Customer Reviews

Corporate Finance (Irwin/Mcgraw-Hill Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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".

We use this book for both the undergraduate Intermediate Finance and MBA Introduction to Finance courses at University of Central Florida. This book is very easy to read no what your background in finance is. It serves as an excellent reference as well.

It seems there are a few people here who try to counterbalance each review that is awarded a 5-star rating with one that is a 1-star rating although their arguments do not hold water. My suggestion is to take a look at this book for yourself and simply return it if you're not happy with it. The fact the so many universities have adopted this text AND continue to use it says a lot.

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.

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.

Despite my engineering background I found this book very easy to read, very easy to understand. It is an outstanding book that I love to study without getting bored. We use this book at the MBA level here at the University of Georgia, Terry College of Business as an introduction to Corporate Finance. Buy it !

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!)

My take on this text is a little different. I used it in my undergrad intro to corporate finance class, but I didn't find the book too difficult. In fact, I found it too easy. The examples given are all extremely simple and the practice problems are too easy to be good practice for exams. My professor's lecture notes were a far better overview of corporate finance. I think the book is good for looking up a term you've never heard of before, but it skims over everything so you'll never really master the material.

Another reviewer said he or she only covered five chapters. My experience was quite different, as my course covered chapters 1-18.

Interestingly, some of my classmates have taken Jaffe, one of the text's authors, for introductory corporate finance, and say he was a very dull professor who just pulled out examples from the text for his lectures.

From the reviews posted here, it's clear we have 2 types of reviewers: disgruntled undergrads and pompous grad students (probably at the MBA level from the looks of it).

Let's be honest.

This is a challenging book.

If you are serious about finance, the book will reward you many times over. That I can pretty much guarantee.

If you are in finance as part of a cirriculum requirement, this book may become your nemesis.

This author finds the book to be comprehensive.

First off, I never had any particular interest in the area of Finance. I simply purchased this book as a required text for the core finance course in my MBA program. All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised. The course was very informative, with a top-notch professor leading us through the material. But even more than the lectures, this book was my primary resource for guiding me through the principles of Corporate Finance. Ross does a great job of clearly explaining each topic, then supporting his explanation with effective examples.

Even though the book is well written, I can't deny that it was still challenging for a finance novice, such as myself. But Ross's clean, to-the-point style was a refreshing way for me to approach a previously unknown topic.

Of all my textbooks, I typically keep about half of them as references, and sell the rest. This book is definitely a keeper.

This is possibly the best intro-intermediate corporate finance book in the market today.

The competition to this book, would be Brealey and Myers (but is dry, wordy, too informal, confusing, not super organized, and prob. written to be a money vaccum for the authors).

This book really has value added to it (for instance, the layout and gold fonts make reading the book more a pleasure and hobby than a hell-chore).

The tone is really engaging, professional, formal, and just keeps you awake (relatively to other textbooks like the Brealey and Myers).

I'm a undergrad student at the Univ. of Washington in Seattle, and I have used both this book and another book by the same authors called the fundamentals of corporate finance, and it's great. I have also used the Brealey and Myers prin. of corporate finance - and its a real hunk of junk.