This book mentions the web pages for many companies. Increasingly, corporations and other organisations are putting out detailed information about themselves on the internet. But how good is that information? Is it easy to find in the company's web material? Is it up to date? Is it displayed usefully? Can it be downloaded easily? This is a case you can construct for yourself, and discuss in class either by comparing various companies or by comparing various people's reactions to the same company.
Pick a company that interests you or that is assigned by your instructor. Go to its website and see what is there regarding the company's financial statements. If you don't know the company's web address, type the company name into your search engine and you'll likely get to it easily. Once you get to the company's web page, start your examination and consider questions such as those below, which could be addressed in a report or in a class discussion:
1. How attractive and user-friendly is the initial web page? Does it concentrate on marketing the company's products, providing general information, telling you about recent media attention directed towards the company, or other purposes?
2. How easy is it to find the company's financial information, if it is there at all? (Many web pages direct you to 'Investor information' or some such area for financial information, others specify the financial reports directly, while others make it quite hard to find.)
3. How much does the company tell you about itself to help you put the financial information in context? Can you easily relate the background to the financial material, or do you have to jump all over the website to find it all?

4. How useful do you find the financial statements to be? Are they up to date, are they analysed or commented upon by the company, and are they related to recent events affecting the company or just plunked on the web as is? (You could look for a management discussion and analysis section if the balance sheet is just included in the company's current annual report, posted as is on the web.)
5. Are the balance sheet, income statement and supporting material easy to download and/or print? Would they be readily available for insertion in an analysis of the company?