Exercise 11-15 (Algo) Dropping or Retaining a Segment [LO11-2] Thalassines Kataskeves, S.A., of Greece makes marine equipment. The company has been experiencing losses on its bilge pump product line for several years. The most recent quarterly contribution format income statement for the bilge pump product line follows: Thalassines Kataskeves, S.A. Income Statement-Bilge Pump For the Quarter Ended March 31 Sales Variable expenses: Variable manufacturing expenses Sales commissions Shipping Total variable expenses Contribution margin Fixed expenses: Advertising (for the bilge pump product line) Depreciation of equipment (no resale value) General factory overhead Salary of product-line manager Insurance on inventories Purchasing department Total fixed expenses Net operating loss *Common costs allocated on the basis of machine-hours. +Common costs allocated on the basis of sales dollars. $480,000 $ 134,000 46,000 20,000 200,000 280,000 22,000 112,000 49,000 116,000 14,000 46,000 359,000 $(79,000) Discontinuing the bilge pump product line would not affect sales of other product lines and wogid have no effect on the company's total general factory overhead or total Purchasing Department expenses. Required: What is the financial advantage (disadvantage) of discontinuing the bilge pump product line?