Good morning everyone

Google started as one of many internet search engines, amazon started as an online book seller, and ebay began as a site where people could sell used personal items in auctions. these firms have grown to be so large and dominant that they are facing antitrust scrutiny from competition regulators in the us and elsewhere. did these online giants grow by fairly beating competition, or did they use unfair advantages? are there any clouds on the horizon for these firms -- could they face diseconomies of scale or diseconomies of scope as they continue to grow? if so, what factors may limit their continued growth?

Imagine us is a startup that offers high definition 3d prenatal ultrasounds for high-end customers. the service process includes four activities that are conducted in the sequence described below. (the time required for each activity is shown in parentheses): activity 1: welcome a patient and explain the procedure. (20 minutes)activity 2: prep the patient (e. g., show them to the room, apply ultrasound gel). (17 minutes) (*your id number represents the amount of time needed to complete this task)activity 3: take images. (5 minutes)activity 4: discuss diagnostic with patient. (20 minutes)at each location there are employees (servers) s1, s2, and s3. the assignment of tasks to servers is the following: s1 does activities 1 and 2.s2 does activity 3.s3 does activity 4.a. what is the capacity of this process (in customers per hour)? b. suppose 3 patients arrive every hour on average. ignoring any “start of day” or “end of day” effects, what are the utilizations of all three servers (%)? c. suppose each activity can be done by any server and any server can do any set of activities. however, each activity is done by only one server. for example, a possible assignment includes: s1 does activity 1, s2 does activity 2, and s3 does activities 3 and 4. of course, the original assignment of servers to activities is also feasible. what is the maximum capacity of the process (in customers per hour)? d. now consider the capacity measures in (c) and (a), what is the percentage change? why can you improve capacity without using additional resources? (there is no free lunch, right? )note: for all hw assignments, show your process of getting the results. only providing the final answers is not acceptable and will get 0%. if necessary, use a separate sheet of paper to show your work.

Afirm wants to strengthen its financial position. which of the following actions would increase its current ratio? a. reduce the company's days' sales outstanding to the industry average and use the resulting cash savings to purchase plant and equipment. b. use cash to repurchase some of the company's own stock. c. borrow using short-term debt and use the proceeds to repay debt that has a maturity of more than one year. d. issue new stock, then use some of the proceeds to purchase additional inventory and hold the remainder as cash. e. use cash to increase inventory holdings.