Executives at Leonesse Cellars, a premium winery in Southern California, were surprised to learn that shipping wine by sea to some cities in Asia was less expensive than sending it to the East Coast of the United States by road, so they started shipping to Asia. Because of the large U. S. trade deficit with major Asian countries, cargo ships from Asian countries arrive at West Coast ports fully loaded but return half to completely empty. Use the concept of opportunity cost to help explain why shipping to Asian cities on these cargo ships returning to those cities would be cheaper than shipping by land to the East Coast of the United States. You must give an explanation.

Garrett is an executive vice president at samm hardware. he researches a proposal by a larger company, maximum hardware, to combine the two companies. by analyzing past performance, conducting focus groups, and interviewing maximum employees, garrett concludes that maximum has poor profit margins, sells shoddy merchandise, and treats customers poorly. what actions should garrett and samm hardware take? a. turn down the acquisition offer and prepare to resist a hostile takeover. b. attempt a friendly merger and use managerial hubris to improve results at maximum. c. welcome the acquisition and use knowledge transfer to impart sam hardware's management practices. d. do nothing; the two companies cannot combine without samm hardware's explicit consent.