How do Facebook and Twitter’s current and debt ratios compare?

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), and Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), are two of the most popular publicly-held social media companies. Both are relatively young companies; Facebook was founded in 2004, while Twitter was started in 2006.

To follow are adapted and condensed balance sheets for both Facebook and Twitter as of December 31, 2015.

Please note: These balance sheets have been adapted and condensed for educational use and should not be relied upon for investment decisions.

Questions

1. Which company is larger in terms of total assets?
2. Calculate the current ratio for both Facebook and Twitter. What do these current ratios tell you about each company?
3. Calculate the debt ratio for both Facebook and Twitter. Again, what do these ratios indicate about each company?
4. Twitter has negative retained earnings. What does this mean?

Instructor Resources

These resources are provided to give the instructor flexibility for use of Accounting in the Headlines articles in the classroom. The blog posting itself can be assigned via a link to this site OR by distributing the student handout below. Alternatively, the PowerPoint file below contains a bullet point overview of the article and the discussion questions.

• Student handout (pdf) (word) (contains entire blog posting + discussion questions)
• PowerPoint file (brief article overview + discussion questions)
• Excel file (for further calculations or for accessibility/readable format)

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