Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
a) A fast-growth company would be more likely to set up as a partnership for its business organization than would a slow-growth company.
b) In a regular partnership, liability for the firm's debts is limited to the amount a particular partner has invested in the business.
c) Corporations are at a disadvantage relative to partnerships because they have to file more reports to state and federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Administration, even if they are not publicly owned.
d) Partnerships have difficulty attracting capital in part because of their unlimited liability, the lack of impermanence of the organization, and difficulty in transferring ownership.
2. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
a) Potential agency problems can arise between managers and stockholders, because managers hired as agents to act on behalf of the owners may instead make decisions favorable to themselves rather than the stockholders.
b) The financial manager should seek that combination of assets, liabilities, and capital that will generate the largest expected projected after-tax income over the relevant time horizon, generally the coming year.
c) Large, publicly owned firms like IBM and GE are controlled by their management teams. Ownership is generally widely dispersed; hence managers have great freedom in how they run the firm. Managers may operate in stockholders' best interests, but they also may operate in their own personal best interests. As long as they stay within the law, there is no way to either force or motivate managers to act in the stockholders' best interests.
d) The financial manager's proper goal should be to attempt to maximize the firm's expected cash flows, since that will add the most to the individual shareholders' wealth.
e) The riskiness inherent in a firm's earnings per share (EPS) depends on the characteristics of the projects the firm selects, and thus on the firm's assets. However, EPS is not affected by the manner in which those assets are financed.