The Boston Company must choose between one of two machines —machine A has low fixed costs and high unit variable costs whereas machine B has high fixed costs and low unit variable costs. Consequently, machine A is most suited to low-level demand whereas machine B

is suited to high-level demand. For simplicity assume that there are only two possible

demand levels — low and high — and the estimated probability of each of these events

is 0.5. The estimated profits for each demand level are as follows:

Low demand

High demand

Expected value

(£)

(£)

(£)

Machine A

100000

160

000

Machine B

10000

200000

105000

There is a possibility of employing a firm of market consultants who would be able to provide a perfect prediction of the actual demand. What is the maximum amount the company should be prepared to pay the consultants for the additional information?