Erdosh Case Study - CFA® Level 1: CFA® Level 1

Paul Erdosh Case Study

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Paul Erdosh is an independent contractor who was hired by Arbitrage Securities to carry out a research project involving the software industry. The scope of the research was broad and the aim was to identify relatively undervalued stocks in that sector. During the course of the research, Paul realized that two of the companies in the sector were prime takeover targets if anyone bothered to do more research on them. He decided to sell this finding to M&A Consultants and obtain a research contract from them. He did not inform Arbitrage Securities about this deal, though he did submit a competent research report on the software industry to them. Paul has

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A. B. C. D.

A

Arbitrage Securities hired Paul to do a research project that did not involve identifying specific merger/acquisition candidates. Hence, Paul's discovery is tangential to the original project and as such, cannot be considered the property of Arbitrage Securities. Standard III (B) does apply to Paul even though he is a contractor; however, it does not preclude him from selling his findings without Arbitrage Securities' permission as long as the information is not related to the project he was hired to conduct.