Below is the Daimler Benz $($MB$)\text{'}$s $2022$ Annual Report prepared under IFRS:

Daimler $2022$ Annual Report $G$

Also, below, you can find a hyperlink to the year ended December $31,2022,$ General Motors Corporation financial $($annual$)$ report prepared under

the US GAAP:

General Motors Company Annual Report $2022$

Your client has asked you for some advice about how to compare Mercedes Benz $($MB$)$ to General Motors $($GM$)$ for a potential common stock

investment. Your client has also accessed these financial $($annual$)$ reports and cannot make 'heads or tails' of what they mean and how the results of

these two giants in the car industry really compare to each other. Your client has asked you to help by preparing a summary and a financial

comparison of one to the other, including some financial ratios which you should choose $($which can be liquidity, solvency, or profitability$-$related

ratios$)$ and which are important to your client.

For your initial posting for this Discussion, summarize for your client in plain English with supporting analyses where required answers to the three

of the following five questions. Please copy and paste in bold type each question into your initial response:

Some of the key differences in the basis of preparation of the two financial $($annual$)$ reports for MB and GM$.$ Refer to what you learned in the

earlier modules of this course and what you learned in this module to answer this question.

Free cash flow is important to your client when deciding whether to invest in the common stock of any company. Compare the free cash flow

using the Statement of Cash Flows for MB under both bases of accounting to GM$.$ Briefly explain the results and how they may or may not be

comparable to each other as well as why or why not.

Pick one other key ratio in each of the following areas: liquidity, solvency, and profitability. Compare the ratios for the last two or three years for

MB under both bases of accounting to GM$.$ Briefly explain the results and how they may or may not be comparable to each other as well as why

or why not.

Summarize what you learned from this discussion and exercise about the potential problems that may arise between foreign firms reporting

under local statutory financial reporting rules, IFRS, and a competitor in the US reporting only under the US GAAP.