartons or paper packaging made from 72% recycled paper. In addition, a decrease in the cardboard weight of corrugated containers and the introduction of larger shipping containers during product transport has helped minimize the amount of packaging materials required by McDonalds. Also, the company is employing the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Dispose program which aims to decrease wastage as much as possible.

Revelation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Revelation - Essay Example When someone reads the quote that someone would give a different meaning if there were other words selected for the quote. Even if the words meant something similar to the words already in the quote, the interpretation of the quote would be entirely different. The quote means that there is light, and that time will stand still in the light. When someone dies that someone sees only light, peacefulness, and happiness, the quote has profane time because time on earth is priceless, and time in heaven will be endless. Having time on earth with one’s family gives one a sense of belonging and togetherness. One will take a family snapshot to keep memories alive, and remember those loved ones who have passed away. When life on earth is done all one, has been the memories of a loved one, and often those memories are captured when time freezes in a family snapshot. Family snapshots are one of the most important things that a person can have, these things help to keep the memory alive and are especially important when a loved one dies. Loved ones who die will see the light, which is what the sunlight, or flash represents in the quote. The flash, and time standing still are symbols as if they are symbols of the afterlife. So, whenever a person takes a snapshot to capture one moment in time, the person should realize this may be it, this may be the last snapshot taken. Part Two: â€Å"The doctor’s waiting room† (86) was small in size, and Mrs. Turpin could not be there were so many people in the waiting room. Mrs. Turpin wanted Claude to sit down so she said â€Å"sit in that chair† (86). When Claude sat down this is Turpin continued to look around the room. Her eyes became focused on an elderly gentleman sitting in a chair near Claude. â€Å"The lean stringy old fellow with a rusty hand on each mean was pretending to be asleep† (86). Claude tried to get up and allow Mrs. Turpin to sit down. Mrs. Turpin said to Claude â€Å"you know you ar e not supposed to be standing on that leg† (86). Claude let everyone in the waiting room know what was wrong with his life, and why he was not supposed to be standing on his leg. With nowhere to sit one of the other women sitting in the waiting room who was dressed just like Mrs. Turpin suggested that the little boy in the waiting room cannot, and allow Mrs. Turpin to sit down â€Å"but the child did not stir† (86). Mrs. Turpin decided she would need to wait until someone was called into the doctor’s office before she would be able to sit. The waiting room was small, and â€Å"hardly bigger than the garage† (86). There were not too many moments that passed by before the â€Å"door opened and a nurse† (86) called the next patient in. Mrs. Turpin, and the woman who dressed like Mrs. Turpin was having a conversation. Next to the woman â€Å"was a fat girl of 18 or 19" (87). The fat girl was well-dressed women’s daughter. The child’s moth er sat next to him, she was dirty. Mrs. Turpin often entertains herself at night with thoughts of how blessed her was that she was who she is. Sometimes, â€Å"Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming classes of people† (88). The classes of people were below her, with her, and above her. The child’s mother was definitely below Mrs. Turpin. Mrs. Turpin, and the well-dressed woman were having a conversation in the doctor’s office. The conversation was about anything that occupied either woman’s mind. Oftentimes the low class woman would join in the conversation. Mrs. Turpin would cut the lower-class

Same sex parenting issues Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Same sex parenting issues - Research Paper Example In the present modern world full of unconventional notions which were once unheard of, the American family has in response changed a lot and the concept of nuclear family is no longer as prevalent as it once was. Papers and TV talk shows are rampantly seen talking about same-sex parenting issues every other day and earlier this year, same-sex marriage has been openly legalized in more than nine US states as a staggering number of state voters approved and stressed on this step. Amidst protests by conservatives and gay marriage marches, one thing is settled though that the family structures in America have unequivocally changed a lot and this change is followed by a huge string of same sex parenting issues. It is implied by conservatives that there is a huge assortment of various risks associated with same-sex parenting which inflicts a direct influence on the children also. With such a collection of studies reporting problematic same-sex parenting issues, it has become increasingly h ard for gay couples to raise children in a safe and healthy environment. This research paper is primarily based on contemplating the grounds of several such major issues faced by same-sex couples in reference to parenting. Relevant literature will be reviewed in order to find out what the scholars have to say on the notorious challenges encountered by same-sex parents and why. One of the biggest issues is related to the lack of legal recognition awarded to same-sex couples which affects the upbringing of children in such families in that they remain unsure of their roots and reality. The thing that lesbian and gay parents are not trusted with their parenting by the society gives birth to grave obstacles of multiple kinds. Same-sex family is not considered an optimal structure for child development and all associated constellations are thought to be fraught with deficiencies which could negatively influence a child’s development. Parent-child relationship in gay or lesbian families is sadly not adequately protected or even recognized by law (Martin, 1998). The ability of gay and lesbian parents to address the emotional, psychological, and social needs of children in comparison to heterosexual parents has also been widely debated both by entertainment media and research literature. Nearly all

Fostering a Learning Organisation for Small Community Tabloid Essay

Fostering a Learning Organisation for Small Community Tabloid - Essay Example A new management was installed to carry out company restructure. The takeover management was resolute to achieve a bit more than company survival but to be a source of insight through business leadership. A first concern was whether the paper made a connection with the community, and an organizational assessment was conducted. The appraisal should determine the possibility of a radical turnaround, directing financial sustainability and professional management. Sometime in the 1990s, the newspaper weekly was formed through the convictions of two brothers who were once newspaper boys roaming the city. These days, they are men of political ambitions, and the paper advocates to shape collective expression. The company had undergone a rough evolution typical of small organizations, survived a series of turnovers, low liquidity; high debt and structure transitions from corporate to proprietorship, to the foundation, led activities. From the ownership end, there seemed a constant lack of commitment and a few notable failures. Small organizations form the backbone of the economy. Of a total of 811,592 business organizations, 61,762 are recognized as small enterprises and 743,949 as micro-enterprises. While the segment employs 69.9%, the rather huge amount of resource input equals an economic value of only 32% of GNP. Poor productivity arises out of the lack of business introspect and foresight, insufficient use of technology and poor capital formation. Of the recent four years, the community tabloid operated on a funding of 50 thousand monthly, and a three-term provincial Governor was its principal funder. The medium made up eight pages and was circulated within provincial borders, having a population size of about 320 thousand. Company revenues listed 570,274 covering seven months, with the portion of it uncollected or ‘arranged’ comprising 21%.

Art Analysis # 4 Expressive Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art Analysis # 4 Expressive - Essay Example This is a comic painting that is in contrast with the late Pollock or the tragic vision of the Rothko, it would miss a point if seen as being figurative. Nonetheless, it creates new areas of erotic everyday life to the abstract art. The painting is an abstract that does not exists; it is the woman that only exists on the mind of the painter (Mark and Annalyn 42). Moreover, the fabulation of brushwork and color, with the pushed, splattered, realized paint telling unequivocally that which is furiously sexual. Regardless of the fierce heterosexuality that exists in the painting of Woman I, the artists who have followed de Kooning into the new space between real world and abstraction dealt in the sexual ambiguity. Indeed, closer to the de Kooning’s cartoon painting are the Oldenburg’s fantasies of the mass produced consumables sexualized and inflated. Indeed, the exaggerations made on the woman including the giant lipstick are simply a portrayal of the emotional and romantic state of the painter’s mind (Mark and Annalyn 51). In a nutshell, the painting is an abstract that only portrays the emotional state of mind of the painter. It shows that woman the painter fantasizes off during the painting period. It is therefore not a real life painting but rather an

Legacy Business Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legacy Business Project - Essay Example Completing legacy business project on Cliff’s hardware instilled in me clear knowledge about systems and agency or stewardship surrounding family businesses. Completing the project made me realize the family business system is comprised of three mutually dependent and overlapping groups, which include the family, business and ownership. The overlap creates numerous groups within the family business with varying opinions, interests and objectives. Besides family owners, there are family members, family employees, family owner-employees, non-family owner employees as well as non-family employees. For example, we found out that Cliff’s hardware family business is managed by the family members including Martha Asten and Terry Asten Bennett, who has been Cliff’s Variety manager since the 1990s. There are also employees, who are not part of the Asten family. Based on the research, it was clear that the probability of a family business transitioning successfully from the first to the second generation is usually slim and grows slimmer as the business progresses to successive generations. Like in every business, family business is not immune to the issues of stewardship of agency. The interest of the family business must be protected because the overlapping groups with varying interest and opinions try to push for their own ends. A healthy family system is usually advantageous to the family business while a broken family system will negatively impact the health of the family business. Trust is often a critical ownership tool in family businesses. Holding regular meetings is crucial for the growth and survival of legacy businesses because it creates a platform for discussions beyond the confines of boardrooms. For example, in our project during our attempts to reach Martha, a second-generation member of the family business, we were told by Frank, an employee at Cliff’s that Martha and other family

Galileos Sense Experience Essay Example for Free

Galileos Sense Experience Essay How much can our senses truthfully tell us about the world around us? A person’s five senses provide us with observational information that help us day after day. According to Galileo Galilei, sense experience is misleading in understanding how the world works. In his book On The World Systems, Galileo expresses his view on the senses through the character Salviati, who is introduced by the translator, Finocchiaro, as â€Å"an expert who takes the Copernican side† (Finocchiaro, 4). Salviati is able to prove, even with opposition from the Aristotelian named Simplicio, that sense experience is unreliable in Galileo’s scientific method on the relativity of motion. On the second day of their debate, Simplicio tries to refute the Copernican view that the senses are deceptive. Simplicio states that â€Å"according to the view of all philosophical schools, this criterion requires that the senses and experience be our guides in philosophizing† (Finocchiaro, 212). In response to this, Salviati asks Simplicio to think of a stone falling from a tower and asks him to state how he perceives the motion. Simplicio responds that he â€Å"notices its descent in relation to the tower, for I now see it next to this mark on the tower, then a little below that, and so on until I perceive it land on the ground† (Finocchiaro 213). They come up with the conclusion that, since their eyes would move for a falling rock, it is indeed in motion, while a still rock would not be in motion because they would never have to move their eyes. In this case, their senses show them what is truly happening. However, Simplicio has a different situation to address. To present a more difficult scenario than the last, Salviati tells Simplicio to imagine being on a moving ship and to fix his eyes on the tip of the sail. Simplicio agrees with Salviati that, while he is on the ship, his eyes remain fixed on the tip of the sail â€Å"regardless of any motion by the ship† (Finocchiaro, 214). According to Simplicio’s senses, the tip of the sail is in no motion. Since it has already been stated that the ship is moving, Simplicio’s senses are deceiving him greatly. Salviati explains this phenomenon by telling Simplicio that â€Å"this happens because the motion transmitted by the ship to the sail yard is also transmitted to you and your eyes, so that you need not move them at all in order to keep aiming at the tip of the sail yard; consequently, it appears motionless to you† (Finocchiaro, 214). Thus, the senses are confusing. You can compare this idea to the Earth itself. Although when we are on the Earth our senses make it appear to be fixed and immovable, in relation to other bodies in the universe, the Earth is moving. Salviati begins to look at the greater picture of the universe. He first suggests other ways Salviati could figure out that the ship is in motion such as looking at trees and buildings on the shore but says â€Å"to convince yourself of the earth’s motion by means of such an observation, I would say you should look at the stars which, because of [the observation], appear to move in the opposite direction† (Finocchiaro 218). Salviati believes that looking at the stars is essential in understanding that the Earth moves. The stars appear to us to move but really the Earth’s motion is moving on its axis. Sagredo, who has been quiet most of the debate, suggests the moon as another similar phenomenon to the ones discussed. Sagredo wisely states that â€Å"those who are walking on a street at night, it looks as if they are being followed by the moon at a pace equal to theirs†¦this is an appearance that very obviously would deceive the sense of sight† (Finocchiaro 219). Although it appears the moon is walking next to us at night, it is in it’s own motion around the Earth. The sense of sight is just as deceiving when viewing celestial bodies. In the book, On The World Systems Galileo proves to us that our senses are one of the most unreliable components in observation. He shows us that we need to be careful with our observations whether they consist of rocks, ships, or stars. In his closing statement about relativity of motion and the senses, Salviati concludes that â€Å"we ought to be more careful and less confident in regard to what at first sight is presented to us by our senses, and that they can easily deceive us† (Finocchiaro 218). Sense experience is a faulty part of Galileo’s scientific method. Any inconsistency in sense experience can create inaccurate hypotheses about experiments and observations. Galileo uses On The World Systems to refute the Aristotelian view that the senses are our primary resources in philosophizing. In fact, our senses tell us very little about philosophy at all.

Growth of Venture Capital in India

Growth of Venture Capital in India VENTURE CAPITAL:- Venture capital (also known as VC or Venture) is a type of private equity capital typically provided for early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital investments are generally made as cash in exchange for shares in the invested company. It is typical for venture capital investors to identify and back companies in high technology industries such as biotechnology and ICT (information and communication technology). Venture capital firms typically comprise small teams with technology backgrounds scientists, researchers or those with business training or deep industry experience. VCs also take a role in managing entrepreneurial companies at an early stage, thus adding skills as well as capital . Inherent in realizing abnormally high rates of returns is the risk of losing all of ones investment in a given startup company. As a consequence, most venture capital investments are done in a pool format where several investors combine their investments into one large fund that invests in many different startup companies. By investing in the pool format the investors are spreading out their risk to many different investments versus taking the chance of putting all of their monies in one start up firm. A venture capitalist (also known as a VC) is a person or investment firm that makes venture investments, and these venture capitalists are expected to bring managerial and technical expertise as well as capital to their investments. A venture capital fund refers to a pooled investment vehicle (often an LP or LLC) that primarily invests the financial capital of third-party investors in enterprises that are too risky for the standard capital markets or bank loans. Venture capital is also associated with job creation, the knowledge economy and used as a proxy measure of innovation within an economic sector or geography. Venture capital is most attractive for new companies with limited operating history that are too small to raise capital in the public markets and have not reached the point where they are able to secure a bank loan or complete a debt offering. In exchange for the high risk that venture capitalists assume by investing in smaller and less mature companies, venture capitalists usually get significant control over company decisions, in addition to a significant portion of the companys ownership (and consequently value). STRUCTURE OF VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS:- Venture capital firms are typically structured as partnerships, the general partners of which serve as the managers of the firm and will serve as investment advisors to the venture capital funds raised. This constituency comprises both high net worth individuals and institutions with large amounts of available capital, such as state and private pension funds, university financial endowments, foundations, insurance companies, and pooled investment vehicles, called fund of funds or mutual funds. TYPES OF VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS:- Depending on business type, the venture capital firm approach differ. When approaching a VC firm, consider their portfolio: Business Cycle: Do they invest in budding or established businesses? Industry: What is their industry focus? Investment: Is their typical investment sufficient for your needs? Location: Are they regional, national or international? Return: What is their expected return on investment? Involvement: What is their involvement level? Targeting specific types of firms will yield the best results when seeking VC financing. The National Venture Capital Association segments dozens of VC firms into ways that might assist you in your search. Many VC firms have diverse portfolios with a range of clients. If this is the case, finding gaps in their portfolio is one strategy that might succeed. ROLES WITHIN VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS:- Although the titles are not entirely uniform from firm to firm, other positions at venture capital firms include: Venture partners Venture partners are expected to source potential investment opportunities and typically are compensated only for those deals with which they are involved. Entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) EIRs are experts in a particular domain and perform due diligence on potential deals. EIRs are engaged by venture capital firms temporarily (six to 18 months) and are expected to develop and pitch startup ideas to their host firm. Principal This is a mid-level investment professional position, and often considered a partner-track position. Principals will have been promoted from a senior associate position or who have commensurate experience in another field such as investment banking or management consulting. Associate This is typically the most junior apprentice position within a venture capital firm. After a few successful years, an associate may move up to the senior associate position and potentially principal and beyond. Associates will often have worked for 1-2 years in another field such as investment banking or management consulting. ORIGINS OF MODERN PRIVATE EQUITY:- Before World War II, venture capital investments (originally known as development capital) were primarily the domain of wealthy individuals and families. Today true private equity investments began to emerge marked by the founding of the first two venture capital firms in 1946: American Research and Development Corporation. (ARDC) and J.H. Whitney Company. ARDC was founded by Georges Doriot, the father of venture capitalism to encourage private sector investments in businesses run by soldiers who were returning from World War II. ARDCs significance was primarily that it was the first institutional private equity investment firm that raised capital from sources other than wealthy families although it had several notable investment successes as well. ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment of $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) would be valued at over $355 million after the companys initial public offering in 1968. Venture capital firms suffered a temporary downturn in 1974, when the stock market crashed and investors were naturally wary of this new kind of investment fund. THE VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDS IN INDIA:- The concept and origin of Venture Capital, trace its growth, and highlight the venture capital regulations. It has briefly explained about the Chandra Sekhar Committee recommendations, various types of Venture Capital Funds and the venture capital process in India. A simple case on first Venture Capital Fund in India, Technology Development Information Company Of India Ltd., has also developed with concluding remarks. Introduction:- The venture capital investment helps for the growth of innovative entrepreneurships in India. Venture capital has developed as a result of the need to provide non-conventional, risky finance to new ventures based on innovative entrepreneurship. Venture capital is an investment in the form of equity, quasi-equity and sometimes debt straight or conditional, made in new or untried concepts, promoted by a technically or professionally qualified entrepreneur. Venture capital means risk capital. It refers to capital investment, both equity and debt, which carries substantial risk and uncertainties. The risk envisaged may be very high may be so high as to result in total loss or very less so as to result in high gains. THE CONCEPT OF VENTURE CAPITAL :- Venture capital means many things to many people. It is in fact nearly impossible to come across one single definition of the concept. Venture capital is defined as providing seed, start-up and first stage financing and also funding the expansion of companies that have already demonstrated their business potential but do not yet have access to the public securities market or to credit oriented institutional funding sources. The European Venture Capital Association describes it as risk finance for entrepreneurial growth oriented companies. It is investment for the medium or long term return seeking to maximize medium or long term for both parties. It is a partnership with the entrepreneur in which the investor can add value to the company because of his knowledge, experience and contact base. THE ORIGIN OF VENTURE CAPITAL :- In the 1920s 1930s, the wealthy families of and individuals investors provided the start up money for companies that would later become famous. Eastern Airlines and Xerox are the more famous ventures financed. Among the early VC funds set up, was the one by the Rockfeller Family, which started a special fund called VENROCK in 1950, to finance new technology companies. General Doriot, a professor at Harvard Business School, in 1946 set up the American Research and Development Corporation (ARD), the first firm, as opposed to a private individuals, at MIT to finance the commercial promotion of advanced technology, developed in the US Universities. ARDs approach was a classic VC in the sense that it used only equity, invested for long term, and was prepared to live with losers. ARDs investment in Digital Equipment Corporation , 1957 was a watershed in the history of VC financing. While in its early years venture capital may have been associated with high technology, over the years the concept has undergone a change and it implies pooled investment in unlisted companies. MAIN ALTERNATIVES TO VENTURE CAPITAL:- Because of the strict requirements venture capitalists have for potential investments, many entrepreneurs seek initial funding from angel investors, who may be more willing to invest in highly speculative opportunities, or may have a prior relationship with the entrepreneur. Furthermore, many venture capital firms will only seriously evaluate an investment in a start-up otherwise unknown to them if the company can prove at least some of its claims about the technology and/or market potential for its product or services. To achieve this, or even just to avoid the dilutive effects of receiving funding before such claims are proven, many start-ups seek to self-finance until they reach a point where they can credibly approach outside capital providers such as venture capitalists or angel investors. This practice is called bootstrapping. In industries where assets can be securitized effectively because they reliably generate future revenue streams or have a good potential for resale in case of foreclosure, businesses may more cheaply be able to raise debt to finance their growth. Good examples would include asset-intensive extractive industries such as mining, or manufacturing industries. Offshore funding is provided via specialist venture capital trusts which seek to utilise securitization in structuring hybrid multi market transactions via an SPV (special purpose vehicle): a corporate entity that is designed solely for the purpose of the financing. In addition to traditional venture capital and angel networks, groups have emerged which allow groups of small investors or entrepreneurs themselves to compete in a privatized business plan competition where the group itself serves as the investor through a democratic process. Venture capital (VC) arms of companies such as Intel, Cisco, Reliance ADAG, Google and Yahoo are increasing their investments in early stage technology and consumer service start-ups in India. Early Days In the absence of an organised Venture Capital industry until almost 1995, individual investors and development financial institutions played the role of venture capitalists in India. Entrepreneurs have largely depended upon private placements, public offerings and lending by the financial institutions. In 1973, a committee on Development of Small and Medium Enterprises highlighted the need to foster venture capital as a source of funding new entrepreneurs and technology. Thereafter some public sector funds were set up but the activity of venture capital did not gather momentum as the thrust was on high-technology projects funded on a purely financial rather than a holistic basis. REGULATORY GUIDELINES FRAMEWORK:- Later, a study was undertaken by the World Bank, to examine the possibility of developing Venture Capital in the private sector, based on which the Government of India took a policy initiative and announced guidelines for Venture Capital Funds (VCFs) in India in 1988. However, these guidelines restricted setting up of VCFs by the banks or the financial institutions only. Thereafter, the Government of India issued guidelines in September 1995, for overseas investment in Venture Capital in India. For tax-exemption purposes, guidelines were also issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the investments and flow of foreign currency into and out of India have been governed by the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) requirements. Further, as a part of its mandate to regulate and to develop the Indian capital markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) framed the SEBI (Venture Capital Funds) Regulations, 1996. These guidelines were further amended in April 2000 with the objective of fuelling the growth of Venture Capital activities in India. OBJECTIVES AND VISION FOR VENTURE CAPITAL IN INDIA:- Venture capitalists finance innovation and ideas which have potential for high growth but with inherent uncertainties. This makes it a high-risk, high return investment. Apart from finance, venture capitalists provide networking, management and marketing support as well. In the broadest sense, therefore, venture capital connotes financial as well as human capital. In the global venture capital industry, investors and investee firms work together closely in an enabling environment that allows entrepreneurs to focus on value creating ideas and allows venture capitalists to drive the industry through ownership of the levers of control, in return for the provision of capital, skills, information and complementary resources. This very blend of risk financing and hand holding of entrepreneurs by venture capitalists creates an environment particularly suitable for knowledge and technology based enterprises. Scientific, technology and knowledge based ideas properly supported by venture capital can be propelled into a powerful engine of economic growth and wealth creation in a sustainable manner. In various developed and developing economies venture capital has played a significant developmental role. India has the second largest English speaking scientific and technical manpower in the world. The Indian software sector crossed the Rs 100 billion mark turnover during 1998. The sector grew 58% on a year to year basis and exports accounted for Rs 65.3 billion while the domestic market accounted for Rs 35.1 billion. Exports grew by 67% in rupee terms and 55% in US dollar terms. The strength of software professionals grew by 14% in 1997 and has crossed 1,60,000. The global software sector is expected to grow at 12% to 15% per annum for the next 5 to 7 years. Recently, there has also been greater visibility of Indian companies in the US. Given such vast potential not only in IT and software but also in the field of service industries, biotechnology, telecommunications, media and entertainment, medical and health services and other technology based manufacturing and product development, venture capital industry can play a catalytic role to put India on the world map as a success story. WHERE ARE VCS INVESTING IN INDIA? IT and IT-enabled services Software Products (Mainly Enterprise-focused) Wireless/Telecom/Semiconductor Banking PSU Disinvestments Media/Entertainment Bio Technology/Bio Informatics Pharmaceuticals Electronic Manufacturing Retail ISSUES AND CHALLENGES:- Indian Venture Capital yet to be established as a sustainable asset class among institutional investors. Moreover a limited amount of true risk-capital impacts entrepreneurial activity. Exit challenges exist mainly due to shallow capital markets and dull MA environment for small companies. Most importantly, India is yet to create a brand-name for IP-led companies, like Israel has successfully done. THE GROWTH OF VENTURE CAPITAL: A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON The venture capital (VC) industry plays an important role in nurturing entrepreneurship and innovation, and its role varies from country to country. The six countries whose VC industries are analyzed here are the United States and Canada, whose VC industries are mature; Sweden and Denmark, which have established small but successful VC industries; and Israel and Turkey, whose experiences demonstrate the state of the young VC industry in transition economies. The analysis is based on the four main determinants of the VC industry: sources of financing, institutional infrastructure, exit mechanisms, and entrepreneurship and innovation generators. In addition, the special role of VC financing in the biomaterials industry is explained. Understanding the factors that contribute to the emergence of a successful venture capital industry is important for academics, VC associations, policy-making institutions, government agencies, and investors themselves. VENTURE CAPITAL IN INDIA:- In India, the Venture Capital plays a vital role in the development and growth of innovative entrepreneurships. Venture Capital activity in the past was possibly done by the developmental financial institutions like IDBI, ICICI and State Financial Corporations. These institutions promoted entities in the private sector with debt as an instrument of funding. For a long time, funds raised from public were used as a source of Venture Capital. This source however depended a lot on the market vagaries. And with the minimum paid up capital requirements being raised for listing at the stock exchanges, it became difficult for smaller firms with viable projects to raise funds from public. In India, the need for Venture Capital was recognised in the 7th five year plan and long term fiscal policy of GOI. In 1973 a committee on Development of small and medium enterprises highlighted the need to faster VC as a source of funding new entrepreneurs and technology. VC financing really started in India in 1988 with the formation of Technology Development and Information Company of India Ltd. (TDICI) promoted by ICICI and UTI. The first private VC fund was sponsored by Credit Capital Finance Corporation (CFC) and promoted by Bank of India, Asian Development Bank and the Commonwealth Development Corporation viz. Credit Capital Venture Fund. At the same time Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd. and APIDC Venture Capital Ltd. were started by state level financial institutions. VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS IN INDIA:- The venture capital investment in India till the year 2001 was continuously increased and thereby drastically reduced. It is estimated that there was a tremendous growth by almost 327 percent in 1998-99, 132 percent in 1999-00, and 40 percent in 2000-01 thereafter venture capital investors slow down their investment. Surprisingly, there was a negative growth of 4 percent in 2001-02 it was continued and a 54 percent drastic reduction was recorded in the year 2002-2003. TYPES OF VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDS:- Generally, there are three types of organised or institutional venture capital funds: venture capital funds set up by angel investors, that is, high net worth individual investors; venture capital subsidiaries of corporations and private venture capital firms/ funds. Venture capital subsidiaries are established by major corporations, commercial bank holding companies and other financial institutions. Venture funds in India can be classified on the basis of the type of promoters. VCFs promoted by the Central govt. controlled development financial institutions such as TDICI, by ICICI, Risk capital and Technology Finance Corporation Limited (RCTFC) by the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) and Risk Capital Fund by IDBI. VCFs promoted by the state government-controlled development finance institutions such as Andhra Pradesh Venture Capital Limited (APVCL) by Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation (APSFC) and Gujarat Venture Finance Company Limited (GVCFL) by Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation (GIIC). VCFs promoted by Public Sector banks such as Canfina by Canara Bank and SBI-Cap by State Bank of India. VCFs promoted by the foreign banks or private sector companies and financial institutions such as Indus Venture Fund, Credit Capital Venture Fund and Grindlays India Development Fund. VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDING:- Venture capitalists are typically very selective in deciding what to invest in; as a rule of thumb, a fund may invest in one in four hundred opportunities presented to it. Funds are most interested in ventures with exceptionally high growth potential, as only such opportunities are likely capable of providing the financial returns and successful exit event within the required timeframe (typically 3-7 years) that venture capitalists expect. Venture capitalists also are expected to nurture the companies in which they invest, in order to increase the likelihood of reaching an IPO stage when valuations are favorable. Venture capitalists typically assist at four stages in the companys development: Idea generation; Start-up; Ramp up; and Exit There are typically six stages of financing offered in Venture Capital, that correspond to these stages of a companys development. Seed Money: Low level financing needed to prove a new idea (Often provided by angel investors) Start-up: Early stage firms that need funding for expenses associated with marketing and product development First-Round: Early sales and manufacturing funds Second-Round: Working capital for early stage companies that are selling product, but not yet turning a profit Third-Round: Also called Mezzanine financing, this is expansion money for a newly profitable company Fourth-Round: Also called bridge financing, 4th round is intended to finance the going public process WHAT DO VCS LOOK FOR? Venture capitalists are higher risk investors and, in accepting these risks, they desire a higher return on their investment. The venture capitalist manages the risk/reward ratio by only investing in businesses which fit their investment criteria and after having completed extensive due diligence. Venture capitalists have differing operating approaches. These differences may relate to location of the business, the size of the investment, the stage of the company, industry specialization, structure of the investment and involvement of the venture capitalists in the companies activities. The entrepreneur should not be discouraged if one venture capitalist does not wish to proceed with an investment in the company. The rejection may not be a reflection of the quality of the business, but rather a matter of the business not fitting with the venture capitalists particular investment criteria. Often entrepreneurs may want to ask the venture capitalist for other firms that might be interested in the investment opportunity. VENTURE CAPITAL IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL BUSINESSES, AS A VENTURE CAPITALIST TYPICALLY SEEKS : Superior Businesses:- Venture capitalists look for companies with superior products or services targeted at large, fast growing or untapped markets with a defensible strategic position such as intellectual property or patents. Quality and Depth of Management:- Venture capitalists must be confident that the firm has the quality and depth in the management team to achieve its aspirations. Venture capitalists seldom seek managerial control, rather they want to add value to the investment where they have particular skills including fund raising, mergers and acquisitions, international marketing, product development, and networks. Appropriate Investment Structure:- As well as the requirement of being an attractive business opportunity, the venture capitalist will also seek to structure a deal to produce the anticipated financial returns to investors. This includes making an investment at a reasonable price per share (valuation). Exit Opportunity:- Lastly, venture capitalists look for the clear exit opportunity for their investment such as public listing or a third party acquisition of the investee company. Once a short list of appropriate venture capitalists has been selected, the entrepreneur can proceed to identify which investors match their funding requirements. At this point, the entrepreneur should contact the venture capital firm and identify an investment manager as an initial contact point. The venture capital firm will ask prospective investee companies for information concerning the product or service, the market analysis, how the company operates, the investment required and how it is to be used, financial projections, and importantly questions about the management team. In reality, all of the above questions should be answered in the Business Plan. Assuming the venture capitalist expresses interest in the investment opportunity, a good business plan is a pre-requisite. METHODS OF VENTURE FINANCING:- Venture capital is typically available in three forms in India, they are: Equity : All VCFs in India provide equity but generally their contribution does not exceed 49 percent of the total equity capital. Thus, the effective control and majority ownership of the firm remains with the entrepreneur. They buy shares of an enterprise with an intention to ultimately sell them off to make capital gains. Conditional Loan: It is repayable in the form of a royalty after the venture is able to generate sales. No interest is paid on such loans. In India, VCFs charge royalty ranging between 2 to 15 percent; actual rate depends on other factors of the venture such as gestation period, cost-flow patterns, riskiness and other factors of the enterprise. Income Note : It is a hybrid security which combines the features of both conventional loan and conditional loan. The entrepreneur has to pay both interest and royalty on sales, but at substantially low rates. Other Financing Methods: A few venture capitalists, particularly in the private sector, have started introducing innovative financial securities like participating debentures, introduced by TCFC is an example. VENTURE CAPITALISTS INVESTING IN INDIA:- For a very long time, Silicon Valley venture capitalists only invested locally. However, throughout the years, they expanded their investments worldwide. Most recently, Matrix Partners, a leading American venture capitalist firm, had announced a $150 million India fund, where they will provide internet, mobile, media, entertainment, leisure, and travel services to customers in Mumbai. Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm, wanted to take advantage of investing in start-up companies and had acquired West bridge Capital, an Indian firm, for $350 million. It is no wonder that venture capitalist investments in India have risen dramatically within the past few years. From 2005 to 2007, VC investments in India grew from $320 million to about $777 million, respectively. Some important Venture Capital Funds in India:- APIDC Venture Capital Limited , 1102, Babukhan Estate, Hyderabad 500 001 Canbank Venture Capital Fund Limited, IInd Floor, Kareem Towers, Bangalore Gujarat Venture Capital Fund 1997, Ashram Road, Ahmedabad 380 009 Industrial Venture Capital Limited, Thyagaraya Road, Chennai 600 017 Auto Ancillary Fund Opp. Signals Enclave, New Delhi 110 010 Gujarat Venture Capital Fund 1995 Ashram Road Ahmedabad 380 009 Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund Cunningham Rd Bangalore India Auto Ancillary Fund Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Information Technology Fund, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Tamilnadu Infotech Fund Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Orissa Venture Capital Fund Nariman Point Mumbai 400 021 Uttar Pradesh Venture Capital Fund Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 SICOM Venture Capital Fund Nariman Point Mumbai 400 021 Punjab Infotech Venture Fund 18 Himalaya Marg, Chandigarh 160 017 National venture fund for software and information technology industry Nariman. DHFL VENTURE CAPITAL INDIA PVT LTD:- DHFL Venture Capital India Pvt. Ltd. (DVCI) provides advisory, managerial and consultancy services to Venture Capital Funds, Venture Capital Managements and Venture Capital Undertakings, related to Indian Real Estate. DVCI is promoted by Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), Indias premier second largest housing finance company in the private sector. The Company is presently providing investment management services to DHFL Venture Capital Fund. DHFL Venture Capital Fund was launched in Feb 2006, one of the first private equity Real estate funds in India. The fund is registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India. CANBANK:- Canaan Partners (Canaan) is a global venture capital firm focusing on investments in early stage companies in the technology and healthcare sectors. The firms technology group focuses on digital media, communications, enterprise software, semiconductors, and cleantech. The healthcare group focuses on biopharmaceuticals, devices, and diagnostics. Founded in 1987, the firm has offices in Menlo Park, California; Westport, Connecticut; Gurgaon, India; and Herzliya, Israel. Since inception, Canaan has raised eight funds to date and as of 2009 manages $3 billion in capital. Canbank Venture Capital Fund Ltd (CVCFL) is a wholly owned Subsidiary of Canara Bank. Canbank Venture Capital Fund is Indias First and Only Public Sector Bank sponsored Venture Capital Fund, set up in 1989. The Fund is registered with SEBI. Four Venture Capital Funds with an aggregate corpus of around INR 1200 Million launched till date. The portfolio investments are spread across diverse industrial segments. A Case on Technology Development Information Company Of India Ltd. TDICI was incorporated in January 1988 with the support of the ICICI and the UTI. The countrys first venture fund managed by the TDICI called VECAUS ( Venture Capital Units Scheme) was started with an initial corpus of Rs.20 crore and was completely committed to 37 small and medium enterprises. The first project of the TDICI was loan and equity to a computer software company called Kale Consultants. Present Status: At present the TDICI is administering two UTI -mobilised funds under VECAUS-I and II, totaling Rs.120 crore. the Rs.20 crore invested under the first fund, VECAUS-I, has already yielded returns totaling Rs. 16 crore to its investors. Some of the projects financed by the TDICI are discussed below. MASTEK , a Mumbai based software firm, in which the TDICI invested Rs.42 lakh in equity in 1989, went public just three ye

Blowfish Algorithm Advantages and Disadvantages

Blowfish Algorithm Advantages and Disadvantages Blowfish is a keyed (piece of information that determines the functional output of a cryptographic algorithm or cipher), symmetric cryptographic block cipher. It was designed by Bruce Schneier in 1993. Since then it has been analyzed considerably, and it is slowly gaining acceptance as a strong encryption algorithm. Blowfish is license-free and is available free for all uses. It is also a symmetric block cipher that can be used as a drop-in replacement for DES or IDEA. It takes a variable-length key, from 32 bits to 448 bits, making it ideal for both domestic and exportable use. Blowfish is also one of the fastest block ciphers in public use, making it ideal for a product that functions on a wide variety of processors found in mobile phones as well as in notebook and desktop computers. The first implementation of the Blowfish Algorithm in LabVIEW. With this set of subvis one can encrypt data in LabVIEW without the need of external software. This can be used to send data securely over Data socket as well as TCP and UDP communications along with protect remote control systems from unauthorized access, by encrypting the control communications. .( B. Schneier, Applied Cryptography, John Wiley Sons, New York, 1994.) 3.2 Strategies and Mechanisms Blowfish has a 64-bit block size and a key length of somewhere from 32 bits to 448 bits. The algorithm consists of two parts. One is a key-expansion part and one more is a data- encryption part. Key expansion converts a key of at most 448 bits into several subkey arrays totaling 4168 bytes. It is a 16-round Feistel cipher and uses large key-dependent S-boxes (basic component of symmetric key algorithms which performs substitution). Each round consists of a keydependent permutation, and a keydependent substitution. It is also similar in structure to CAST-128, which uses fixed S-boxes. Blowfish is suitable for application where the key does not change frequently, like a communication link or an automatic file encryptor. It is significantly faster than most encryption algorithm when on 32-bit microprocessor with large data caches. (Fast Software Encryption, Cambridge Security Workshop Proceedings December 1993) 3.3 The Feistel structure of Blowfish A Fiestel network is a general method of transforming any function (generally called F- function) into a permutation. It was inented by Horst Fiestel and has been used in many block chiper designed. The diagram below shows the action of Blowfish. Each line represents 32 bits. The algorithm keeps two subkey arrays: the 18-entry P-array and four 256-entry S-boxes. The S-boxes accept 8-bit input and produce 32-bit output. One entry of the P-array is used every round, and after the final round, each half of the data block is XORed with one of the two remaining unused P-entries. The diagram to the right shows Blowfishs F-function. The function splits the 32-bit input into four eight-bit quarters, and uses the quarters as input to the S-boxes. The outputs are added modulo 232 and XORed to produce the final 32-bit output. Since Blowfish is a Feistel network, it can be inverted simply by XO7Ring P17 and P18 to the cipher text block, then using the P-entries in reverse order. Blowfishs algorithm initialize with the P-array and S-boxes. The secret key is then XORed with the P-entries in order and then use the same method to encrypt all the zero string. The consequential ciphertext replaces P1 and P2 then encrypt the new P1 and P2 with the modified subkeys. Now the output is P3 and P4. Altogether Blowfish algorithm will repeat 521 times in order to calculate new subkeys for the P-array and the four S-boxes. It is about 4KB data is processed. The blowfish uses a large number of subkeys. These keys must be precomputed before any data encryption or decryption. The P-array consists of 18 32-bit subkeys: P1, P2, P3, P18. There are four 32-bit S-boxes with 256 entries each: S1,0, S1,1,, S1,255; S2,0, S2,1,..,, S2,255; S3,0, S3,1,, S3,255; S4,0, S4,1,..,, S4,255. Figure 3: Feistel Network (John Wiley Sons, New York, 1994) As what mentioned above, blowfish has 16 rounds. The method of calculating it: The input is a 64-bit data element, x. Divide x into two 32-bit half: xL, xR. Then, for i = 1 to 16: xL = xL XOR Pi xR = F(xL) XOR xR Swap xL and xR After the sixteenth round, swap xL and xR again to undo the last swap. Then, xR = xR XOR P17 and xL = xL XOR P18. Finally, recombine xL and xR to get the ciphertext. 3.4 Key Expansion Key expansion converts a key of at most 448 bits into several subkey arrays totaling 4168 bytes. The figure and the explanation of the Key Explanation of Blowfish are showed below Explanation for the Key Explanation of Blowfish figure : Step 1: Expand key to 576-bit XOR with P array Store results of 2 in P array Step 2: datal = 0x00000000; datar = 0x00000000; for (i = 0; i Blowfish_encipher(datal, datar); bf_P[i] = datal; bf_P[i + 1] = datar; } for (i = 0; i for (j = 0; j Blowfish_encipher(datal, datar); bf_S[i][j] = datal; bf_S[i][j + 1] = datar; } } 3.5 Application That Use Blowfish Method Below are the applications that using Blowfish Encryption: AEdit : A free Windows word processor incorporating text encryption. Coolfish: An encrypting text editor for Windows. Foopchat: Encrypted chat and advanced file sharing using a client/server architecture. JFile by Land-J Technologies: A database program for the PalmOS platform. Freedom by Zero-Knowledge: Privacy for web browsing, e-mail, chat, telnet, and newsgroups. JFile is one of the famous application that use blowfish method. JFile5 is the new version of the JFile. It is a flat-file database application for the PalmOS. There are 4 primary views in JFile 5.0. First is Main View, where it is the view that shows a list of all the JFile 5 databases that are currently installed on the Palm device. Second is New/Modify Database Structure View, this is the view when we are creating a new database, or modifying the structure of an existing database. Here is where we have to set the field names, the field types, the database name, and other elements of the database structure. The third view is Database View, this is the view that presented along when we tap on a database name from the Main View. The last view is Record View, this is the view that received when we tap a specific record from the Database View. In this JFile5 we can change the current method of security for each database by tapping the lock icon of the database on the main screen. There are three levels of security for databases in JFile5. The first level is the green/open lock where at this level the database contains no security, any user accessing the device can view and edit the database. The second level is the orange/grey closed lock, at this level the database is protected by the Security applications password (if it is set). To access this database, we will need to provide the password set in the Security application. This security level is appropriate for handing the Palm temporarily to a colleague so they wont have easy access to the database, but the information is not encrypted in any way. The third level is the red/dark closed lock at this level we will choose an encryption password for the database. The entire database will be encrypted, and we MUST remember the password to access the database. Due to the encryption, certain operations within the database will be slower. In addition, we will need to insure that any PC/Mac side utilities that we use w ith JFile support the encryption method. There are also some new features in this JFile5 where the maximum number of databases increased to 120 and it is improved use of color in the application compared to JFile4. There are 5 different sorts and filter settings can be saved for quick and easy usage, it is also easier to use because of the updated user interface. It is also has multiple locked columns for left/right scrolling in the main database view and the encryption of databases using 64-bit Blowfish algorithm. The VFS memory cards made easy movement of databases and have new calculated value field types. There are also default values for fields, read-only field options are also available with the Beam-Via-Coola (www.coola.com) support. They also enhanced resolution for Handera 330 devices, extensive keyboard input support and the Navigation of most common areas of JFile for JogDial equipped devices. The limitations for this JFile5 are 120 databases (1 in the demonstration version), 20 character maximum for field names, 50 fields maximum per databases, 4,000 characters per field of data, 10,000 characters per record of data and 16,000 records per database. 3.6 Hardware Architecture Pipelining is a famous technique for improving the throughput of computers, by using parallel elements so that several instructions can be worked on simultaneously. The basic idea of pipelining is to begin carrying out a new instruction before execution of an old one is completed. When pipelining is used, the number of steps in the basic algorithm is less important than fitting the steps into a framework so that they can be performed in parallel. The figure of the pippelining implementation are showed below These are processed separately (with delayed arithmetic carries shown in the figure as carry) and then combined at the end of processing. Even though more clock cycles are needed, the speed of the clock can be greatly improved, because smaller adders are required at each stage, with smaller internal propagation delays. (Malaysian Journal of Computer Science, Vol. 14 No. 1, June 2001, pp. 16-27) These are some examples of blowfish hardware architecture Figure 18: Chip Specifications What is this table? Explanation needed Mode Specification 0 Idle 1 Initial 2 Encrypt 3 DecryptTable 1: Mode Specification What is this figure? Explanation needed The controller is implemented as a Finite State Machine and described in a behavioral Verilog model. The figure and the explanation of the Finite State Machine are showed below Figure 20: FSM of Controller (Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography, John Wiley Sons, Inc. 1996) Explanation of Finite State Machine figure : e1: Finish loading data from ROM to SRAM e2: Finish initialization and mode != 1 e3: Finish encryption and mode != 2 e4: Finish decryption and mode != 3 Datapath includes ROM modules, SRAM modules, and the main arithmetic units of Blowfish. The figure showed below is the architecture of the datapath Figure 21 : The architecture of the datapath Explanation for the figure of the architecture : The  Ã‚ ° string is mapped to ROM_P and ROM_S-box. The P-array is mapped to SRAM_P, and the four S-boxes are mapped to SRAM_Sbox. Because the size of SRAM module is 2n words, P1 and P18 are implemented as registers, and the others are mapped to 1632 bits SRAM. We use a shift register under DataIn to expand 4-bit input to 64-bit input and a shift register over DataOut to reduce 64-bit output to 4-bit output. CORE implements the loop of the 16-round iteration. A pipeline stage is added to the output of the SRAM modules. The pipeline stages will double the performance of the Blowfish hardware but lead to the overhead of area. 3.7 Advantages and Drawbacks Blowfish is one of the fastest block ciphers in general use, except when changing keys. Each new key requires pre-processing equivalent to encrypting about 4 kilobytes of text, which is very slow compared to other block ciphers. This prevents its use in certain applications, but is not a problem in others, such as SplashID. In an application, its actually a benefit especially the password-hashing method used in OpenBSD uses an algorithm derived from Blowfish that makes use of the slow key schedule. Blowfish is not subject to any patents and is therefore freely available for anyone to use. This has contributed to its popularity in cryptographic software. The disadvantages of Blowfish are it must get key to the person out of band specifically not through the unsecured transmission channel. Each pair of users needs a unique, so as number of users increase, key management becomes complicated. For example N(N-1)/2 keys required. Blowfish cant provide authentication and non-repudiation as two people have same key. It also has weakness in decryption process over other algorithms in terms of time consumption and serially in throughput