I have this assignment due and I am really needing some help. I've squeaked by so far this semester, but I really don't understand this assignment. Can somebody help me at least with an outline, or even finding some of the information? Any help is greatly appreciated and I'm willing to pay more or more help.

Worth 25% of the course grade. Due date is at the end of Week 7. See the course schedule for specific dates. The project is designed to be completed individually. You will work by yourself on this project. Objective The specific objective of this graded written research exercise is to prepare an "executive level financial report" to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a mythical company in which you are employed as a financial analyst. This report will pertain to the financial evaluation of a real, publiclytraded, company. It will require independent research (webbased or library), careful financial analysis, and the proper application of key financial theories and formulas. The company that is to be analyzed for this project is Verizon. Situation You are a financial analyst with the mythical High Technology Corporation ("HTC"). HTC is an established manufacturer of a line of electronic components, which services an international market. HTC is currently a new fullyintegrated wireless communication service for worldwide use. A competitive technical and economic product evaluation has determined that Verizon (a real publicly traded company) is the best potential candidate for a longterm commitment. Verizon is offering a competitively favorable deal. However, based on some serious general concerns about the fallout of companies in the industry in general, the CEO has asked your CFO to conduct a financial analysis of Verizon to determine if it is prudent to commit to this company's communication system. The cost of cutting over to the new communications system is significant and any interruption in support during the next few years would adversely affect HTC's performance and profit. Specifically, the question is: will Verizon be financially viable over the next two to three years? Your Specific Assignment Your specific assignment is to research, analyze, and prepare a report for the CFO on the actual financial performance of Verizon. In addition to reviewing the traditional financial performance indicators, you are also to review the company's past and current stock performance. Your report includes three parts: (1) An evaluation of Verizon's financial performance for the last year. DuPont analysis and analysis of significant financial performance results are required for the last three years. (See detailed description below) (2) An evaluation of Verizon's stock performance for the last one year. (3) Finally, a specific recommendation, with supporting rationale, as to whether or not Verizon's recent trend in financial and stock performance is of sufficient financial strength to warrant entering into a longterm commitment. To assist you in your task, the CFO has provided the following general guidance. Since it is recognized that the industry is undergoing a major contraction, it is very important to comparatively evaluate Verizon's financial and stock performance trends against its Industry. Some Resources for your research: Company Information: Company Website - look under Investor Relations for the Annual reports and the SEC filings Yahoo Finance MSN Money Industry Information Morningstar Valueline 1 2 3 BizStats You may wish to include all necessary and relevant financial performance and stock information, trends, and projections in supporting your recommendation. These factors may include, financial ratio trends and industry comparatives, capital spending, stock growth, Beta values, credit rating service valuations, bond rating valuations, and management and investment reports when these documents are available. REPORT REQUIREMENTS (This portion is worth 85% of the total assignment grade) Using the following information, you must develop an evaluation of Verizon's financial performance. Annual Balance Sheets for the last three years. The Income Statements for the last three years. Annual reports, 10K or 10Q Industry norms Analysts' reports on performance Management reports or press releases Report layout and expectations Background and Industry (one short paragraph). Select of most significant financial performance results for the company: Compare Revenue, net income, working capital, total assets for the last three years and other results of your choice of the company against the industry or main competitor. Present the table with this information in your report. Write about 1 page of the analysis of these financial performance results. (15% of the project grade) Find several financial ratios for the company and its major competitor in the Internet. Write about 12 pages of analysis of the ratio results you received. (15% of the project grade). Compare the 4 5 6 7 ratio results against the industry or main competitor. Evaluate Return on Equity for the company and a major competitor: Using the information from the Income statements and the Balance sheets, calculate the company's return on equity using the DuPont technique for the company for the most recent three years. Show your calculations! Write about 1 page of analysis of your results and compare them with a competitor. In your analysis be sure to address how this ratio could be improved. (10% of the project grade). Evaluate other areas of financial analysis: capital spending, stock growth, Beta values, credit rating service valuations (if possible), bond rating valuations (if possible), etc. Make an overall conclusion about financial performance of the company during the last years. Compare the results that you received against the industry or main competitor. Summarize the results that you received in 1 page. What are the firm's financial strengths and weaknesses? (10% of the project grade) Collect and evaluate the data about stock performance of the assigned company's for the last one year. Compare the results that you received against the industry or main competitor. Write about 12 pages of analysis of the ratio results you received. (20% of the project grade). Develop a specific recommendation, with supporting rationale, as to whether or not the assigned company's recent trend in financial and stock performance is of sufficient financial strength to warrant entering into a longterm commitment (about 1 page) (15% of the project grade) Presentation and Written Communication (15%) of the project grade): The paper should be written in APA style Research Paper format. Your final report is to be an executivelevel financial report, directed to the CFO. This report should be about 8 double spaced typewritten pages (without tables and graphs). Include suitable comparative, quantitative and qualitative analyses and conclude with a specific and supported recommendation on the projected financial viability of Verizon for the next several years. Organization, Format and Presentation of Paper including the Title page, Introduction, Body, and Summary (4% of the project grade) Use of Tables, Figures and Other Graphics to Summarize and Support Analysis Presented in the Paper (3% of the project grade) Logical and Smooth Flowing Transitions and Relationships Among Sections of the Written Report (3% of the project grade) Research Sources and Significance of Research Information and Data, Use of APA Citation Methodology (5% of the project grade) Essential research data, financial calculations and other documentation as necessary to support your recommendation should be referred to in summary form in your report and attached in detail as enclosures. All major sources should be referenced. There is no set limit to the size of the enclosures, but it is recommended that only essential enclosures be attached. You should use references and bibliography to identify any remaining supporting documents you wish to include. In accordance with the UMUC Academic Policy, notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, appropriately quoted, paraphrased or summarized, and papers and research projects should acknowledge these sources in the appropriate places in the text of the paper as well as in a reference list at the end of the paper, in accordance with accepted citation practices. No more than 30% of the text of the project should be made up of quotes. Background and industry Verizon was found as Bell Atlantic and it was one of the seven organization that was founded after AT&T Corporation. Bell Atlantic finally come to full existence in 1984 with its footprints in New Jersey to Virginia. The company underwent various rebranding in 1990s which saw all operating company assumed Bell Atlantic as their name. Verizon was one of the company that had its root from the Bell Atlanta as a result of the merger of a telecommunication company and GTA as a result of federal communication commission approval. The deal was worth US$64.7 billion and had the intention to control the competition of telecommunication service providers including investing in new market and broadband. Financial ratios and competitors The following are the financial ratios and competitors of the company. i. Revenues AT&T, Verizon and Qwest had $235 billion in revenues at the end of 2008, up from $73.3 billion in 1984, a 220% increase. Wireless business now accounts for $92 billion out of the total. ii. Executive competition From 2006 through 2008, Verizon's top 5 executives received $194 million dollars. In 2006, AT&T was bought by SBC and the top 6 executives made $168 million. From 1999-2002, the top executives from the Bell companies received an estimated 54 million shares of stock options with an estimated value of $1 -$2.1 billion dollars ---almost 10% of all stock options. iii. Profits Overall, in 2008, Verizon and AT&T had $74 billion in cash, EBITDA, \"Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization\". Verizon had $31 billion while AT&T with $43 billion. It represents 32%-35% of revenues respectively. Tax Payments in 2008. Verizon only paid 3% of the total revenue on income taxes, while AT&T only 5%. From 1984-1994, return-on-equity (profits) was a healthy 13% on telecom. From 1995, the local return-on-equity shot up to 29% --- an increase of 120% --- through deregulation that was supposed to be used to rewire the state from excess profits iv. Broadband By 2010, virtually ALL of the US households, accounting for 117 million homes, should have been rewired with a fiber-based service. Today, there is virtually no broadband service in the US that meets the standards of 45mbps in both directions set in 1991. America is 15th in broadband because AT&T and Verizon failed to deploy and pocketed an estimated $300 billion dollars by 2009 and counting. Combined, Verizon and AT&T's FiOS or U-Verse had approximately 3 million upgraded TV homes as of 2008. These networks do not match the previous commitments as they are not open to competition, not ubiquitous, and do deliver 45mbps in both directions. Harm to the Economy. According to Bell-funded reports, $500 billion annually would be added to the GNP of the US if broadband was fully deployed. Thus, America lost $6.5 trillion dollars because of a lack of high-speed broadband. v. Construction expenditures Wireline construction expenditures have been down since 2000. In 1984, construction expenditures accounted for almost 25% of revenues, and it remained over 20% till 2000. (This includes Y2K upgrades.) Post 2000, construction expenditures have been as low as 14%, and the current expenditures are around 18%, but that includes ALL wireline expenditures, including FIOS and U-Verse. Under-funding of construction: Had the companies actually spent 20%-25% of revenues on construction, they would have spent an additional $58-$161 billion dollars more. Removing the construction budgets for FiOS and U-Verse. Verizon and AT&T are underspent on the PSTN by over $25 billion dollars from 2005-2008. vi. Depreciation Depreciation has been averaging over 90% for most years as a percentage of new construction. In the 1980's, the companies depreciated at a rate of 65% of capital expenditures. Overcharging: Using 65% as the traditional depreciation, and 85% as an aggressive depreciation schedule, since 1984, the phone companies over-depreciated $100 billion to $371 billion, taking into account various \"special items\" that the companies took to write off portions of the networks or speed up their depreciation schedules. Much of these changes were created based on the state deregulation plans for network upgrades that did not occur. vii. Competitions Competition using Wireline Service. Since 2004, because of a string of decisions by the FCC, there has been a conscious removal of competitors from the incumbent networks. Local Service Competition: Starting in 1996, there was massive growth of competitors using the wireline networks. However, since 2004, there has been a 60% drop in competitors offering local voice services using wholesaling agreements (known as UNE-p). Today, only 6% of the incumbent lines are competitive. Internet Service Providers. According to the US Census, in 2000, there were 9335 Internet Service Providers in the US, providing over of all Internet connections. Because of an FCC decision that removed \"line sharing\" so that a competitor could use the customer's line for voice and data, there has been a drop of almost 7000 ISPs, many of which were directly impacted by the FCC's decisions. Competition by Revenue Stream. Cable controls only 15% of local service-long distance and is a monopoly for cable service. Verizon and AT&T have only 3 million TV-upgraded lines. There is a duopoly for broadband and Internet Provisioning. AT&T and Verizon own 80+% of the wireless markets, and 'wireless only' is estimated 15%. Long distance has become a 'captured' market with AT&T and Verizon on the wireline side or when a customer gets cable-phone package. VOIP services require a broadband connection and many, such as Skype act as an adjunct to another voice service. Also, having to purchase a package to get lower prices on the services inhibits VOIP sales. Merger after merger the Bell companies lied to regulators, claiming that they would be competing out of their own territories if the mergers were approved. SBC was to be in 30 cities by 2002, Verizon 24 in the same time period. They never competed against each other in any major way. Mergers Harmed Broadband. AT&T's latest merger required the company to have 100% broadband in all states by 2007 and offer $10 DSL to new users. In 1999, AT&T had claimed they would spend $6 billion in 'Project Pronto', while almost every AT&T state had plans for broadband that were cancelled after each merger, including SNET, Pacific Bell and Ameritech. Return on equity Starting in 1992, there was a major increase to the earnings, created in a large part by the changes to state laws for fiber optic deployments. This plan worked like a charm. The companies went to each state and pitched a change in state law to give the companies more money to build out their networks. From 1993, when the alternative regulation plans were starting to be implemented, the Bell companies' return on equity went from 14.9% to 29.1%; a 9year increase of 126%. However, it was 188% above the other Utilities. (Source: Business Week Scoreboards, 1993-2000) The Bell companies have continually complained about the impacts of competition. However as compared to the rest of the Business Week Scoreboard's Industry or Utilities, the Bell companies retained a higher return on equity than the other companies. (Source, Business Week Scoreboards, 2000-2004.) The \"Industry\" had an average of 11.8%; the \"Utilities\" had a 10.6% return, while the Bell companies averaged 17.4% return on equity. Combined, over the five years, the Bell's had: 56% above the Business Week industry and utilities. 47% higher return on equity than the other industry players. 64% higher than the other utilities. Other areas of financial analysis i. Harvesting One of the areas that is most troubling has been the harvesting of customers, meaning raising rates to force them to leave or to pay unreasonable rates because the phone bills are unreadable or the customer is foolishly loyal. Once the ink was dry on the merger conditions of AT&T-SBC and Verizon-MCI, the companies have been continuously raising not only the cost per minute but also the various fees. ii. Cost of local, long distance and wireless service Local service in New York City has gone up 524% since 1980 for the exact same service. Deregulation of every line item, increased taxes and new charges, like the FCC Line Charge with no regulatory oversight; have caused much of this increase. Dramatic, recent, local service increases. In New Jersey and throughout the US, the cost of local phone service and ancillary services has had 80% increases. In California, unlisted numbers are up 346%, while directory assistance is up 1630%. Long Distance Service. With competition in the 1980s -1990s, the cost of long distance went from $.41 cents (first and second minute averaged) to as low as $.05. However, because of multiple increases to long distance plan fees, a recent California phone bill survey conducted in 2008 found that the average cost of a 1 minute call with AT&T is $.55. AT&T's current long distance basic rate is $.42 a minute, which is more expensive than a phone call in 1984, when the average call (first and second minute averaged) cost $.41. Harvesting: The increases to AT&T were started after the FCC made a decision to block legacy-AT&T's competition for local service. Known in the industry as \"harvesting\