Many companies now provide a wealth of information about themselves on their Web sites.But how much of this information is useful for investment purposes? To help you answer thisquestion, imagine that you have $10,000, which you must invest in the common stock of apublicly-held company.

a. Select a company as specified by your instructor (Dito Telecommunity Corporation) and access its online financial reports.Is the information contained in the reports complete? If not, why not? Is the informationcontained in these reports sufficient for you to decide whether or not to invest in thecompany? If not, why not?

b. Now select an online brokerage Web site such as E*Trade and look up the information ofthat same company. Does the information provided by the brokerage firm differ from thatof the company itself? If so, how? Again, answer the question: Is the information containedin these reports sufficiently detailed and complete for you to decide whether to invest in it?If not, why not?

c. Access the Web site of an investment rating service such as Value Line. How does theinformation on this third site differ from that of the other two? Again, answer the question:''Is the information contained on the site sufficiently detailed and complete for you todecide whether to invest in the stock? If not, why not?''

d. What do these comparisons tell you about the difference between ''data'' and''information''?