Others say...

"Marcel Douven Netherlands"
We used this "Brigham" for the course financial management, MBA programm.
The book gives a good overview and analysis of the main issues and is rather easy to understand and pleasant to read. You sould be aware that some issues are seen through the American glasses. Very usefull, I warmly recommend it.

"Dissenting Opinion"
Like many of the other reviewers, this text was required for my MBA program. As intro books go, I think that this book is much more advanced then what many reviewers have indicated.

Plus, my terms are 8 weeks long and this textbook is way, way too long for such a short time period. My school should adopt a textbook that is shorter in length. The book has over 25 long chapters. We barely studied half that before the term came to an end.

I felt that the layout of the text was not great. By this I mean, it would have been very helpful if, like other textbooks, the publishers/authors defined terms and concepts in the margins. Often times, the authors failed to provide clear definitions in the narrative forcing you to go to the glossary.

Next point, the authors present the material in long dense paragraphs which can be a challenge to get through. They need to break things up a bit more and interject more solved problems and examples.

I found this text more "academic" in nature and not something I could use as a reference on the job. I am looking for the practical and not the theory.

Bottomline, I would rather use a textbook that gets to the point faster, has more worked out problems, and is more visually inviting so to speak. For example, I have an old edition of Gitman's "Financial Management" and I like it much better then this textbook. The study guide that goes with Gitman's book is really good as well.

Meanwhile, I am debating whether to keep this text as reference or not.




"Best book for learning the "bigger" picture of Finance"
I wanted to learn more about the financial markets and the different products available. I have tried various books on finance before and other related "Get Investment Advice" kind of books. Finally I thought of taking a class on Finance and bought this book. This book explains in good detail on the various concepts on finance but would not recommend for the average person looking to get investment advice. This book talk about the financial market, the various instruments available, how to raise capital, various options available for raising capital, evaluating the financial reports of the companies, under and over-evaluated companies and lot of other good concepts.
This book assumes that you have a strong background of accounting and should be bought by someone trying to understand the overall financial concepts. Could be an under-grad or grad level course study material.
Even without accounting background and without any financial acumen I could easily grasp the concepts but this is not a practical guide on how to invest in the stocks and bonds. Better for a student of finance.

"finacial management"
A very easy to read book. Very good information. I like how it shows how to work the problem in different ways. I could not use the CD that came with it. Perhaps my PC is not compartable with the software. I was a little disapointed with that.

"Great resource for MBA program"
This book was a great help in understanding the concepts and ideas of financial management.