Sales - Music Industry

the graph below has the total sales of the music industry. Interesting how turnover peaked in 2000 and has been going down since then. Even the introduction of digital media hasn't really helped.

No wonder that with artists demanding a bigger slice of profits and internet downloading being so easy to do, their business model is in serious need of a change.

Exciting Day

Today I finally got the teach the first case study I've written:
  
Volkswagen AG: Valuation in 2009

This is a case on multiples valuation based on Volkswagen around on May 2009, right at the peak of the crisis.

I think the session went well and students enjoyed themselves. Hope I'm right!

Why is it so difficult for foreign firms to suceed in China?

The Economist this week is full of interesting articles as usual. One that caught my attention is a piece on why foreign firms face so many difficulties in the country. Language and political regime (a capitalist dictatorship) do not explain as many other countries have the same characteristics.

The article says that firms "... they complain about subsidized competition, restricted access, conflicting regulations, a lack of protection for intellectual property and opaque and arbitrary bureaucracy."

I wonder whether China will ever open their domestic market enough to enable serious competition by foreign firms.