(MG100 – Homework # 1 – FIRM ANALYSIS
Look up your two firms (one US and one foreign)(my firm: Delta and BMW) on Mergent Online – available via the Trexler Li
ary online business databases(https:
www.mergentonline.com
asicsearch.php). Familiarize yourself with navigating through Mergent screens and the layout and format of the data presented. Watch the Mergent tutorial on Blackboard for help.
1. Visit each firm’s website; the link is provided on the main “Company Overview” page on Mergent. (In the case of some foreign firms, you may need to request the English version of the website; this option is typically in the upper right, or at the very bottom of the main page).
2. Using the data found on Mergent and the firm’s website, write up a concise but informative summary description of each firm (memo format in 3-4 paragraphs?), including an explanation of:
a. What they make / do / sell
. How big they are, in terms of revenue generated, total assets, and total number of employees (be sure to specify the year for which these data apply).
c. Where around the world they operate / do business
d. Who their main customers / users are
e. Who their main competitors are
3. For each of your firms, create a simple Excel spreadsheet that presents the last 5 years of financial performance data available with the 5-year average, similar to the example for IBM below. Ignore the old dates in this example.
Note that the sequence of the years in the example above (left to right, oldest to newest) is opposite of the format found in Hoover’s (left to right, newest to oldest). Some fields and/or professional applications (e.g. accounting) customarily display historical data one way, others display it the other way. I think it is more intuitive to see the years’ data progressing oldest to newest from left to right, which also makes things more visually appealing when you display the data in a chart or graph as in the example below (chart is not needed for this assignment):
4. Insert your summaries within the spreadsheet. I only want one document per student.
5. When complete, SAVE your spreadsheet in a file titled as follows lastnamefirstinitialMG100HW1.xls(x). Put your name in the spreadsheet so your work is easily identified by your instructor.
6. Post your spreadsheet to the Homework 1 dropbox on Friday, Fe
uary 17 by class.
IBM - Total Assets
Total Assets Dec 2010 Dec 2011 Dec 2012 Dec 2013 Dec 2014 113452 116433 119213 126223 117532
Year ending:Dec 2010Dec 2011Dec 2012Dec 2013Dec 20145-yr Avg
Total Assets113,452 116,433 119,213 126,223 117,532 118,571
Revenue99, XXXXXXXXXX,916 104,507 99, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX,767
Total Net Income14, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX,159
International Business Machines Corporation
Financial Performance XXXXXXXXXX
(Amounts in millions of US Dollars)