Companies such as time warner have extensive holdings in radio and television stations, cable television companies, book publishing firms, and film production and distribution companies. these companies are referred to as

The treasurer for pittsburgh iron works wishes to use financial futures to hedge her interest rate exposure. she will sell five treasury futures contracts at $139,000 per contract. it is july and the contracts must be closed out in december of this year. long-term interest rates are currently 7.30 percent. if they increase to 9.50 percent, assume the value of the contracts will go down by 20 percent. also if interest rates do increase by 2.2 percent, assume the firm will have additional interest expense on its business loans and other commitments of $149,000. this expense, of course, will be separate from the futures contracts. a. what will be the profit or loss on the futures contract if interest rates increase to 9.50 percent by december when the contract is closed out

In december of 2004, the company you own entered into a 20-year contract with a grain supplier for daily deliveries of grain to its hot dog bun manufacturing facility. the contract called for "10,000 pounds of grain" to be delivered to the facility at the price of $100,000 per day. until february 2017, the supplier provided processed grain which could easily be used in your manufacturing process. however, no longer wanting to absorb the cost of having the grain processed, the supplier began delivering whole grain. the supplier is arguing that the contract does not specify the type of grain that would be supplied and that it has not breached the contract. your company is arguing that the supplier has an onsite processing plant and processed grain was implicit to the terms of the contract. over the remaining term of the contract, reshipping and having the grain processed would cost your company approximately $10,000,000, opposed to a cost of around $1,000,000 to the supplier. after speaking with in-house counsel, it was estimated that litigation would cost the company several million dollars and last for years. weighing the costs of litigation, along with possible ambiguity in the contract, what are three options you could take to resolve the dispute? which would be the best option for your business and why?

If the ceo of a large, diversified, firm were filling out a fitness report on a division manager (i.e., "grading" the manager), which of the following situations would be likely to cause the manager to receive a better grade? in all cases, assume that other things are held constant.a. the division's basic earning power ratio is above the average of other firms in its industry.b. the division's total assets turnover ratio is below the average for other firms in its industry.c. the division's debt ratio is above the average for other firms in the industry.d. the division's inventory turnover is 6, whereas the average for its competitors is 8.e. the division's dso (days' sales outstanding) is 40, whereas the average for its competitors is 30.