investor

[ketkoag]

In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit

[vaishalijain7]

IMO 'A'. What is OA?

[dumb.doofus]

IMO E

Reason 1: Parallel structure. to pay off... to profit

Reason 2: by using seems wordy, instead "with" seems perfectly ok..

[thetrystero]

In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit

My answer: E

possessive of plural is "companies'", not "company's". eliminates A,D.
"by using" is redundant. eliminates B

idiom is:
1. hoping to pay off ..
2. hoping to profit ..
eliminates C.

[scoobydooby]

thanks thetrystero.
i was confused between A and E. company's vs. companies' helped clear it.

[nervesofsteel]

E for me too

usage of companies' and parallelism between to Pay off and to profit...