Analysis of the Value of Informative Companies

Abstract

The communications industry is no stranger to the current economic situation worldwide. And, as a symptom of that situation, the sector is confronted with similar or identical economic processes such as the concentration, divestiture or sale of business units. Under these circumstances, one of the first questions asked of the media companies involved is, on the one hand, what value can be linked to the terms risk, time and performance. On the other hand, the characteristics of a journalistic product do not allow price to be the only factor that determines value. Circulation, habit, principles, strategy, corporate image, quality, social impact, competition, profit margin, goodwill and brand are factors as well. The premises of this paper are two. It is based on a PEST business analysis of the communication company per se. However, this method is applied with a particular emphasis on the financial aspect. In addition, the paper contains three important terms: value, brand and goodwill. The hypothesis can be formulated as follows: the value of media companies is influenced by elements of tangible origin, as well as those of intangible origin and difficult unit determination, including the brand.