COURSE NUMBER: MBA222.1
COURSE TITLE: Financial Information Analysis
UNITS OF CREDIT: 3
INSTRUCTOR: David Downes
E-MAIL ADDRESS: downes@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL):
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Monday,
Wednesday, 9:30-11:00 AM
PREREQUISITE(S): MBA 202, Financial Accounting, MBA 203, Finance, and MBA 299,
Corporate Strategy
CLASS FORMAT: Mostly cases, with some lectures and student presentations
REQUIRED READINGS: textbook (Financial Reporting and Statement
Analysis, by Stickney, Brown and Wahlen, 5th ed.) supplemented with some
cases and readings in a course reader
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Case write-ups, project, class participation, and
quizzes
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
Managers of firms are asked to combine physical, human and financial resources
to provide goods and/or services to their customers. They do this to
create value for the firm's owners. Some do a better job than others in
accomplishing this objective -- it is the goal of this course to provide you
with the tools and expertise to find, interpret and analyze the information
available to determine how well a firm's management is performing, and, as a
result, how much the firm is worth.
We will build on three areas that you have covered already: financial
accounting, finance and corporate strategy. It will not be just an
accounting course, although we will need to spend a significant amount of time
digging into the accounting reports as they represent the basis for much of our
analysis. The central theme of the course will be valuation -- whether
management is creating value or destroying value. Because of this focus,
the course should be useful for anyone planning to be a manger. It should
help you understand how you will be evaluated so that you can do a better job
of identifying value-creating opportunities and in reporting your results.
The course should be especially useful if you plan a career in any aspect of
finance -- investment banking, commercial banking, portfolio management,
securities analysis, venture capital or credit analysis. It should also
be helpful if you aspire to be a consultant or a business analyst. This
will be primarily a case course and I expect each student to come to class
prepared to discuss the assigned case in depth. Another significant component
of the course will be an extensive analysis and valuation of two or three firms
in a specific industry -- you will work in teams of three or four students and
you will be asked to present your findings to the class during one of the final
class sessions.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
David Downes retired in August 2003 after spending 30 years at Haas, 20 of them
as director of the MBA Program. He has taught numerous MBA courses in
accounting and finance at Haas. He received his PhD from Cornell in
Accounting and Finance and he has an MBA from