01.
Functional Integration. Functional integration refers to transfers between, or pooling among, business activities that significantly affect the operation of the business activities. Functional integration includes, but is not limited to, transfers or pooling with respect to the unitary business's products or services, technical information, marketing information, distribution systems, purchasing, and intangibles such as patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, trade secrets, know-how, formulas, and processes. There is no specific type of functional integration that must be present. The following is a list of examples of business operations that can support the finding of functional integration. The order of the list does not establish a hierarchy of importance.
a. Sales, exchanges, or transfers (collectively "sales") of products, services, or intangibles between business activities provide evidence of functional integration. The significance of the intercompany sales to the finding of functional integration will be affected by the character of what is sold and the percentage of total sales or purchases represented by the intercompany sales. For example, sales among business entities that are part of a vertically integrated unitary business are indicative of functional integration. Functional integration is not negated by the use of a readily determinable market price to effect the intercompany sales, because such sales can represent an assured market for the seller or an assured source of supply for the purchaser.
b. Common Marketing. The sharing of common marketing features among business entities is an indication of functional integration when such marketing results in significant mutual advantage. Common marketing exists when a substantial portion of the business entities' products, services, or intangibles are distributed or sold to a common customer, when the business entities use a common trade name or other common identification, or when the business entities seek to identify themselves to their customers as a member of the same enterprise. The use of a common advertising agency or a commonly owned or controlled in-house advertising office does not by itself establish common marketing that is suggestive of functional integration. (Such activity, however, is relevant to determining the existence of economies of scale and centralization of management.)
c. Transfer or Pooling of Technical Information or Intellectual Property. Transfers or pooling of technical information or intellectual property, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and service marks, trade secrets, processes or formulas, know-how, research, or development, provide evidence of functional integration when the matter transferred is significant to the businesses' operations.
d. Common Distribution System. Use of a common distribution system by the business entities, under which inventory control and accounting, storage, trafficking, or transportation are controlled through a common network provides evidence of functional integration.
e. Common Purchasing. Common purchasing of substantial quantities of products, services, or intangibles from the same source by the business entities, particularly where the purchasing results in significant cost savings or where products, services, or intangibles are not readily available from other sources and are significant to each entity's operations or sales, provides evidence of functional integration.
f. Common or Intercompany Financing. Significant common or intercompany financing, including the guarantee by, or the pledging of the credit of, one (1) or more business entities for the benefit of another business entity or entities provides evidence of functional integration, if the financing activity serves an operational purpose of both borrower and lender. Lending which serves an investment purpose of the lender does not necessarily provide evidence of functional integration. (See Subsection 342.02 of this rule for discussion of centralization of management.)
02.
Centralization of Management. Centralization of management exists when directors, officers, or other management employees jointly participate in the management decisions that affect the respective business activities and that may also operate to the benefit of the entire economic enterprise. Centralization of management can exist whether the centralization is effected from a parent entity to a subsidiary entity, from a subsidiary entity to a parent entity, from one (1) subsidiary entity to another, from one (1) division within a single business entity to another division within a business entity, or from any combination of the foregoing. Centralization of management may exist even when day-to-day management responsibility and accountability has been decentralized, so long as the management has an ongoing operational role with respect to the business activities. An operational role can be effected through mandates, consensus building, or an overall operational strategy of the business, or any other mechanism that establishes joint management.
a. Facts Providing Evidence of Centralization of Management. Evidence of centralization of management is provided when common officers participate in the decisions relating to the business operations of the different segments. Centralization of management may exist when management shares or applies knowledge and expertise among the parts of the business. Existence of common officers and directors, while relevant to a showing of centralization of management, does not alone provide evidence of centralization of management. Common officers are more likely to provide evidence of centralization of management than are common directors.
b. Stewardship Distinguished. Centralized efforts to fulfill stewardship oversight are not evidence of centralization of management. Stewardship oversight consists of those activities that any owner would take to review the performance of or safeguard an investment. Stewardship oversight is distinguished from those activities that an owner may take to enhance value by integrating one (1) or more significant operating aspects of one (1) business activity with the other business activities of the owner. For example, implementing reporting requirements or mere approval of capital expenditures may evidence only stewardship oversight.
03.
Economies of Scale. Economies of scale refers to a relation among and between business activities resulting in a significant decrease in the average per unit cost of operational or administrative functions due to the increase in operational size. Economies of scale may exist from the inherent cost savings that arise from the presence of functional integration or centralization of management. The following are examples of business operations that can support the finding of economies of scale. The order of the list does not establish a hierarchy of importance.
a. Centralized Purchasing. Centralized purchasing designed to achieve savings due to the volume of purchases, the timing of purchases, or the interchangeability of purchased items among the parts of the business engaging in the purchasing provides evidence of economies of scale.
b. Centralized Administrative Functions. The performance of traditional corporate administrative functions, such as legal services, payroll services, pension and other employee benefit administration, in common among the parts of the business may result in some degree of economies of scale. A business entity that secures savings in the performance of corporate administrative services due to its affiliation with other business entities that it would not otherwise reasonably be able to secure on its own because of its size, financial resources, or available market, provides evidence of economies of scale.
