Problem 1. Locate the financial statements of a publicly held company on the Internet. Review the balance sheet and the accompanying notes to the financial statements. Discuss the various categories of liabilities on the financial statements. Compute the company's current ratio and discuss the implications for the company.
Problem 2. Roland Carlson is the president, founder, and majority owner of Thebeau Medical Corporation, an emerging medical technology products company. Thebeau is in dire need of additional capital to keep operating and to bring several promising products to final development, testing, and production. Roland, as owner of 51% of the outstanding stock, manages the company's operations. He places heavy emphasis on research and development and long-term growth. The other principal stockholder is Jana Kingstron who, as a nonemployee investor, owns 40% of the stock. Jana would like to deemphasize the R&D functions and emphasize the marketing function to maximize short-run sales and profits from existing products. She believes this strategy would raise the market price of Thebeau's stock.
All of Roland's personal capital and borrowing power is tied up in his 51% stock ownership. He knows that any offering of additional shares of stock will dilute his controlling interest because he won't be able to participate in such an issuance. But, Jana has money and would likely buy enough shares to gain control of Thebeau. She then would dictate the company's future direction, even it if meant replacing Roland as president and CEO.
The company already has considerable debt. Raising additional debt will be costly, will adversely affect Thebeau's credit rating, and will increase the company's reported losses due to the growth in interest expense. Jana and the other minority stockholders express opposition to the assumption of additional debt, fearing the company will be pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. Wanting to maintain his control and to preserve the direction of "his" company, Roland is doing everything to avoid a stock issuance and is contemplating a large issuance of bonds, even if it means the bonds are issued with a high effective-interest rate.
a) Who are the stakeholders in this situation?
b) What are the ethical issues in this case?
c) What would you do if you were Roland?
Problem 3. What ethical considerations are involved in the use of off-balance-sheet financing?