Intels Presentation of Their Financial Information - Essay Example

Financial planning and forecasting are facilitated if used in conjunction with a Decision Support System (DSS)” (2008). The purpose of this paper is to determine what Intel’s presentation of their financial information tells you about how they use financial information in decision-making.

Discussion
In order for any company, including Intel, to determine how it is performing in the marketplace, it must keep tabs on its financials at all times. This is often done in the form of financial statements such as the income statement and balance sheet. These two financial statements can provide very valuable information to managers and stakeholders provided they can be interpreted correctly and used accordingly. If they are utilized to their fullest extent, Intel can spotlight any challenges such as low sales or high costs early on and correct them. They can also use this financial information to determine whether or not inventory and credit are being mismanaged, if certain fixed assets are tying up too many funds, or to spot trends so that they can adjust the appropriate budgets accordingly. The bottom line to consider, however, is how these things affect the performance of management.

Our case study tells us:
As a case in point, consider Intel Corp., one of the leading lights of the technology sector for the past 30-some years. They've had their ups and downs, but have been reasonably consistently financially successful. And one of the reasons, of course, is that they have attended very carefully to the financials, and to their relationships with their investors.
A quick visit to Intel’s Investor Relations website reveals that the company provides certain types of information to the public and the financial markets. This information includes financial information such as earnings results, business outlook, annual reports, 10-Ks, proxy statements, fundamentals, financial statements, and SEC filings. They provide stock information such as a historical stock chart, historical price lookup, investment calculator, stock splits, stock buyback summary, dividend summary, SEC section 16 filings, analyst coverage, earnings estimates, Intel’s Transfer Agent, stock purchase, and dividend reinvestment. They also offer some of this information through online subscriptions (Intel, 2008).

The way in which Intel uses financial information to make decisions is evident in its 10K statement. Underneath the ‘Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations,’ they state:

We make equity investments in companies around the world to further our strategic objectives and support our key business initiatives, including investments through our Intel Capital program. We generally focus on investing in companies and initiatives to stimulate growth in the digital economy, create new business opportunities for Intel, and expand global markets for our products. The investments may support, among other things, Intel product initiatives, emerging trends in the technology industry, or worldwide Internet deployment. We invest in companies that develop software, hardware, or services supporting our technologies. Our current investment focus areas include helping to enable mobile wireless devices, advance the digital home, provide access to premium digital content, enhance the digital enterprise, advance high-performance communications infrastructures, and develop the next generation of silicon production technologies. Our focus areas tend to develop and change over time due to rapid advancements in technology (Yahoo! Finance, 2007) Read More