Tom and his family have developed a successful business selling a liquid spray fertilizer to farmers. The fertilizer consists of rich, organic, composted material. Recently NuBreed Seed, a national seed company, has been marketing a powdered chemical fertilizer to its customers; NuBreed's fertilizer is less expensive than Tom's product. NuBreed's efforts are an example of the ___ in Porter's model for industry analysis.

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.