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Summary: An integrated approach to corporate finance and strategy
Review: The most valuable part of this book is in its ability to integrate financial decision making with strategy. This is rare especially for a book this good.Another valuable point is that its approach of balancing theories and practicality. If student finds it a little confusing or non-conclusive on many issues, it is precisely so in reality. A book this good is more than a gift.
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Summary: Don't buy this book - WHAT A RIP-OFF!
Review: There's nothing unique about this text - all the topics & discussions have been well covered in other basic textbooks on Corporate Finance, Mergers etc....
The discussions lack depth. The whole concept of Corporate Strategy has been miscontrued by the authors.... The link between this and Financial Markets is very ambiguous & blur!
FYI I'm a businessman & hold an MBA in Finance from an international university.
Rating: 
Summary: A value creating guidebook to corporate finance & investing
Review: This almost 900 page textbook and reference manual on corporate finance has been almost ten years in the making.
We wrote this book to influence the way people think about and practice finance. The book is application oriented, intuitive, largely nontechnical, and geared towards helping the corporate manager formulate policies and financial strategies that maximize firm value. We believe that the successful corporate managers will be those who can take advantage of the growing sophistication of the financial markets and apply the lessons learned from these markets to the world of corporate financial management and strategy.
The book's 22 chapters provide a comprehensive discussion of financial theory, empirical work, and financial practice. The book is divided into six parts. Part I contains 3 chapters on financial markets and financial institutions. Part II contains 6 chapters on valuing financial assets, including two chapters on derivatives and options. This part of the book is the most well-organized, comprehensive, and detailed treatment of how to invest that is available today. Part III contains 4 chapters on the valuation of real assets. Part IV contains 4 chapters on capital structure and dividend policy. Part V dedicates three chapters to issues involving asymmetric information, managerial incentives, and corporate control. Part VI, which contains 3 chapters, offers the most up to date treatment to date about corporate risk management, including a discussion of which risks should be hedged to maximize firm value.
There is an appendix, which provides an overview of the basic financial tools needed to understand the book. In addition, the book contains two special features that should make it especially appealing to members of the business community. The first is "Practical Insights," a feature that contains over 120 unique guidelines to help the reader identify the important practical issues faced by the financial manager and where to look in that part of the book to help analyze those issues. This feature enables the book to serve as a reference manual as well as a primer on finance. For each functional task of a financial manager, "Practical Insights" provides a list of important practical lessons, each bulleted, with section number references to which the reader can refer to for further detail on the insight.
The second feature, "Executive Perspective," provides the reader with testimonials from important financial executives, who have looked over respective parts of the book and highlight what issues and topics are especially important from the practicing executive's perspective.
The statistics on the book are as follows: There are over 220 worked out practical problems, over 270 additional exercises, over 170 key concepts that are highlighted and reviewed, over 180 exhibits and drawings, over 550 defined key terms, a 16 page table of contents, and an extensive index.
The authors are well known scholars in finance who have published about 50 research articles in the area. Mark Grinblatt, Professor of Finance, is currently the chairman of UCLA's world reknowned finance group, a director of Salomon Swapco, Inc., a former winner of the FEMBA teacher of the year award, and a former vice-president of arbitrage support for Salomon Brothers' fixed income proprietary trading group. Sheridan Titman, Professor of Finance, holds the Walter W. McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services at the University of Texas. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a director of the Asia Pacific Finance Association, and was formerly a director of the American Finance Assocation, a special assistant to the Assistant secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, a founding professor of the School of Business and Management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and a chaired professor at Boston College.
This is the one book to buy if you really want to understand corporate finance.
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Summary: The Worst Book in Finance
Review: This is the worst book i have come across in my life.
It is extremely complicated to understand and there is a not a single solution to the end of chapter problems.
A total waste of money.
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Summary: Missed the mark! Poor coverage of contemporary issues...
Review: This text is just below par for MBA / CFA or professional use. The quality of research is very poor. I almost bought this book recently but changed my mind instead for Brigham's "Intermediate Financial Management".
Compared to other finance texts I've used before such Reilly's "Investment Analysis & Portfolio Mgt." or Chew's "New Corporate Finance", Grinblatt's text is way way behind and offers nothing new and of value to my research & professional everyday use....
DON'T BUY this lousy book!
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