Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Evolution of the Mobile Gaming Market and Contextualizing the ATVI-KING Acquisition

Description
This paper discusses the development of the mobile gaming industry and analyzes a mobile game acquisition to provide context to the entire market. By discussing the history and growth of the industry, I discovered that mobile gaming was a massive opportunity for companies to generate lucrative earnings. The discussion revolving…

This paper discusses the development of the mobile gaming industry and analyzes a mobile game acquisition to provide context to the entire market. By discussing the history and growth of the industry, I discovered that mobile gaming was a massive opportunity for companies to generate lucrative earnings. The discussion revolving around the evolution of the mobile gaming business model serves to provide context on the industry’s unique opportunities and risk factors. Candy Crush’s developer King is the main focus in this paper as they were the highest-performing public company in the market. The company is the greatest example of the mobile gaming phenomenon, experiencing rapid growth due to the success of its games, faltering in financial performance after going public, and finally becoming a subsidiary of a larger video game company that recognized King’s potential. King’s acquirer, Activision-Blizzard (ATVI), is an industry veteran of the overall video game industry that bought out King in an attempt to capitalize on the rising popularity of mobile games and to improve their strategic position in the larger video game market. The mergers & acquisitions (M&A) analysis between ATVI and King serves to determine whether or not the acquisition was an appropriately priced deal and if King represented a worthy buy. A discounted cash flows model is the basis for the analysis using a wide range of assumptions to account for the volatility of the industry. Finally, an event study and post-acquisition analysis are conducted to determine if any financial synergies were achieved in the ATVI-King acquisition. While the analyses do not offer a definitive conclusion on King’s post-acquisition performance, it can be said that the company has managed to achieve some measure of longevity. In the context of the entire mobile gaming market, the potential of mobile games should make developers attractive in the eyes of investors and acquirers, provided they understand the mobile gaming industry’s unique risks.
ContributorsDai, Yongjun (Author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Geoffrey, Smith (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05

Tax Loss Harvesting

Description

This thesis explores the benefits of tax loss harvesting by examining the time period from 1999-2000 to determine the potential profits investors could realize from utilizing this strategy. The first step to accomplishing this was to collect data from the past 20-plus years from the SPDR S&P 500 Exchange Traded…

This thesis explores the benefits of tax loss harvesting by examining the time period from 1999-2000 to determine the potential profits investors could realize from utilizing this strategy. The first step to accomplishing this was to collect data from the past 20-plus years from the SPDR S&P 500 Exchange Traded Fund (SPY) and its 11 sectors: Energy (XLE), Consumer Staples (XLP), Consumer Discretionary (XLY), Communication Services (XLC), Real Estate (XLRE), Technology (XLK), Utilities (XLU), Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), Financials (XLF), and Health Care (XLV). The next step was to clean the data from hundreds of months of opening prices, closing prices, and quarterly dividends into an annual opening price and total annual dividends to calculate a rate of return. Finally, I found the weightings of the S&P 500 and its sectors on January 1st of every year and input this data into a model whose output reflected the growth of a portfolio with and without the use of tax loss harvesting. Once this model was created, I determined the benefits of tax loss harvesting in the present and the value of carrying these losses forward. The outcomes of this thesis solely reflect the benefits of using tax loss harvesting through a passive investment strategy. This research will enrich academic and professional understandings of tax loss harvesting through its clear demonstration of how much tax loss carryforward can be accessed, as well as the opportunity for gains from compounding interest on previous tax savings due to tax loss harvesting.
ContributorsDelgado-McCollum, Stephen (Author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Licon, Wendell (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2023-05