Exercise 12-15 Dropping or Retaining a Segment [L012-2] 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 Kataskeves, S.A. Income Statement Bilge Pump For the Quarter Ended March 31 Sales Variable expenses: $850,000 Variable manufacturing expenses $330,000 42,000 18,000 Sales commissions Total variable expenses Contribution margin Fixed expenses 390,000 460,000 Advertising (for the bilge pump product line) 270,000 Depreciation of equipment (no resale value) 80,000 105,000 32,000 8,000 45,000 General factory overhead Salary of product-line manager Insurance on inventories C540,000 s (80,000) Total fixed expenses Net operating loss Common costs allocated on the basis of machine-hours. tCommon costs allocated on the basis of sales dollars Discontinuing the bilge pump product line would not affect sales of other product lines and would 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