Apple Inc. is an international corporation that designs, manufactures, and markets a range of mobile communication and media devices, personal computing products, and portable digital music players, as well as a variety of related software, networking solutions, and hardware products. In the assets section of its 2017 balance sheet, the following data were presented:

Instructionsa. For a company such as Apple, what do you think its most important economic resource is? Where is this recorded on the balance sheet? At what value (if any) should it be shown?

b. Do the assets reported on the balance sheet above tell you what Apple is worth? What information does the balance sheet give you about the company?s value?

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APPLE INC. Balance Sheets (partial) (in U.S. millions) September 30, September 24, Assets 2017 2016 S 20,289 $ 20,484 46,671 Cash and cash equivalents Short-term marketable securities 53,892 Accounts receivable, less allowance 17,874 4,855 17,799 15,754 2,132 Inventories Vendor non-trade receivables 13,545 Other current assets 13,936 8,283 Long-term marketable securities Property, plant and equipment, net 194,714 33,783 170,430 27,010 Goodwill 5,717 5,414 Acquired intangible assets, net 2,298 3,206 Other non-current assets 10,162 8,757 Total assets $375,319 $321,686