Angel Meza
Prof. Halpern
10-21-14
Coca-Cola Announces Growth Plan as Profit Falls 14 Percent
By Reuters

The world's largest beverage maker, Coca-Cola, struggles to find growth. Coca-Cola announced Tuesday new cost-cutting measures and a timeline for selling its bottling operations after its quarterly profit slumped 14 percent. Coke shares were down 6 percent to $40.54 on Tuesday morning and down 1.8 percent this year. U.S. sales of carbonated soft drinks have been declining for nearly a decade, and more recently, consumers have shifted away from diet soda because of health concerns over artificial sweeteners. The company also said it expected to miss its long-term earnings growth target in 2014, due in part to currency fluctuations. Coke has tried to diversify its business by taking a smaller stake in companies in faster-growing markets and in some cases, eventually acquiring them, for example, Monster Beverage Corp. and Green Mountain Inc. However this hasn’t changed much and Coca-Cola still has to find a way to reverse what damage has been done.

Verizon Posts Higher Revenue as Profit Estimates Fall Short
By Reuters

Verizon Communications Inc. posted higher third-quarter revenue on Tuesday. It attracted more customers after cutting prices and as data-hungry consumers watched more videos on its network and used more devices, boosting their monthly bills. Subscribers are connecting to more than just phones, plugging in tablets, vehicle consoles and other devices to Verizon's network. Total revenues for Verizon's wireless business grew 7 percent year over year, while falling 0.8 percent for its broadband internet and video product. This success is due to Verizon’s idea of cutting prices and bringing back promotions which worked well. Another contributing factor is the amount of data being used by their subscribers is always increasing. Despite doing well for the quarter Verizon continued to be weak due to a softening in the global economy.

As Apple Pay Arrives, Witnessing the Next Step in Money. Maybe.
By Mike Isaac

On Monday Apple released a new e-commerce product named Apple Pay. The way Apple Pay works is that by pressing on a button of ones iPhone, one can make a purchase at thousands of retail locations, including Macy’s, Walgreens and so on. This will eliminate the use of cash, wallet and of course credit or debit cards. After entering their credit card information into the latest iPhones customers can wave their phone in front of a properly equipped payment terminal and verify the transaction with the iPhone’s fingerprint scanning hardware. This may seem like a good idea and something that can have a lot of potential however, Apple’s largest difficulty could be to persuade thousands of retailers to accept Apple Pay at the checkout line. One of the reason for this is because Apple Pay did not connect to loyalty and awards programs that merchants often find valuable. American merchants face a deadline to upgrade their credit card terminals to accept E.M.V. a technology that makes credit