Response to the following problem:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent, nonpartisan, quasi-judicial regulatory agency with responsibility for administering the federal securities laws. Publicly traded companies must electronically file a variety of forms or reports with the SEC (for example, annual financial statements). The SEC makes most of these electronic documents available on the Internet via EDGAR. EDGAR stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system. The primary purpose for EDGAR is to increase the efficiency and fairness of the securities market for the benefit of investors, corporations, and the economy by accelerating the receipt, acceptance, dissemination, and analysis of time-sensitive corporate information filed with the agency
Required
a. Visit the SEC Web site and review the information under the link to "Descriptions of Forms" to find the definitions for these forms: 8-K, 10-K, 10-Q, and DEF-14a.
b. Visit the link to "Search for Company Filings" and locate the Form 10-K filing for Google, Inc., for the year ended December 31, 2011, to answer the following questions:
1. Who was Google's auditor?
2. Did the audit firm issue a combined or separate report(s) on the financial statements and on internal controls over financial reporting?
3. What type of audit opinion did the auditor provide for the financial statements?
4. What was the auditor's opinion about internal controls over financial reporting?
5. What was the report date for the audit report?
c. Search for the Form 10-K filing for Yahoo, Inc., for the year ended December 31, 2011, to answer the following questions:
1. What type of audit opinion did Yahoo's auditor provide for the financial statements and for internal controls over financial reporting?
2. What was the report date for the audit report?
3. How does the Yahoo auditor's report on the financial statements differ from the audit report related to Google's financial statements?