Computer dynamics is a microcomputer software development company that has a 300-computer network. The company is located in three adjacent five-story buildings in an office park with about 100 computers in each building. The LANs in each building are similar, but one building has the data center in the second floor. There are no other office locations. Please refer to the network architecture components in Figure 6-1 of the textbook, and identify the key network architecture components in the design of the enterprise network. Refer to Chapter 6 and discuss how you would go about designing the physical network. You may assume that the campus does not need WAN connectivity.

Dear All,

This week; you are going to Design a "Real World" scenario Network as specified above.

Please start with a blue print design using "Visio" software Try first to think about the "Hardware-Devices" such as Wired Switches, Routers, Cables and Wireless Access Points, Wireless Repeaters (Extenders). See and estimate the number of users for your network, and put no more than 15 users/Access points for the Wireless connection, and select the wired switches to have X number of ports so that the over-ll wired users would be efficiently covered.

Transformers Industry & Technology Inc. is a diversified industrial company. The Company owns businesses providing products & services to the energy, transportation, chemical, and construction sectors.

The energy segment operates as an oil and natural gas contract drilling company the United States. The energy segment acquires, explores, develops, and produces oil and natural gas properties primarily located in Oklahoma and Texas, as well as in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. This segment generated over $10 billion of revenue in 2016.

The transportation segment is among the largest public railroad in North America. Operating on 12,000 miles of track in the western one thirds of the U.S., This segment generated over $20 billion of revenue in 2016 by hauling coal, industrial products, intermodal containers, agriculture goods, chemicals, and automotive goods.

The chemical segment sells value-added chemicals, thermoplastic polymers, and other chemical-based products worldwide. This segment develops, produces, and supplies specialty polymers for automotive and medical applications, as well as for use in industrial products and consumer electronics. This segment generated over $5 billion of revenue in 2016.

The Construction segment produces and sells specialty construction chemicals, specialty building materials, and packaging sealants and coatings. The Company operates through two segments: Specialty Construction Chemicals and Specialty Building Materials. The Specialty Construction Chemicals segment manufactures and markets products to manage performance of Portland cement, and materials based on Portland cement, such as concrete admixtures and cement additives, as well as concrete production management systems. The Specialty Building Materials segment manufactures and markets building envelope products, residential building products and specialty construction products. This segment generated over $5 billion of revenue in 2016.

During the last few years, Transformers Industry has been too constrained by the high cost of capital to make many capital investments. Recently, though, capital costs have been declining, and the company has decided to look seriously at a major expansion program that has been proposed by the marketing department. The expansion requires investment in eight projects from the four segments. Table-1 provides information about the projects.

Assume that you are an assistant to Jim Jones, the financial vice president. Your first task is to estimate Transformers cost of capital.

As a part of your analysis you have collected the following data:

The firm's tax rate is 40%.

The current price of Transformers 12% coupon, semiannual payment, non-callable bonds with 15 years remaining to maturity is $1,153.72. TPIT does not use short-term interest-bearing debt on a permanent basis. New bonds would be privately placed with no flotation cost.

The current price of the firm’s 10%, $100 par value, quarterly dividend, perpetual preferred stock is $116.95. Transformers would incur flotation costs equal to 5% of the proceeds on a new issue.

Transformers common stock is currently selling at $50 per share. Its last dividend was $3.12, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5.8% in the foreseeable future. Transformers beta is 1.2, the yield on T-bonds is 5.6%, and the market risk premium is estimated to be 6%.

Suppose the firm has historically earned 15% on equity (ROE) and retained 35% of earnings, and investors expect this situation to continue in the future. How could you use this information to estimate the future dividend growth rate, and what growth rate would you get? Is this consistent with the 5.8% growth rate given earlier?

Transformers target capital structure is 30% long-term debt, 10% preferred stock, and 60% common equity.

Suggested questions

1) What sources of capital should be included when you estimate Transformers weighted average cost of capital (WACC)?

2) Should the component costs be figured on a before-tax or an after-tax basis?

3) Should the costs be historical (embedded) costs or new (marginal) costs? Explain?

4) Transformers preferred stock is riskier to investors than its debt, yet the preferred yield to investors is lower than the yield to maturity on the debt. Does this suggest that you have made a mistake? (Hint: Think about taxes.)

5) What is the market interest rate on Transformers debt and what is the component cost of this debt for WACC purposes?

6) What is the corporate cost of capital?

Part 2

1) Jim Jones was worried that whether the corporate cost of capital would be appropriate to evaluate the four segments’ project. His concern centered on whether the risk of the projects is reflected on the corporate cost of capital? What is the logical method of adjusting the cost of capital for risk? Is it wise to use the corporate cost of capital to evaluate the four segments’ projects?

2) Discuss the quantitative methods that are useful to evaluate the projects?

3) Discuss the strengths and weakness of each quantitative method you have selected to evaluate the projects?

4) Will all of the quantitative methods rank the projects identically? Why or why not?

5) Rank the projects on the basis of the measurements discussed above.

Case Study - Aussie Airlines and the Global Pandemic

Your Role

1. Your firm, DUA, has been the auditor of Aussie Airlines for the past three years.

2. You are the audit team manager and you are about to commence the risk assessment phase, as well as the risk response work plan for the audit of AA’s financial statements for the year ending 30th June 2020.

Context

1. Aussie Airlines (AA) is a large listed Australian airline and has been operating for more than fifty years.

2. In recent years, under pressure to improve profitability as fuel costs rose, the airline successfully undertook a comprehensive cost cutting and business efficiency drive, which returned it to profit three years ago. According to the CEO and Chairperson, Andrew Norris, “the operations of AA are now as lean as they could be; we have squeezed the fruit dry.”

3. In March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic, people and governments have responded, and the volume of global business-related and leisure-related air travel has fallen by 95%.

4. It is not known how long the pandemic will last, how long restrictions on air travel will last—most guesses range from two to twelve months, a small minority fear it will be worse—and the Australian government has not yet announced how it’s economic response to the pandemic will specifically help the airline industry.

5. AA has ‘temporarily’ laid off 90% of its workforce, including cabin staff, pilots, and 95% of its airport ground crew. There are murmurs about a class action by employees if they do not receive adequate payments while they are laid off. Some fear the change may be permanent.

6. The company is not taking bookings from customers; the AA website says “for the foreseeable future”.

7. The CEO has told the press that while the current situation represents “an existential crisis”, he is absolutely confident that AA will get through it and come out stronger the other side.

8. The Chief Financial Officer, Clara Major, stopped you in the corridor to say hello and offered you these words: “Look, everything might seem dire but we have it in hand. We will be here this time next year, so keep that in mind.”

9. As expected, you have been offered access to any records and to people inside and outside the AA organisation that you feel will be necessary to complete your risk assessment and interim work.

10. You are also confident that AA’s internal controls remain very strong, although you do not know if or how they have been changed/enhanced to respond to the effects of the global pandemic on AA.

Forecast Financial Statements

On your second day at AA’s head office, you have been given the forecast financial statements for the full year to 30 June 2020, as well as the previous two years’ audited results.

Aussie Airlines: Consolidated Income Statement (Selected) Year Ended 30th June
Currency AUD Millions (figures are rounded)

Aussie Airlines: Consolidated Balance Sheet (Selected) As at 30th June
Currency AUD Millions (figures are rounded)

Notes:

You have received additional information from AA’s Chief Financial Officer and from your initial review of AA Board minutes:

1. Not all 2020 forecast Income Statements line items and Balance Sheet balances have been finalised at this point, though they are best guesses.

2. Intangible Assets constitute goodwill relating to an international airline business AA acquired five years ago. This business mainly services South East Asia, China, and Polynesia destinations.

3. Property, Plant & Equipment consists primarily of aircraft, aircraft engines, and aircraft parts.

4. Revenue Received in Advance relates to customers’ prepaid flights.

5. Aircraft are leased from third parties. A reduction in monthly payments and a restructuring of the lease terms are under negotiation but, so far, nothing has been agreed with the aircraft makers/lessors.

6. AA is currently negotiating with its bank to receive a grace period for repayment of short term and long-term debt as the company is currently in breach of its debt covenants per the loan agreement. If no deal is reached, this debt becomes due and payable on August 31st 2020.

7. AA is seeking a financial bail-out package from the government of $7million to fund its ongoing operating costs for 12 months while its fleet of aircraft is grounded. The Federal government has made positive noises about the request but has not yet committed to support the request and has told AA that it will take at least two months to reach a decision.

8. Under the current conditions, the CFO’s papers to the AA Board estimate that cash coming in from operations will, on average, be $0.5million per month while unavoidable operating costs are estimated to be $0.8million per month.

9. AA has an unused line of credit of $2.5million provided by its banking syndicate. It can access this money to fund its cash requirements. Currently, there are no other sources of cash beyond this line of credit.

QUESTION

1. Assuming that you have completed the work in previous questions and determined that AA is a going concern, select one material account from AA’s Balance Sheet and one material account from the Income Statement and prepare a brief plan for auditing each account. Give particular attention to the following:

   1. An assessment of the audit risk for the account, given the information in this case study and your assumptions.

   2. The relevant/significant audit assertions for this account.

   3. Name two controls that you would expect management to implement for this account. How would you test these controls.

   4. Describe two substantive testing procedures that you would perform in relation to this account to address the relevant/significant assertions.

NOTE: please refer to previous questions asked and answer them first please

ROLE-PLAY EXERCISE On Command Corporation PROCESS You have been assigned a role in the On Command Corporation case. Please read the general information (Introduction) about the case. Read and understand your role. Your teammates have different roles. Due the situation, you need to work with your team to produce an employee meeting, you have 15 minutes to present the statement and conduct the meeting – see the link attached with information about an employee meeting (you need to create a statements, be prepare for questions, and defend your organization). Key Issues Sexual harassment Employee retaliation Appropriateness of product This role-play was developed by Mark Arvizu, Ira Baeringer, Mark Hess, Kelley Hoven, Bill Speights, and Jennifer Sawayda for and under the direction of O.C. and Linda Ferrell. © 2015 On Command Corporation Background (Everyone reads.) On Command Corporation (OCC) is a world-leading provider of interactive in-room entertainment, information, and business services to the lodging industry. The company annually serves more than 250 million guests through 950,000 rooms in approximately 3,450 hotel properties. OCC provides on-demand and, in some cases, scheduled in-room television viewing of major motion pictures and independent non-rated motion pictures for mature audiences, for which guests pay on a pay-per-view basis. Depending on the type of platform installed and the size of the hotel, guests can choose up to 50 different movies with an on-demand system, or eight to 12 movies with a scheduled system. In addition to pay-per-view movies, OCC offers other services such as short subjects (such as yoga and sporting packages), Internet services, music, game services, and other hotel and guest services. OCC obtains the non-exclusive rights to show recently released motion pictures from major motion picture studios during the time period after the initial theatrical release and before home video or cable distribution. The company also contracts with a variety of other vendors and distributors of in-room entertainment for the other products it sells to hotels and guests. OCC negotiates contracts with major hotel chains and individual hotels that involve agreement on the type and extent of movies and services that are offered. Programming choices are key for OCC to differentiate itself from competitors. As guests order movies, they are shown in their rooms and then appear on their bill at check-out. Depending on the contract with the hotel, it may receive some of the profits from the movie ordered. The PS4 games are the least profitable, while adult films are by far the most profitable. Although not disclosed directly, most of the company’s revenues are from adult movies. In fact, some analysts estimate that up to 80 percent of the revenues OCC generates are from its adult movie business. A new management team has come to On Command and is evaluating the company’s strategy and business plan. Although the company has been around for 10 years with 2014 revenues of $262 million, it still has yet to become profitable. Three recent events have re-kindled discussion about the true nature of the company’s products, as well as potential ethical issues. The first situation arose when several female employees complained to their superiors about feeling uncomfortable in the presence of a certain male colleague, Ted Jones, because of what they say are “lewd” remarks about women. Ted Jones is the senior adult film editor whose job it is to edit adult films to reduce graphic sexual content. When approached about his actions, Ted defended himself by denying the allegations. Due to lack of concrete proof, Ted was given a warning and the women who filed the complaint were told just to avoid Ted whenever possible. However, more complaints have surfaced, and the human resources department has decided to conduct an investigation. The second issue arose from a complaint filed by another female employee, Donna Wilson, working as an administrative assistant. She threated to file suit against the company because of the way she was treated. She was personally offended by the content of the adult movies. Although she had signed a document that clearly stated the nature of the videos available for viewing in her office upon her hire, she protested and said that the adult portion of the OCC product line should not be viewable in any of the corporate offices because it was sexually offensive, degraded women, and promoted sexual harassment in the workplace. She also insisted that the true extent of the sexual content was not explained to her when she signed the agreement. After hearing her complaint, her supervisor informed her of the release she had signed and also told her she had the clear choice not to work there. Since that time, Donna alleges, she claims she overheard her supervisor telling other workers to shun her at work because she was a troublemaker who refused to be a team player. She has also been cut out of meetings and claims the supervisor is constantly cutting her down in front of her colleagues. Finally, it has recently come to management’s attention that there has been a drop in revenue due to the deliberate refusal of many hotels to offer the adult film products as they would conflict with their quality, “family-friendly” image. The increase is this type of product censorship has led to a drop in revenue for OCC. At a recent meeting at Liberty Media (OCC’s parent company), several questions were raised about the ethical nature of OCC’s primary revenue source. Questions such as these were presented during the discussion regarding what to do with struggling OCC. A big question is whether it was masquerading as an entertainment company with many different product offerings to mask the fact that it is really in the adult movie business. Management is not sure whether it would be wise to disclose where most of its revenue comes from. Also, is the nature of how the company handles the editing of adult films internally encouraging sexual harassment and retaliation of female employees? The management team decided to develop a business strategy they could use going forward. AND I AM Pam Stone – General Counsel You joined OCC at the same time Chris Smith did. You both came from another subsidiary of Liberty Media, the parent company of OCC and several other entertainment type companies. Your specialty is more in the contract and merger and acquisition area. However, you have been dealing with a tremendous amount of employment-related issues. The human resources department has been significantly cut, meaning that you must often work in close proximity with Don Randall, the human resource manager. Chris has made you aware that all of the offices contain televisions, and employees have the same access as hotel guests. This includes the adult films. You have recently begun to research charges brought up by Ms. Wilson. You feel that adult movies should not be watched in the workplace unless they are being edited or viewed for possible selection. You learn that many employees frequently watch adult content in their offices, although most claim they do so during their break time. OCC has about 300 employees in the field who work directly with hotels to install the product as well as perform updates to products. Unfortunately, the system OCC currently uses does not allow for updates to be done electronically. The field service employees see the adult films during the updating process. OCC also manufactures its own “box” that allows the pay per systems to operate. As part of the testing process, the manufacturing employees must test each line of products by watching to make sure they work properly regular cable, short subjects, games, and adult films. The human resource manager Don Randall has provided you with waivers and disclaimers that all employees sign upon hire indicating that they may be exposed to adult film content during their employment. However, Ms. Wilson’s claims have gone beyond simply being offended. Now she is claiming that her supervisor has begun retaliating against her because she complained. This could certainly be grounds for a lawsuit if not handled properly. Don Randall has also asked you for assistance in handling some potential sexual harassment allegations he has heard. Since you came to OCC, you have been responsible for collecting and providing due diligence to an outside law firm to review for a possible merger and/or sale. You were intimately involved in the contract to secure an additional $60 million investment from Liberty Media. You have also been involved in many of the discussions with Chris Smith and executive VP and CFO Bill Moore as to what the company strategy needs to be.

case presentations what can be my answer for this case if I am the general counsel

it could be 1 or 2 slide it does not matter thank in advance

For the next problem consider .40M H2A(aq) with Ka=1.0*10^-7 Ka2=5.0*10^-12

35) Ka,1/Ka,2 > 10^3 the weak diprotic acid approx

a. is not valid and we can use just te first step

b.is not valid and we must use both steps

c.is valid and we can use just the first step

d.is valid and we must use both steps

In the intial row of the equil. table (H^1+) is only approx. 0

a. because all intial vaues are approximate

b.because of the authroization of water

c. because of the leveling effect

d. because of charge dispersal

what is the pH of the solution?

a. 3.70

b.-2.70

c.7.00

d.4.30

what is [a^2-]

a. 1.0x10^-7

b.5.0*10^-5

c..40

d. 5.0*10^-12

Case: Capital One’s Online Profiles

Listen to the Audio

In 2010, Capital One Financial Corporation began using special software to createinstantaneous profiles of visitors to its website. Constructed from information such as recent purchases, web browsing history, and geographic location, these profiles were used mainly to determine which credit card offers to display on a visitor’s computer screen.136

Customer Profiles

In the case of one customer, Carrie Isaac, Capital One’s website used “cookies” left by other websites, her Internet Protocol (IP) address, and other technical information transmitted by her computer to conclude that she was a member of the “White Picket Fences” group, a profile for customers who are thought to be middle-class parents who live in a metropolitan suburb and have reliable creditworthiness. Capital One used sophisticated algorithms to determine correctly that she was female and a young parent and that she earned approximately $50,000 annually, had attended, and shopped at discount department stores. On the basis of this information, Capital One’s software displayed a credit card designed for people of average creditworthiness with no annual fee and an initial monthly interest rate of zero percent, increasing to 19.8 percent thereafter. Overall, Capital One’s inferences about Ms. Isaac’s identity were accurate.

The same appeared to be true of another potential customer, Paul Boulifard. Capital One’s website focused on Mr. Boulifard’s residence in Nashville, Tennessee, and his interest in travel. It displayed the “VentureOne Rewards” credit card to him, which allows the accumulation of points that can be used to purchase airline tickets. The images surrounding this card included a beach scene and the slogan “Still Searching? Get double miles with Venture.”

In the case of Karyn Morton, however, Capital One’s software was less accurate. Ms. Morton was profiled as a member of the “City Roots” segment. Capital One accurately determined that she was a homeowner living in Detroit, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a regular reader of major newspapers. It inaccurately inferred that Ms. Morton was retired without children, had little education, and was living on a modest income of $28,000. She actually earned three times that amount, was 33 years old, and held a law degree. Capital One offered Ms. Morton two credit card options, one for individuals with average credit scores and an interest rate of 24.9 percent and one for customers with excellent credit scores and an interest rate of 13.9 percent.

Use of Profiles

Capital One emphasized at the time that it did not use the information gathered in a visitor’s online profile to determine who actually received certain lines of credit. It used only the concrete information voluntarily offered by a customer on a credit application for such purposes. Capital One, therefore, did not violate the Equal Opportunity Credit Act, a federal law that prohibits banks and other lenders from targeting or restricting financial services based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or residency.137 Capital One claimed that it simply made an “educated guess” about what it thought customers would want and featured products based on those inferred preferences.138

Capital One’s efforts at product placement were not unique. Other online retailers have used similar methods in setting online prices.

In 2012, Orbitz, the online travel site that provides low-priced deals on car rentals, hotel rooms, and airfares, offered the same products to different customers at different prices.

Customers who used desktop computers with an Apple operating system paid 30 percent more for hotel rooms compared with customers who booked the same rooms using computers with a Microsoft operating system.139

The office supply giant Staples has sold products at different prices depending upon a customer’s proximity to competitors’ stores. A recent investigation found that theStaples.com website displayed different prices to different people by “estimating” their location based on their computer’s IP address. Staples considered the distance from a competitor’s store, such as OfficeMax or Office Depot, and if a store was located within 20 miles, then a discounted price was shown.

Profiling Technology

Capital One arguably refined a common practice. Marketing decisions involving product placement and pricing have long been guided by the concept of “segmentation.” The marketplace is composed of groups of customers—or segments—with different experiences, demographic traits, and preferences. The rise of information technology and e-commerce has enabled marketers to modify the manner in which they sell products based on their knowledge of the segment to which a potential customer belongs. Segments provide a useful, if imperfect, guide to quickly predict a customer’s likely purchases.

Capital One’s software was engineered by a little-known supplier, [x+1], Inc. Neither this fact nor the exact methods employed by the profiling software were disclosed to visitors on the website. Capital One did disclose that it collected and used visitors’ IP addresses, browser and operating system information, “cookies” placed by other websites, navigation preferences, social media activity, and geographic data. These disclosures, however, were placed within the “privacy” section of Capital One’s website, located at the bottom of the user’s screen in small font. This is typical in the online commercial environment. Internet users are rarely cognizant of how they are being profiled, and privacy disclosures are not easy to find without some effort.141 Users also expect their online activity to take place in a market that provides impersonal, even anonymous, interaction. This expectation is apparently important to Internet users. Marketing studies142 indicate that consumers typically find product and price customization problematic when there is a lack of transparency regarding the customization efforts. When consumers expect standardized sales experiences, customized experiences are considered unfair, but if there is an expectation that product offers or prices will differ between consumers, then variations are perceived as less problematic.143

Capital One’s algorithms were focused exclusively on the information that could be gleaned from visitors’ computers at the moment that they started using Capital One’s website. More advanced technology exists, however, which can combine the up-front data provided by a visitor’s computer, web browser and IP address with larger sources of data that contain historical records of Internet transactions, in-person retail purchases, and e-mail addresses.144 This technology could conceivably enable customer profiling that combines online with offline behavior. It also holds the prospect of eliminating anonymity in Internet transactions. As more data, such as ZIP codes, telephone numbers, birth dates, e-mail addresses, and online social activities, are accessed and used by online advertisers, the accuracy with which companies can place a customer within a segment, or even construct a concrete identity profile, is increased. This capability would expand and refine the ability of companies like Capital One to customize experiences for each consumer.

Question: What is the problem of this case. Does Capital One's have any issued that use customer online profile to clarify their requirement? Can you point out of each problems of this case?

I live in Rapid City and commute to Spearfish. I leave Rapid City by 6 minutes after 8 and get onto I-90 at Exit 52. I must exit I-90 at Exit 12 by no later than 8:50 so that I am not late for class. Normally, I can drive the speed limit and make it on time.

Over the past few years there has been a lot of construction on Interstate 90. For example, last year 4 miles of road was under construction between Mile Marker 26 and 30 (Sturgis). The posted speed limit in the construction zone (single lane -- do not pass) is 55 mph, but I always end up behind someone that is going only 49mph. When I am not in the Construction Zone, what is the minimum speed that I have to drive, so that I can be at Exit 12 by 8:50?

A study of emergency service facilities investigated the relationship between the number of facilities and the average distance traveled to provide the emergency service. The following table gives the data collected.

Does a simple linear regression model appear to be appropriate? Explain.

- No, or Yes; the relationship appears to be - curvilinear or linear

c. Develop an estimated regression equation for the data that you believe will best explain the relationship between these two variables. (Enter negative values as negative numbers).

Several possible models can be fitted to these data, as shown below: (to 3 decimals)

Y=____+____X+_____X^2

What is the value of the coefficient of determination? R2 between 0 and 1. (to 3 decimals)

________

Y=________+_________ 1/X

What is the value of the coefficient of determination? R2 between 0 and 1. (to 3 decimals)