You work for a firm that manufactures and sells computer peripheral equipment and you are thinking about acquiring a firm that has made a nice profit specializing in the manufacturing USB cables. In the meeting to discuss the acquisition, an associate makes the following statement."These USB cables are essentially a commodity and there are any number of firms that can enter into this business. This is, as we learned in the economics class I took while getting my MBA, a classic competitive industry. As such, it's not possible to earn long-runeconomicprofits and so we shouldn't base our purchase price on the profits that the firm is now making"

Does the associate have a point. Expand and explain.