According to the Wall Street Journal, merger and acquisition activity in the first quarter rose to $5.3 billion. Approximately three-fourths of the 78 first-quarter deals occurred between information technology (IT) companies. The largest IT transaction of the quarter was EMC’s $625 million acquisition of VMWare. The VMWare acquisition broadened EMC’s core data storage device business to include software technology enabling multiple operating systems – such as Microsoft’s Windows, Linux, and OS X – to simultaneously and independently run on the same Intel-based server or workstation. Suppose that at the time of the acquisition a weak economy led many analysts to project that VMWare’s profits would grow at a constant rate of 2 percent for the foreseeable future, and that the company’s annual net income was $39.60 million. If EMC’s estimated opportunity cost of funds is 9 percent, as an analyst, how would you view the acquisition? Explain.

An important application of regression analysis in accounting is in the estimation of cost. by collecting data on volume and cost and using the least squares method to develop an estimated regression equation relating volume and cost, an accountant can estimate the cost associated with a particular manufacturing volume. consider the following sample of production volumes and total cost data for a manufacturing operation. production volume (units) total cost ($) 400 4000 450 5000 550 5400 600 5900 700 6400 750 7000 compute b 1 and b 0 (to 2 decimals if necessary). b 1 b 0 complete the estimated regression equation (to 2 decimals if necessary). = + x what is the variable cost per unit produced (to 1 decimal)? $ compute the coefficient of determination (to 4 decimals). note: report r 2 between 0 and 1. r 2 = what percentage of the variation in total cost can be explained by the production volume (to 2 decimals)? % the company's production schedule shows 500 units must be produced next month. what is the estimated total cost for this operation (to 2 decimals)? $

Pear co.’s income statement for the year ended december 31, as prepared by pear’s controller, reported income before taxes of $125,000. the auditor questioned the following amounts that had been included in income before taxes: equity in earnings of cinn co. $ 40,000 dividends received from cinn 8,000 adjustments to profits of prior years for arithmetical errors in depreciation (35,000) pear owns 40% of cinn’s common stock, and no acquisition differentials are relevant. pear’s december 31 income statement should report income before taxes of

Portia grant is an employee who is paid monthly. for the month of january of the current year, she earned a total of $8,388. the fica tax for social security is 6.2% of the first $118,500 earned each calendar year and the fica tax rate for medicare is 1.45% of all earnings. the futa tax rate of 0.6% and the suta tax rate of 5.4% are applied to the first $7,000 of an employee's pay. the amount of federal income tax withheld from her earnings was $1,391.77. what is the total amount of taxes withheld from the portia's earnings?