you must write a three page paper discussing the legal issues and likely outcomes for all of the scenarios provided below.

1) Paul Peters is an inventor. He has various creative inventions that he thinks will make him a lot of money if he markets them right. His best friend Ronald Robinson has a Bachelor degree in Marketing, an MBA, and has innovative ways of marketing products. Paul does not have a lot of money, but his cousin Sara Sanders is millionaire after hitting it big with the house boom and knowing when to stop investing. Paul thinks that with his inventions, Ronald’s business skills, and Sara’s money, they can make it big. Paul decides to create a business with these individuals and asks you for help with the details. You must give him advice on what is the best business for him to form? Why? Make sure to include a description of the business model that would be best for him, as well as a description of the other business models and why they would not be as good as the one you advised him. Also make sure to cover all of the steps that he must follow in order to form that particular type of business.

2) Paul, Ronald, and Sara have already formed their business as you have recommended and are rapidly prospering. Paul is upset because other individuals have been attempting to follow in his footsteps and are creating similar businesses. Paul has decided to lose some money in the process, but to sell his items so cheap, that no one can compete with him. He hopes that that way he could veer off his competitors and then substantially increase the prices so that he can make up for the loss profits. Can Paul do this? Why or why not?

3) After ten years, Paul decides that he does not want to continue the business. The company has incurred a substantial amount of debt, it owes the manufacturer of the products, a company called WeDoItAll, over $20,000.00; it owes the bank (Inventors Bank) about $28,000.00, and the company owes Sara, who has made the company many loans to stay afloat a total of $18,000.00.Paul thinks that bankruptcy might be the best solution. As an advisor to Paul, you must (1) explain to him how to dissolve the business (what steps he must take); and (2) give him advice as to whether bankruptcy is a good solution for his company.

Assume that you are a Financial Manager of Starbucks Coffee, Inc., a multi-national corporation. You are in charge of determining the impact of exchange rate changes on the firm. Changes in currency exchange affect both the balance sheet and the income statement. The balance sheet impact occurs when the value of international assets are translated to U.S. dollars. The values of those assets change as the exchange rate changes. The value of costs, revenue, and profit also are impacted on the income statement because of exchange rate risk. Consider that Starbucks has the following investments in coffee bean production and processing:

Table One:

            The expense of all the labor, production, and beans will require the following foreign currency amounts during the current year:

                        Table Two:

            Starbucks Coffee has also invested in store facilities to sell coffee products. The countries and the value of the investments are as follows:

                        Table Three:

            The “Net Profit” from these countries during the current year is as follows:

                        Table Four:

            The current spot exchange rates per one U.S. dollar are as follows:

                                    Table Five:

            As the Financial Manager for Starbucks, your task is to determine the following:

2) Convert the “Net Profit” generated in Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom shown

                        in Table Four above to U.S. dollars to calculate the total profits realized by Starbucks,

                        Inc. during the current year in U.S. dollars.

a. Starbuck’s “Return on Investment” (ROI) can be calculated using the following formula

Net Profit in U.S. dollars from Question #2 above/Total Investment for Production and Store Facilities in Tables One and Three above

=      ROI

                                  What is Starbuck’s “Return on Investment” for the current year?

The Abruzzi Olive Oil Company is a small producer of premium olive oil. Cheryl Sounders, the owner of Abruzzi, is currently developing a budget spreadsheet to explore the impact of various sales goals on production.

Month Sales

January 9,200

February. 9,000

March 9,400

April 8,600

May 8,000

June 8,500

July 8,200

August 7,500

September 8,900

October 9,300

November 9,200

December. 9,600

At a planning meeting in November 2020, Jay Peters, the marketing manager for Abruzzi, told Cheryl that he expected monthly sales to increase by 5 to 15 percent in the coming year. But in late december 2020, Jay rushed into cheryl's office with some good news. "cheryl, I just had a meeting with Consolidated Resturaunts, and they are considering an order for 1,250 gallons each month for all of 2021."

"Gosh," Cheryl replied. "that's an exciting bit of news, but I'm concerned about whether we have the capacity to accept such a large order. Ill prepare budgets assuming we don't get the Consolidated business but we increase monthly sales by 5, 10, or 15 percent. Then ill assume the consolidated order comes through, and on top of that we have monthly increases of 5, 10, and 15 percent/ This should give us a good idea of whether well bump up against capacity." Jay thought that this sounded fine, but he wondered whether Cheryl had the time to do this much work. Cheryl indicated that the analysis was relatively easy since she was preparing the budget on a spreadsheet and each analysis would require only a simple change.

A. Using a spreadsheet, prepare the six monthly budget schedule that Cheryl suggested (i.e. monthly budgets with and without the consolidated business assuming other sales increases of 5,10, and 15 percent). As a general rule, Cheryl likes to have ending inventory equal to 12 percent of next month's sales. Assume that the company ended 2020 with an inventory of 1,500 gallons of olive oil. In order to calculate ending inventory at the end of December 2021, assume that sales in January 2022 will be the same as December 2021 sales.

b. Suppose that capacity is 12,000 gallons. Is the company likely to encounter a capacity problem?

c. Abruzzi sells its oil for $25 per gallon. The variable cost per gallon is $10. What will be the annual impact on profit of obtaining the consolidated business (assuming that there is no capacity problem)?

a) Tom Goodly Ltd guarantees the bank overdraft of Pete Smith Ltd during 2018. Tom Goodly Ltd’s reporting period ends on 30 June each year. At the time of

providing the guarantee, Pete Smith Ltd was in a sound financial position. During late 2019, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, international

trading conditions deteriorated to such an extent that Pete Smith Ltd incurred substantial losses. Finally, on 25 July 2020, Pete Smith Ltd was forced to file for

protection from its creditors.

Required:

Explain how Tom Goodly Ltd would report the guarantee provided to Pete Smith Ltd in its financial statements ending

i) 30 June 2019

ii) 30 June 2020 3

b) As at 30 June 2018, T&P Ltd’s equity accounts are as follow: 400  000 ‘A’ ordinary shares, issued at $2.50 each, fully paid $ 1 000 000

75  000  6% cumulative preference shares, issued at $3 and paid to $2 150  000

Accumulated losses (12 750)

As the company had incurred a loss for the year ended 30 June 2018, no dividends were declared for that year. The following transactions and events occurred during the year ended 30 June 2020.

2019 July 25 The directors made the final call of $1 on the preference shares. Aug 31 All call monies were received except those owing on 5000 preference shares.

Sept 7 The directors resolved to forfeit 5000 preference shares for non-payment of the call. The constitution of the company directs that forfeited amounts are not to be refunded to shareholders. The shares will not be reissued.

Nov 1 The company issued a prospectus offering 40  000 ‘B’ ordinary shares payable in two instalments: $3 on application and $2 on 30 November 2022. The offer closed on 30 November.

Nov 30 Applications for 50  000 ‘B’ ordinary shares were received.

Dec 1 The directors resolved to allot the ‘B’ ordinary shares pro rata with all

applicants receiving 80% of the shares applied for. Excess application

monies were allowed to be held. The shares were duly allotted.

Dec 5 Share issue costs of $8600 were paid.

Required:

Prepare general journal entries to record the above transactions.

Edom Company, the lessor, enters into a lease with Davis Company to lease equipment to Davis beginning January 1, 2016. The lease terms, provisions, and related events are as follows:

Required:

IN THE DECADE between 2005 and 2015, LEGO—the famous Danish toy company—grew fivefold from some $1 billion in revenues to $5 billion (see Exhibit MC12.1). Rediscovering, leveraging, and extending its core competence allowed a successful revival for a company that was floundering in the early 2000s. How did LEGO construct a successful turnaround? To answer this question, we first need to understand a bit of the history of this Danish wonder company.

The LEGO company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The name is a contraction of the Danish words Leg godt, which means “play well.” Only later did LEGO executives realize that le go in Latin also means “I assemble.” Throughout its history, LEGO has had numerous formidable competitors, but it has outperformed all of them. Tinkertoys were more complex, Lincoln Logs were limited in what could be constructed, traditional blocks had nothing to hold them together and were too large to show much detail. LEGO bricks were the right balance of simplicity, versatility, and durability.

LEGO competes for the attention of children and their parents who buy the product. Moreover, there is also a sizable group of adult LEGO fans. In the wake of the personal computer revolution in the 1990s, however, the popularity of LEGO began to wane because of attractive alternatives for children such as gaming consoles and computer games. By 1998, LEGO was in trouble. The Danish toymaker hired a highly touted turnaround expert to change its fortune. Unfortunately, he had no background in the toy industry. To make matters worse, the new executive decided that LEGO’s hometown of Billund, Denmark, (with 6,000 people) was too provincial. He continued to live in Paris and either commute or run the company remotely.

Things at LEGO went from bad too worse. It started hyperinnovating and diversified into too many areas, too quickly, and too far away from its core. Among a whole slew of other innovation failures, the company created a Saturday morning cartoon called “Galidor,” which flopped. During this time period, it also decided to become a lifestyle company and to offer LEGO-branded clothing and accessories.

LEGO’s Turnaround

By 2003, LEGO was on the verge of bankruptcy. To avoid this fate, the closely held private company, owned by the Kristiansen family since its inception, needed to do something drastic and quickly. Almost out of desperation, it hired Jørgen Vig Knudstorp as CEO. His résumé was quite unusual to say the least: He was only 35 years old (in comparison, the average age for a Fortune 500 CEO is 55 years), held a doctorate in economics, and was a former academic. Knudstorp had transitioned to McKinsey, one of the world’s premier strategy consulting firms.

Page 458

Knudstorp decreed that LEGO must “go back to the brick” and focus on core products. As a result of the strategic refocusing, LEGO divested a number of assets including its theme parks. It also drastically culled its product portfolio by almost 50 percent, from some 13,000 pieces to 7,000. At the same time as Knudstorp focused LEGO again on its fundamental strengths, he was also careful to balance exploitation—applying current knowledge to enhance firm performance in the short term—with exploration—searching for new knowledge that may enhance a firm’s future performance. This allowed LEGO to improve the performance of traditional product lines, while at the same time to innovate, but this time in a much more disciplined manner.

In particular, LEGO increased sales of its well-known existing products by strengthening the interoperability of various LEGO pieces with other sets to encourage user innovation and creativity. To drive innovation, LEGO has brought its adult fans into the new product development process to leverage crowd-sourcing—obtaining ideas from a large fan base using online forums and other Internet-based technologies. To drive future growth, LEGO under Knudstorp has been much more careful with its product extensions. In the past LEGO had licensed its brand freely to other brands, including Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, Batman, the Simpsons, and Iron Man. The problem was that the benefits from these licensing agreements accrued mainly to the existing brands, because LEGO did not own the more critical intellectual property. Knudstorp focused on owning and leveraging the core intellectual property. As a case in point, The LEGO Movie in 2014 was a particular high for the company, grossing $500 million on a $60 million budget in the first year alone. Unlike in previous movie tie-ins, LEGO owned the intellectual property, which meant that LEGO did not need to split profits with existing brands.

Challenges

Although LEGO has grown fivefold since Knudstorp took over, it faces a number of challenges. LEGO needs to strengthen its triple-bottom-line performance (along economic, social, and ecological dimensions) and address globalization challenges.

LEGO must address ecological concerns in the face of growing consumer criticism: Its signature bricks are made from petroleum-based plastic. The company is searching for an environmentally friendly material to replace its bricks that date back to 1963. To overcome its relatively large carbon footprint, the company is spending millions on a 15-year R&D project in hope of finding an eco-friendly alternative. The goal is to invent and then be able to manufacture bricks cost-effectively from a new bio-friendly material that will be virtually indistinguishable from the current blocks. It is a difficult problem to solve because LEGObricks are precisely engineered to Page 459four-thousandths of a millimeter, hold a large range of colors well, and even have a particular sound when two pieces are snapped together.

To continue to grow, LEGO must become stronger in emerging growth markets such as China. LEGO is a comparatively new entry into China because of the fear that knockoff bricks have sufficiently damaged its brand. Knockoffs, which are rampant in China, are of inferior quality and even have injured some consumers. Yet, with growth in Western markets plateauing and a larger number of Chinese entering the middle class, this market opportunity is critical to LEGO’s future success. Moreover, Chinese government officials endorse LEGO as a “mind toy,” which helps children to develop creativity. The hope is that creative children will grow up to drive innovation in firms, something many critics say Chinese companies lack. In addition, Chinese parents and grandparents are eager to spend money on things that are perceived to help their offspring to excel academically. In general, parents around the globe are more than happy to spend money on games that get their children away from mobile devices, computers, and game consoles.

To take advantage of the growth opportunity in China and other Asian countries such as India and Indonesia, LEGO opened offices in Shanghai and Singapore as well as a factory in Jiaxing, China. To address the globalization challenge more generally, LEGO also needs to internationalize its management. At this point, it is a local, small-town company that happened to be successful globally, especially in the West. LEGO hopes to become a global company that happens to have its headquarters in the 6,000-people town of Billund, Denmark.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.  Why did LEGO face bankruptcy in the early 2000s? In your reasoning, focus on both external and internal factors.

2.  What is LEGO’s core competence? Explain.

3.  Apply the core competence–market matrix to show how LEGO leveraged its core competence into existing and new markets under Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, who was appointed CEO in late 2004.

4.  In terms of revenue growth, LEGO experienced a competitive advantage over both Hasbro and Mattel since 2007 because it grew much faster. What explains LEGO’s competitive advantage?

5.  What must LEGO do to sustain its competitive advantage in the future? One avenue to tackle this question is to think about diversification, both along products but also geography. Another avenue is partnerships such as strategic alliances or even acquisitions. What lessons from LEGO’s past should guide its future diversification?

3) On January 1, 2019, the Peninsula Paper Company purchased manufacturing equipment for $600,000. The equipment has a 5-year estimated useful life and a salvage value of $50,000.  

Part 1:  Calculate the following:

straight-line method

1. 2019---Depreciation expense

b.  Accumulated Depreciation as of 12/31/20

       c.  Book value as of 6/30/20

d.. If the company sold the equipment on July 1, 2020 for $ 350,000 what would the gain or loss be if the company had used the straight-line depreciation method?  Specify the amount and whether or not the company would record a gain or loss on the disposal.

double-declining balance method

a.  2019---Depreciation expense:

b.  Accumulated Depreciation as of 12/31/20 (assuming the equipment was not sold on 7/1/20):

Part 2

a)  If the company chose to use the units of production depreciation method what additional information would it need to calculate depreciation for 2019 for this same piece of equipment?

b)  How much would the book value of the equipment be at the end of its useful life under all 3 methods?

c)  Why would a company choose an accelerated deprecation method as opposed to straight-line?  Be specific.

Thurston Howell IV is the sole heir to the Howell Enterprise fortune. He does not participate in the business, preferring to tend to his comic book collection. He does however own a large piece of the company

Recently he had become concerned about how the company has performed specifically related to some transactions relating to stockholders’ equity.

Here is the data relating to stockholders’ equity:

Howell Enterprises

Stockholders’ Equity

As of December 31, 2019

Common Stock, 2,000,000 shares outstanding                         10,000,000

Retained Earnings                                                                           7,500,000

Total Stockholders Equity                                                               17,500,000

Thurston currently owns 300,000 shares of Howell Enterprises

Here are the relevant transactions for 2020:

1. The company issued 500,000 shares @ $8.00 per share
2. The company purchased 100,000 shares @ $15 per share
3. The company declared a $2.50 per share cash dividend
4. The company declared a 2:1 stock split

Required

1. Calculate the book value per share as of December 31, 2019. (total equity / number of shares outstanding)
2. Calculate the total value of Thurston Howell IV’s stock as of December 31, 2019. (his shares x book value per share)
3. Calculate the percentage of the company that Mr. Howell owns as of December 31, 2019. (his shares / total number of shares outstanding)
4. Prepare journal entries for the transactions listed above
5. Calculate the ending balances in the equity accounts
6. Calculate the book value per share after the transactions have been recorded
7. Calculate the total value of Thurston Howell IV’s stock after the transactions have been recorded. (his shares x new book value per share)
8. Calculate the percentage of the company that Mr. Howell owns after the transactions have been recorded. (his shares x new total outstanding shares).
9. Calculate the amount of loss that Mr. Howell has suffered (if any) as a result of the above transactions. (compare #2 to # 7).
10. Write a summary in Word explaining your results. Which transactions caused Mr. Howell to lose money?

Record the transactions for 2020 and calculate the ending balances in all of the stockholder’s equity accounts.

Please organize the answers.

Mr. Howell’s Investment

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