CHAPTER 2 – 1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE
FINANCE
Answers to Concept Questions
1. In the corporate form of ownership, the shareholders are the owners of the firm. The shareholders
elect the directors of the corporation, who in turn appoint the firm’s management. This separation of
ownership from control in the corporate form of organization is what causes agency problems to
2. Such organizations frequently pursue social or political missions, so many different goals are
conceivable. One goal that is often cited is revenue minimization; i.e., provide whatever goods and
3. Presumably, the current stock value reflects the risk, timing, and magnitude of all future cash flows,
4. An argument can be made either way. At the one extreme, we could argue that in a market economy,
all of these things are priced. There is thus an optimal level of, for example, ethical and/or illegal
behavior, and the framework of stock valuation explicitly includes these. At the other extreme, we
could argue that these are non-economic phenomena and are best handled through the political
5. The goal will be the same, but the best course of action toward that goal may be different because of
6. The goal of management should be to maximize the share price for the current shareholders. If
management believes that it can improve the profitability of the firm so that the share price will
exceed $35, then they should fight the offer from the outside company. If management believes that
this bidder or other unidentified bidders will actually pay more than $35 per share to acquire the
7. We would expect agency problems to be less severe in other countries, primarily due to the relatively
small percentage of individual ownership. Fewer individual owners should reduce the number of
CHAPTER 2 – 2
diverse opinions concerning corporate goals. The high percentage of institutional ownership might
8. The increase in institutional ownership of stock in the United States and the growing activism of
these large shareholder groups may lead to a reduction in agency problems for U.S. corporations and
a more efficient market for corporate control. However, this may not always be the case. If the
9. How much is too much? Who is worth more, Larry Ellison or Tiger Woods? The simplest answer is
that there is a market for executives just as there is for all types of labor. Executive compensation is
the price that clears the market. The same is true for athletes and performers. Having said that, one
aspect of executive compensation deserves comment. A primary reason executive compensation has
10. Maximizing the current share price is the same as maximizing the future share price at any future
period. The value of a share of stock depends on all of the future cash flows of company. Another
way to look at this is that, barring large cash payments to shareholders, the expected price of the