This book is a high-quality, hard-back, modern textbook packed with countless examples and practice problems and scenarios. It should probably spend a little more time demonstrating to students how to solve the problems in real world situations. More Excel, HP10B, and graphing calculator examples would be helpful.
I use this book for my corporate finance class. The first words out of my instructors mouth were that it was one of the best books on the market used by many schools, and that we would only be using it as a small facet of the course. The book is extremely formula focused and very difficult to understand if you are not strong in math. Our course is calculator based and the formulas are 100% irrelevant. Learning corporate finance by formula is "ridiculous, and holds no real value" said my instructor so we are to work on the problems in the book while ignoring the formulas.
The practice problems in this book are good, but the value of their style of instruction is poor. No one in the industry will require you to know the formula to calculate the present value of annuity. They will simply expect you to know how to get the correct answer.
Get a financial calculator and learn how to use the financial functions and ignore all their formula crap and you will succeed in learning this material.
If I could sum up this book in three words it would be: net present value. Most of the book's 31 chapters either explain or apply the concept of net present value so it's great that the book covers it early in the text. As someone who has spent the past 7 years working in finance, some of the other concepts in the book such as financial statement analysis, cash management and credit management were repetitive for me, but it also introduced a lot of new ideas. In particular, I found the discounted cash flow valuation model and the Monte Carlo simulation of risk analysis to among my favorites. The book is skewed to an audience who is heading into or already in a management position in a finance department. It discusses the theoretical competent of corporate finance too and its importance in the growth and value of a firm. There's a ton of information in this book and, like most things in life, you'll get out of it what you put in. To that end, I would recommend solving one problem from each chapter's problem sets.
Book is a great starting point for beginners. That being said, it is not for learning advance topics in finance. It doesn't provide detailed coverage. Some topics could be explained with clearer examples. It does have the details required to learn basic finance. But not the book for advance knowledge seekers.
I have used this same textbook for several courses in my MBA program. It is an expensive upfront purchase but certainly a book worth holding onto if you have any interest in finance. The book includes a very broad range of topics and for the most part covers all relevant topic areas of finance.
I liked the layout of the book and the prose, explanations and so on.
I think that the complaints are from the more remedial users. My MBA is my second masters. My undergraduate and masters degree are in engineering and engineering management, respectively, so I have a lot of experience with different textbooks. I have always been happy with the quality and coverage this book offers.
As far as the comment about the new revisions of this textbook not having substantial changes over the previous revisions....well, sadly this practice is pretty much standard with all textbooks as a money generating ploy by the publishers. You can't hold this issue against this book individually.
I have ample experience in the field and the class for which I need this book feels like review for me. This book does, too. However for some classmates, this book is over their head. I do not know how much they study so cannot speak for them, but for me, the book works adequately.
The seller from whom I received the book was fantastic, though. The book came quickly and in better condition than listed.
I bought this book as part of my curriculum for my MBA programme and I am sad to say that this book has turned what was once excitement about pursuing my education into a nightmare! This book is not written with students in mind, nor is the information presented in a manner that makes it comprehendable. Adding to the lack lustre of the book is the lack authors' aparant desire to cram as much into each chapter as possible to the point that it is near impossible to process it all. I would not recommend this book to students at all. Maybe professionals in the field would enjoy it.
This isn't an elementary "Intro to Finance" book. It assumes some prior knowledge of basic financial concepts(hint: the 3 main concepts in finance are TVM, Asset Valuation, and Risk Management). The book will seem dry and complicated if it's the first finance book you ever read. Otherwise, you'll appreciate its brevity and clarity. I'm using it for an MBA CorpFin course.
This is a good book written much better than many other textbooks on the subject. The authors do a good job of communicating a complex subject.
The supporting answer guide #978-0-07-72609-9 (bought separately) helped me with the math and the opportunity to work through many extra problems.
I would recommend an older copy if you are not buying this for school. The subject matter is dry but one has to get exposed to the material.
I can't write a review on the book because I don't have it.
I will never buy a book from Bowen's books again. Absolutely terrible service. After I rated them poorly they asked me to remove my 1 star rating. That was only the beginning.
Not only that - but they wanted to ensure I knew I was buying a paperback copy of this book (read: A copy that they made of the original and are selling - but for 30% off!). I'm aware of this only because I know there are NO paperback copies available. Really the publishers of the book should probably look in to litigation vs. this "book" seller. Yes - I know what I'm buying. All I care about is that I get the book that I purchased.
They have neither refunded my money nor sent me the book. Recently my wife received the wrong book from another retailer. She sent them an email - they:
1 Apologized for their mistake
2 Told her to keep the book (or sell it back via Amazon)
3 They then sent the CORRECT book overnight to her - and we received it the next day after her email.
I sent a similar email to Bowen's books 5 days ago and still have not anything. Not even an apology - only an "I understand your concern."
I'm thinking Amazon is going to have to start auditing it's book retailers more thoroughly (if it isn't already). I plan on filing an official claim through Amazon shortly.
As other reviewers have noted, the book is a jumble. I can't find my way through chapters logically, let alone see the logical flow of the book as a whole. It claims to have electronic links to things like spreadsheets and videos...it does not. All the links are dead. The publisher's website promises tons of content, and there's virtually nothing, and what is there is just fluff, not of any real use.
And finally, the book is not updated in any meaningful way since the 8th edition (I compared it in the library). Literally all they did was tweak the number in the problem section so you don't get the same answers. Every word of the text is verbatim, except for some very minor changes (they refer to different baseball players' salaries, or sales of expensive art auction items). So they published a "new" edition not cause there's new information, or to update the content in keeping with the 2008-present recession, or anything else of academic merit. The changes are basically cosmetic, in order to sell more books. Putting out a new edition was not just unnecessary, it was evil.
As for the Kindle execution...first, no page numbers. All books of this sort need literal page numbers, so that kindle users can follow along with the rest of the class. then, they only let you use it on two devices. One of the beauties of Kindle books is that you can bounce from device to device; your phone, your iPad, your laptop, your desktop and home and work, your Kindle, the new Kindle you had to buy because the old one got stolen, the new Kindle you bought because the newer models just came out...you get my drift. NOT with this book! You're limited to two devices. TWO! Utterly ridiculous.
In sum, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. If you have to, plead to get a used copy of the 8th edition, you'll learn every bit as much. What might be missing can be found on the web. Teachers...if you must assign it to students, at least have the courtesy to let students us an older edition, since the 8th is exactly the same book.
As someone else noted, if you are buying this book, it is probably a required text.
If it is not a required text, and you are interested in a USA MBA program textbook, buy Brealey Myers or Berk Demarzo, or even the Welch book.
I despise the presentation of the material in this book. Somehow, it manages to be both condescending "dumbed down" in tone, and simultaneously gives the most obfuscating exposition of the material I have ever read.
I learned out of Brealey Myers when I got my MBA at at a top 10 MBA program, taught undergrads and MBAs out of the Berk & Demarzo at a big-10 business program, and was coerced into teaching out of the Ross Westerfield Jaffe at the school where I now teach (a top 20 MBA program).
This book is by far the least helpful out of the three.
This is, of course, a style preference, but enough students complained about the text that I am switching back to one of the other texts next year. The authors are brilliant, but it does not come through in the text.
The examples are irritating, the exposition lacks any rigor, the sequence is unintuitive, and I never ended up feeling like my students got anywhere near the bang for the buck that they got from other texts.
I still refer to my Brealey Myers & the Berk & Demarzo when I refresh my lecture notes, but I threw out my copy of this text before the semester was even over.
Book is a high quality textbook in build and design, in most chapters (up through 8) it is pretty thorough but relies heavily on formulas, not on practical knowledge. Our prof also assigned the online CONNECT package... be warned... there are many versions of this book out there, some with connect, some with answer guides, some with other additional materials... be sure what you need for your class before ordering, the $45 connect fee on top of the book made it just as expensive as our campus bookstore, which included the connect.
this is a great book for people who want foundational knowledge on corporate finance.... it was my textbook for the fundamentals of corporate finance class and this book was just perfect for it. it is very easy to follow, great exercise problems and end of chapter problems, really good examples and the mini cases are especially great. uses real world scenarios and got me thinking and asking lots of good questions. really satisfied with the book. i usually sell all my textbooks at the end of term but this one i'll be holding on to for future references.
Product Details :
Hardcover: 1056 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 9 edition (October 9, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0073382337
ISBN-13: 978-0073382333
Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 1.7 x 10.7 inches
More Details about Corporate Finance, 9th edition
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