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Summary: Great overview of finance
Review: Great overview of finance. The real world information and data are priceless.
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Summary: This is THE book for serious study of corporate finance !
Review: I am a student with science background. When I started my research on corporate finance, I had ZERO knowledge of investment and business ! I have tried very hard to swallow through the famous Bryley and Myers text recommended by my supervisor, and what I can conclude was : boy, is this how finance people write their text ? After beating about the bush for tens of pages, you still have no idea what they are talking about !Thankfully this book by Ross and also another by Haim Levy save my day and correct my almost biased opinion about business academics (disorganized to the extent that can't even produce an honest and sincere introduction of finance with clarity and organized structure, that I sometimes wonder do these people know their work or not ?). Really I don't know why some people discount Ross completely, because this is really one of the more decent and organized texts available about corporate finance. Anyone who wants to have serious learning about corporate finance should really take a look at Ross and also Haim Levy. Have patience and you will see where the author is leading you to. I am speaking from someone with ZERO background and experience in finance and business.
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Summary: Weak, not relevant and dry
Review: I have talked to many people that used this book and we all share the same experience: The book is dry, lacks practical examples, lacks spreadsheet applications and you almost have to sit with a marker and mark the most important concepts.
It is not written with you in mind. It is written with how can I sell the Solutions manual to you and how can the professor trick you so that he looks like the big shot.
"Essentials of Corporate Finance" was a much better book by the same authors
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Summary: Hate it
Review: I just started my MBA program, and this is one of my text books. It's hard to read and incredibly boring. It also does little to help along the student with no prior Finance experience.
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Summary: Great Text For Undergraduates as well
Review: I used this book for my class, Financial Economics. I took this course as an economics elective before taking Corporate Finance class for my major (BSBA), but I was able to follow every chapter without having difficulty understanding the material. This book played a major role in choosing my career, which of course, is Finance, because it contains so much exciting stuff in there for people who are ambitious enough to become an Investment Banker. I recommend undergraduates majoring in Economics and Business to read this book to get started understanding the field of Finance. Enjoy it!
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Summary: Great intro finance class textbook
Review: I used this book for my undergrad introductory corporate finance class and the structure of the book is just great. The early chapters does a superb job getting across the basics of finance (NPV, IRR), while the later ones give a general look at more complex issues such as dividend policy and corp fin for M&A.
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Summary: Excellent book for our MBA students.
Review: It is already two years since we dropped our adoption of the Brealey Myers text and switched to this excellent book. We have found that it serves as the best introduction to other professional books such as Valuation by Dr. Copeland. More than all we appreciate the coherency and splendid exposition of CAPM, beta, APT, Modigliani-Miller, and the different methodologies of valuation.
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Summary: Core MBA-level Corporate Finance Book--Excellent!
Review: Let's say you're seriously twisted and you want to become an investment banker; you get admitted into a top MBA program, prepare yourself for two years of High Finance boot camp, and hop a plane to the school of your choice. Bad news---the plane crashes, and you spend two years on a deserted island before going to Wall Street. What three books do you wish you'd packed away before your flight? If you're like me, "Corporate Finance" is one of them. The world of financial publishing is a vicious and nasty little gladiatorial arena where a few steely-eyed finance texts shed blood and greenbacks vying for MBA-school presence. But if you're a new MBA, if you're a finance major contemplating a career on Wall Street or business school, or if you just want to lay a nice foundation in core Corporate Finance concepts, "Corporate Finance" is a must-have work. What professors Ross, Westerfield, and Jaffe have done here is remarkable, and possibly a miracle in the often turgid world of finance publishing: they have turned out a remarkably cogent, clear, concise, yet detailed workbook designed to help MBAs and Finance BAs get the most out of core financial concepts like CAPM, Equity Valuation, Present Value, Bond math, options theory, Risk, and Financial Analysis. All of the vital Corporate Finance theory is covered in crisp language, studded with useful examples, and punctuated by real-world economics, finance, and accounting illustrations; there are also topical articles on essential concepts that shed additional, and practical, light on areas that typically confuse finance novices (the section on Net Present Value and its theoretical competitors is particularly solid). Capital Structure, Financial Risk, Valuation, Dividend Theory, and Option Theory are all covered in detail, and the clarity, quality, and comprehensiveness of these sections are all excellent. For students struggling with other MBA-level textbooks that purport to cover the basics, here's the bottom line: stop struggling and buy this book. One caution: Corporate Finance is a foundation book, meaning that it is best used to gain a broad, solid understanding of the key concepts in Corporate Finance and Investment Banking. This is not an Excel-oriented or modelling-based text, nor does it approach subjects like Bond analysis or Options Theory with anything like the academic depth of a John Hull or Frank Fabozzi. That said, Corporate Finance provides an excellent basis for a broad and deep knowledge of modern corporate financial theory; it covers all the essentials, and it does its job thoroughly, engagingly, and very competently. It is crisp, concise, user-friendly, and comprehensive, a rarity in finance textbooks. Oh---the other two Desert Island MBA books, you ask? Easy: Mike Lewis's hysterical "Liar's Poker" and Simon Beninga's invaluable "Financial Modeling".
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Summary: I compared various chapters of it to other Corp. Finance boo
Review: Several chapters of this book were assigned to my Executive MBA Corporate Finance class along with chapters from 5 other texts. The chapters from this book read better and clearer than the others and convinced me to purchase it as a reference introductory text for Corporate Finance. (Hey, folks, you can't expect a textbook to read like a "can't put it down" best-seller novel!)
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Summary: Big, thick, loaded and somewhat confusing in parts
Review: The authors have tried to cram all the theories and ideas of corporate finance in one single volume- they did a commendable job, but has made it too burdensome for MBA students who have to cover the whole book in a single semester. The initial chapters are a joy to read, but it all becomes unstuck when the reader reaches Part IV (Capital Structure and Dividend Policy). Then the authors become somewhat vague and make a heavy weather of explaining the important topic. That is the reason why I could not give five stars to an otherwise excellent book. The initial three parts viz. Overview, Value and Capital Budgeting, and Risk introduce novices gently to the basic concepts and tools. The writing is wordy, but very simple, and it never becomes irksome to the reader.The part on options is detailed enough to give the reader a basic idea of derivatives and will set him/her up nicely for future courses in advanced finance. On the whole, the book is much more detailed and easily acceptable than the other "classic" viz. Brealey and Myers. The best fact is that the authors are not writing for financial experts, but for people who are new to finance. Possibly, this is the best introductory textbook on corporate finance available today.
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