Merger and acquisition strategiesa) are often driven by such strategic objectives as to expand a company's geographic coverage or extend its business into new product categories. b) provide superior means for firms to rapidly increase the vertical scope of their core business. c) tend to be the most often used and most effective strategic options available to multi-business companies. d) are one of the best ways for a company strongly differentiate its product offering. e) are aimed at facilitating a company's shift from a broad differentiation strategy to a low-cost provider strategy.

Consider the scenario below and let us know if you believe lauren smith's actions to be ethical. let us know why or why not. lauren smith is the controller for sports central, a chain of sporting goods stores. she has been asked to recommend a site for a new store. lauren has an uncle who owns a shopping plaza in the area of town where the new store is to be located, so she decides to contact her uncle about leasing space in his plaza. lauren also contacted several other shopping plazas and malls, but her uncle’s store turned out to be the most economical place to lease. therefore, lauren recommended locating the new store in her uncle’s shopping plaza. in making her recommendation to management, she did not disclose that her uncle owns the shopping plaza. if management decided to go with lauren's uncle's plaza, what additional information would be needed in the financial statements?