Prior to beginning work on this discussion, please read the articles:

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, please read the articles: Researching Public Companies Through EDGAR: A Guide for Investors (Links to an external site.), the Beginners’ Guide to Financial Statement (Links to an external site.) from the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the 12 Things You Need to Know About Financial Statements (Links to an external site.).

• If you are thinking of purchasing Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock, or any stock, how can you decide what the stock is worth?
• If you manage Apple’s Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) credit department, how should you decide whether to extend a new client’s credit limit?
• If you are a financial executive of Sony Corp (NYSE: SNE), how do you decide whether the company should employ aggressive capital investments in global business areas?

After assessing the above situations, discuss the role of the income statement, balance sheet, and stockholders equity in business decision making to formulate plans & policies, shareholding, expansion of credit, investment decisions, and taxation decisions in a minimum post of at least 200 words.

Guided Response: Review several of your peer’s posts. In a minimum of 100 words each, respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive manner, and provide information that they may have missed or may not have considered in regards to the role of financial statements. Do you agree with their conclusions? Why or why not? You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and interactive discourse in this discussion forum. Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Day 7, and respond with robust dialogue to anyone who replies to your initial post.