Case Scenario 2: Palmetto

question 82

Essay

Case Scenario 2: Palmetto.
Palmetto was an early pioneer of personal data assistants (PDAs)and dominates that market space (in terms of market share)with its core product, the Palmetto Pidgy. Because this product category was entirely new to the market, Palmetto had to internally develop the hardware and software sides of the business, and today it is both a manufacturer of PDAs and a programmer and licensor of its PDA operating system software. Recently, however, the hand-held device maker's performance has taken a dive as a result of slumping sales and costly inventory problems. Palmetto has also had difficulty coordinating its software and hardware businesses, in part because of the near absence of a coherent structure and the differing economics underlying the two. Specifically, hardware for PDAs is increasingly a cost-based business, while software is a highly differentiated one. While Palmetto is doing pretty well in both businesses, its own resource base does not allow it to compete any differently than that proscribed for other industry participants (that is, it competes on cost with hardware and features with software). In addition to the issues created by these fundamental differences, other large companies are entering both the equipment (such as Sony)and software (such as Microsoft)sides of its business, putting further pressure on margins. Management has decided that it is unable to focus on the complexities of each of these businesses so it is opting to break Palmetto into two separate, independent public companies - Pal, Inc. will be devoted to hardware and Mettolink, Inc. will be devoted to software.
-(Refer to Case Scenario 2). How would the implementation of this structure differ for Pal?

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Definitions:

Meselson and Stahl

Scientists who conducted a landmark experiment in 1958 demonstrating that DNA replication is semiconservative, where each of the original strands serves as a template for a new strand.

Semiconservatively

A method of DNA replication where each of the two parental strands serve as templates for new strands, leading to two daughter molecules each having one old and one new strand of DNA.

Meselson and Stahl

This refers to the scientists Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl who, in 1958, conducted an experiment providing evidence supporting the semi-conservative model of DNA replication.

Nucleotide Bases

The building blocks of DNA and RNA, consisting of adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine (DNA), and uracil (RNA).