| ZhugeEX said: The numbers for both Sony and Microsoft are incorrect. In fact even the Nintendo numbers are wrong which shouldn't be possible given their numbers are easily found via their investor relations site.
|
/thread.
There's so much accounting voodoo in effect with modern corporations that EVEN IF the ONLY things MS and Sony did were gaming, it would STILL be hard to get a totally accurate view of P&L, Assets, Depreciations, various holdings, debts, and investments (CDS, CDO, etc). It gets even more confusing with Mark to Market accounting, which basically can 'predict' accounting values for the purposes of taxation and disclosure, but can be incorrect if market conditions and other corporate realities don't follow what was expected (this is somewhat hilariously known as 'FAIR VALUE' accounting, and is arguably a key component of the subprime mortgage crisis).
I'm not even kidding. Even with the SEC and other regulatory bodies, along with tens of thousands of pages of laws and regulations related to corporate finance, fiduciary procedure, etc, true transparency is the last thing on the minds of your average CFO. The name of the game is manipulation.
The best we can hope for is generalizations, and the worst can be MUCH much worse : hiding huge losses, gambling on the market with shareholder equity, criminal activity, and so on.
Essay Pro