Almost all U.S. light-rail systems use electric cars that run on
tracks built at street level. The Federal Transit Administration
claims light-rail is one of the safest modes of travel, with an
accident rate of .99 accidents per million passenger miles as
compared to 2.29 for buses. The following data show the miles of
track and the weekday ridership in thousands of passengers for six
light-rail systems.
| City | Miles of Track | Ridership (1000s) |
| Cleveland | 13 | 14 |
| Denver | 15 | 34 |
| Portland | 36 | 80 |
| Sacramento | 19 | 30 |
| San Diego | 45 | 74 |
| San Jose | 29 | 29 |
| St. Louis | 32 | 41 |
| SSE | |
| SST | |
| SSR | |
| MSE |
In: Economics
Almost all U.S. light-rail systems use electric cars that run on
tracks built at street level. The Federal Transit Administration
claims light-rail is one of the safest modes of travel, with an
accident rate of .99 accidents per million passenger miles as
compared to 2.29 for buses. The following data show the miles of
track and the weekday ridership in thousands of passengers for six
light-rail systems.
| City | Miles of Track | Ridership (1000s) |
| Cleveland | 17 | 16 |
| Denver | 19 | 36 |
| Portland | 40 | 82 |
| Sacramento | 23 | 32 |
| San Diego | 49 | 76 |
| San Jose | 33 | 31 |
| St. Louis | 36 | 43 |
| SSE | |
| SST | |
| SSR | |
| MSE |
In: Math
Pleasanton Studios Kersten Brown, the CEO of Pleasanton Studios, is having a tough week – all three of her top management level employees have dropped in with problems. One executive is making questionable decisions, another is threatening to quit, and the third is reporting losses (again). Kersten is hoping to find simple answers to all her difficulties. She is asking you (her accountant) for some advice on how to proceed. Pleasanton Studios owns and operates three decentralized divisions: Entertainment, Streaming, and Parks. Pleasanton Studios has a decentralized organizational structure, where each division is run as an investment center. Division managers meet with the CEO at least once annually to review their performance, where each division manager’s performance is measured by their division’s return on investment (ROI). The division manager then receives a bonus equal to 10% of their base salary for every ROI percentage point above the cost of capital. The Entertainment division manager, John Freeman, was the first to knock on Kersten’s door this morning. Entertainment, Pleasanton Studios’ first endeavor, produces movies for the big screen. Entertainment has been in operation since 1965. Last month, John had mentioned a proposal to build a new animation studio. The build would cost $4,910,000 with an estimated life of 20 years and no salvage value and would allow Entertainment to start producing animated movies. Animated movies were projected to bring in an additional $1,210,000 in revenues each year, but would increase annual production costs by $574,000. John had dropped in to let Kersten know he had decided not to move forward with the animation studio. This surprised Kersten – her quick mental calculation indicated that the studio would have a payback period of 8 years, much shorter than the expected life of the studio. Not entirely sure that her quick assessment was valid, Kersten needed to check with her accountant on the matter. Next to Kersten’s door was the manager of Streaming, which produces short-form (30 minute to one hour) episodes in addition to streaming the movies developed by Entertainment. Customers then buy subscriptions to the service. Run by division manager Reyna Imanah, Streaming was introduced in 2016 and has increased subscriptions by 20% every year since. Reyna’s complaint was that, based on the current bonus payout schedule, John Freeman’s bonus last year was significantly higher than hers. She points to the increasing subscription rates at Streaming, and says that her division is being punished for having opened so recently (her division’s facilities are much more recent than those in Entertainment). She currently has an employment offer from another company at the same base pay rate, and stated that she will accept this offer unless she feels her performance is being appropriately acknowledged and compensated. Kersten needs to look at the relative performance across divisions to determine how to proceed with Reyna. Pleasanton Parks is a theme park based on the movies from Entertainment and the series from Streaming. For many years, it was a popular year-round destination, with characters, rides, and a hotel. This park has lost popularity in recent years, and has been ‘in the red’ for the past two years. If the park is not profitable this year, you will need to decide whether to permanently close that division. Included in the ‘Fixed COGS’ for Parks is an annual $1,650,000 mortgage payment on the land and buildings for the park, which would still need to be paid (as a corporate level cost) if the park is closed and that segment is removed from the financial statements. Incidentally, you recently had a conversation with a Marriott Hotels executive, who would like to expand into the area. If you decided to close Parks, you are fairly certain that you could lease the hotel facilities to Marriott for $650,000 annually. A partial report of this year’s financial results for Pleasanton Studios can be found in Table 1 below. The ‘Selling and admin costs’ listed in Table 1 are directly incurred by each division, and are determined at the beginning of each year (that is, they do not change with increased/decreased production). In addition to the divisional information above, there are $2,000,000 in corporate costs that are currently allocated evenly between the three divisions. These costs are primarily due to employee benefits costs, which are billed at the corporate level. If the Parks division is closed, the decreased employee base would reduce allocated corporate costs by $500,000. Pleasanton Studios has a cost of capital of 12 percent (and Kersten uses the cost of capital as their required rate of return) and are subject to 32% income taxes. Before she can make any decisions, Kersten needs to evaluate this year’s performance results. She sets off to see you, the company’s accountant, for answers.
|
Experience |
Streaming |
Parks |
|
|
Revenues |
$54,583,520 |
$30,184,570 |
$7,564,270 |
|
Fixed COGS |
$3,356,850 |
$4,074,530 |
$3,159,430 |
|
Variable COGS |
$40,257,310 |
$22,020,695 |
$3,698,928 |
|
# of customers |
15,264,200 |
1,420,060 |
30,240 |
|
# of employees |
11,562 |
1,954 |
1,378 |
|
Average net operating assets |
$29,014,000 |
$19,252,000 |
$420,000 |
|
Selling and admin costs |
$3,259,520 |
$944,620 |
$231,900 |
Required: Write your response in the form of a 1-2 page memo to Kersten Brown, from the perspective of the company accountant. Be sure to include all the financial analyses to support your conclusions, clearly showing your calculations, at the end of the memo or attached in a separate document. Be sure to address the following points in your memo.
a. Evaluate this year’s performance results for the three divisions. Your financial analysis should include a segmented income statement for Pleasanton Studios, as well as the current annual ROI, residual income and EVA for the three divisions.
b. Evaluate Entertainment’s decision not to invest in the new animation studio (i.e., was the decision appropriate and in the best interests of Pleasanton Studios), including the appropriate financial analyses to support your evaluation.
c. Evaluate the validity of Reyna Imanah’s complaint regarding her evaluated performance. Explain why it is (or is not valid), and what further information would be necessary.
d. Provide a recommendation on whether to close the Parks division, including all necessary financial analyses.
In: Accounting
Use MATLAB to plot the functions u = 2 log10(60x + 1) and υ = 3 cos(6x) over the interval 0 ≤ x ≤ 2. Properly label the plot and each curve. The variables u and represent speed in miles per hour; the variable x represents distance in miles.
In: Mechanical Engineering
Suppose one gallon of gasoline produces 1.24×108 J of energy, and this energy is sufficient to operate a car for 20.8 miles. An aspirin tablet has a mass of 339 mg. If the aspirin could be converted completely into thermal energy, how many miles could the car go on a single tablet?
In: Physics
A 335-room hotel property recorded in 2004 a 66.6% occupancy and an ADR of $117.98. What is the property’s franchise fee (1) on a per available room basis and (2) as a percentage of rooms revenue if the agreement required the hotel to pay a reservation fee of $7.65 per available room per month; a royalty fee of 5% of rooms revenue; an advertising fee of 2.3% of rooms revenue; and a frequent traveler program fee of $5.00 per occupied room. The hotel had frequent stay guests totaling 6% of the occupied rooms. The initial fee is a minimum of $45,000 plus $300 per room for each room over 150.
1. Please use the information from Question 1 to calculate the Total franchise fee.
Total franchise fee (round to a whole number) $ ___
2. Please use the information from Question 1 to calculate the Franchise fee on PAR basis.
Franchise fee on PAR basis (round to two decimal places) $___ PAR/yea
3.Please use the information from Question 1 to calculate the Franchise fee as a % of revenue.
Franchise fee as a % of revenue (round to two decimal places) ___%
In: Accounting
The Appalachian Bear Center (ABC) is a not-for-profit organization located near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. ABC’s programs include the rehabilitation of orphaned and injured black bears, as well as research and education about Appalachian black bears. ABC provides the most natural environment possible for rehabilitating black bears before their release back into the wild. Katie Settlage performed a study to learn more about the Appalachian black bear population in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She and a team of researchers used a sample of 68 black bears in the park and took measurements such as paw size, weight, and shoulder height. Questions 2 and 3 refer to the following information regarding the shoulder height of the 28 female bears from the study. For these 28 female bears, the sample mean is 75.679 cm and the sample standard deviation is 7.592 cm. Assume the data is normally distributed and the sample is randomly selected.
3. Using an 80% level of confidence, construct the confidence interval for the population standard deviation of the shoulder heights based on the female data and make a statement interpreting these intervals.
show all work plz.
In: Statistics and Probability
1) COVID 19 has made a significant impact on the provision of
hospitality guest service. As a hospitality manager who is forced
to adapt to the new social constructs, how can you sustain the
quality of hospitality guest service to minimize physical contact?
Justify your answer.
2). Reflecting on the nature or the characteristics of service,
what do you think are its implications to the hospitality
organizations in creating a total guest experience?
3) The service industry holds to the general notion that “the guest
is always right.” However, in situations where the guest wants too
much or goes too far, as rule of thumb, the hospitality manager
must be able to find ways to let them know that they are wrong with
dignity ensuring that in the process their self- esteem as well as
their satisfaction with the guest experience and the organization
are not negatively affected. So, how would you handle the given
situation? A long-time guest has drunk a bit too much in your hotel
bar. He is staying at the hotel that evening, he is not driving,
and he insists on one more drink. He says that if the hotel refuses
to serve him, he will take his business elsewhere.
In: Operations Management
Over the past six months, Six Flags conducted a marketing study on improving their park experience. The study cost $3.00 million and the results suggested that Six Flags add a kid's only roller coaster.
Suppose that Six Flags decides to build a new roller coaster for the upcoming operating season. The depreciable equipment for the roller coaster will cost $50.00 million and an additional $5.00 million to install. The equipment will be depreciated straight-line over 20 years.
The marketing team at Six Flags expects the coaster to increase attendance at the park by 5%. This translates to 110,714.00 more visitors at an average ticket price of $39.00. Expenses for these visitors are about 12.00% of sales.
There is no impact on working capital. The average visitor spends $23.00 on park merchandise and concessions. The after-tax operating margin on these side effects is 31.00%. The tax rate facing the firm is 36.00%, while the cost of capital is 8.00%.
What is the NPV of this coaster project if Six Flags will
evaluate it over a 20-year period? (Six Flags expects the first
year project cash flow to grow at 5% per year, going forward)
(Express answer in millions)
In: Finance
Over the past six months, Six Flags conducted a marketing study on improving their park experience. The study cost $3.00 million and the results suggested that Six Flags add a kid's only roller coaster.
Suppose that Six Flags decides to build a new roller coaster for the upcoming operating season. The depreciable equipment for the roller coaster will cost $50.00 million and an additional $5.00 million to install. The equipment will be depreciated straight-line over 20 years.
The marketing team at Six Flags expects the coaster to increase attendance at the park by 5%. This translates to 107,097.00 more visitors at an average ticket price of $38.00. Expenses for these visitors are about 17.00% of sales.
There is no impact on working capital. The average visitor spends $22.00 on park merchandise and concessions. The after-tax operating margin on these side effects is 29.00%. The tax rate facing the firm is 34.00%, while the cost of capital is 10.00%.
What is the NPV of this coaster project if Six Flags will
evaluate it over a 20-year period? (Six Flags expects the first
year project cash flow to grow at 5% per year, going forward)
(Express answer in millions)
In: Finance