Corporate Finance Case Study Solution 1. What factors should Ameritrade consider when evaluating the proposed advertising program and technology upgrades? Ameritrade needs a cost of capital to evaluate new projects. Firms maximize their value by taking all positive NPV projects. is the expected cash flow in period i is the discount rate To calculate an NPV, we need a discount rate. In the A-Rod case we used 8%. In the Ocean Carriers case we used 9%. In this case we will learn how to determine an appropriate rate. If Ameritrade analysts use a discount rate that is too high, good projects may be rejected. If they use a discount rate that is too low, bad projects may be accepted. Also the Ameritrade analysts should consider, that their company’s internal discount rate was often used as 15%, but some managers felt appropriate the rate of 8-9%. At this time, the external discount rate, used by Credit Swiss First Boston was 12%. Good observation. So actually computing the NPV earlier, Ameritrade analysts accepted only the best projects which fitted their high requirements. Now at the end of your analysis, we see that Ameritrade has a cost of capital close to 22%. This high hurdle rate means that Ameritrade should only accept projects with a very high potential rate of return (as long as they are of similar risk levels). 2. How can the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) be used to estimate the cost of capital for a real investment decision? (Note: A real investment decision here is contrasted from a financial investment decision. We are talking about real projects, with investment in people and technologies, etc.) Because we are talking about risks, we should think about systematic and versatile non-systematic? risks. Systematic risks usually depend on overall economical situation, government steps, state economic policy and law base risks. In the US this kind of risk is