WORKING COMPUTERS, INC.
Jennifer Sobey, an analyst in the headquarters of Working Computers, has been asked to evaluate whether or not Working should sell a division of the firm which has been losing market share and requires a great deal of new investment to remain competitive. The ailing product is a personal data appliance, or PDA, that once led the market in features and innovation, only to fall prey to competition from numerous firms once it had paved the way for the product category. Complicating Jennifer’s analysis and recommendation are several political issues involving the wayward division. In particular, Working’s recently returned CEO, Stewart Workman, has decided that the product (the Bernoulli device) is a “loser” and has plans to use the capital currently committed to Bernoulli to boost the ailing performance of other parts of the firm.
.
JUST THE FACTS
Jennifer had discretely gathered a great deal of information from the Bernoulli unit as well as several of its competitors. In addition, she had spent the greater part of a week downloading information from the Internet, mainly opinions of the PDA market and the strengths and weaknesses of Bernoulli as an ongoing platform.

Jennifer thought that Bernoulli’s declining market share was troublesome. In 2003, Bernoulli unit sales had represented approximately fifteen percent of the market, with the largest competitor grabbing a full 42 percent of unit sales. Unfortunately, market share had been declining at least one percent each quarter, and there was fear that it would drop even more. This drop was likely due to a large competitor’s recent announcement that compatibility with its platform, and not the Bernoulli, would be incorporated into a popular line of office software that was unavailable for Working Computers.
The folks in the Bernoulli labs were currently working on major upgrades to the Bernoulli