Review Of Financial Statements

Introduction

It is said that companies will come and go, and those that survive and left standing will teach other companies, how their survived. We will take two companies; UPS and Ebay, Inc break them down and show you how they got their start. In our paper, it will also be discussed and show a review of their financial statements from each one. The point is to get a better picture of where a company started, the competition it endured, and the money that was possibility projected for the start. This paper will also show how auditors are essential to the running of any company.

Review of Financial Statements

Brief overview

UPS, a delivery service, has been around for about 100 years. James E. Casey started the company on $100 borrowed from a friend of his. Casey, who was 19 years old when he started UPS, had worked for delivery services before and wanted to start a better delivery system of his own. The American Messenger company, what UPS was previously called, started in Seattle, Washington and had many competitors in the beginning. His business not only survived among them, but thrived (UPS, n.d.). Today the company serves over 200 countries delivering “goods, funds, and information” (UPS, n.d., Ð'¶ 1). UPS has several stores located in these countries, including the United States, where people can not only have their packages sent, but they can also buy delivery products from them as well.

On September 5, 1995, Piere Omidyar founded eBay sitting in his living room. eBay got it first start with a lie stating “that it was founded to help Omidyars finacee trade Pez candy dispensers and that lie was back by a public relations manager in 1997. (eBay, n.d., 2) In 1997 Jeffery Skoll became the first president of eBay. eBay original name was Auction Web Omidyar did not like that name so he changed it to Echo Bay.com but that name was taken so he change it to Ebay.com and on September 21,1989 Omidrar and Skoll went public and became billionaires Today headquarters is in San Jose, California. eBay is a world Wide Internet services that provide sales of goods and services to both buyers and sellers which consist of “strongest brands in the world, including eBay, Papal, Skype, Shopping.com, and others.

Retirement of current President and CEO Meg Whitman will be retiring as of March 31, 2008 and John Donahoe will be her successor.

Auditing Firm Information

Auditors are an essential part of any business. Auditors are there to help make sure that the financial statements are accurate and that the company’s accounting is as it should be (Brealey, Myers, & Marcus, 2007). This is what auditors do. External auditors are those that make sure that things are done according to the generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP). For UPS they use the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche LLP as their auditors (UPS, 2007). Deloitte (2008) state that they are a firm that provides “audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services to selected clients” (Ð'¶ 1). Their employees are in many areas throughout the world. Deloitte has several subsidiaries which include Deloitte and Touch LLP and Deloitte Tax. In the annual report of UPS they Deloitte and Touche LLP have a note that explains that they feel the financial statements give a fair representation of where the company stands financially. Deloitte and Touche also explain that they themselves have followed in accordance with the law when doing the audit.

The bank of New York Mellon Corporation is eBay transfer agency and a Delaware corporation is the overseer and is responsible of the company stockholders. It oversees transactions that go on between internal and external. They both are responsible for making sure that everyone is doing what is needed to be done to keep the company from going under by making sure all paper work are sign and dated by the right authority and making sure that customers needs are met. The Delaware Corporation is the overseer of the Directors and Executive stockholders.

Financial Statements Information

Financial statements explain what the company’s financial status is, where the cash came from and went, and how the operating results are for the current accounting period (Brealey, Myers, & Marcus, 2007). For UPS they have a consolidated balance sheet, a consolidated income statement, a statement of comprehensive income, and consolidated cash flow statement. The consolidated balance sheet of UPS shows their assets which include their current assets, property, plant, and more. The balance sheet also shows UPS’s liabilities and shareowners’ equity which includes current liabilities, long-term debt, and different aspects of the shareowners’ equity. On UPS’s consolidated income statement they have their revenue, different operating expenses, operating profit, earnings per share, and more. On the company’s statement of comprehensive income they show their net income. This statement also shows changes in the following; foreign currency adjustment, unrealized loss or gain marketable securities and cash flow hedges, and the minimum pension liability. It finishes off with the comprehensive income. On the consolidated cash flow it shows UPS’s net income, cash flow from both investing and financing activities, cash and its equivalents, and cash that UPS paid during the accounting period (UPS, 2007).

eBay financial statement Consist of the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow from operating activities such as provision for transaction loses or gain a couple of activities are Pay Pal and Skype. There is also cash flow from investing activities such as purchases property and equipment, and a 10 year summary so other companies can do a comparison and is able to use dates for research purpose. The statement also shows the current assets such as cash and cash equivalents, and investments at the end of each quarter, and the GAAP and the non- GAAP.

Accounting Concepts, Terminology, and Transactions

The information in the four financial statements was interesting. In UPS’s balance sheet the interesting concept and terminology that was interesting was goodwill