INTERNATIONAL

CONTENTS:

• Google! Translate this page!
• Doing Business In
• International Research Tip

GOOGLE! TRANSLATE THIS PAGE!

It's great to live at a time when you see predictions about the way things will be in the future and then -- poof! -- suddenly, you are IN the future. About two years ago, the big search engines were predicting that they'd have an automatic Web page translation feature someday. Go to Google. See the future today -- it's here. When your search results include a page in a language other than your browser default setting, Google offers to "translate this page." You'll see those words at the end of the title line for the page's hot link. Today, Google offers you this amazing service when the page you hope to read is in Spanish, French, German, Italian or Portuguese. Tomorrow (as quick as that day comes lately), I'll bet you will be hard-pressed to name a language not translated by the incredible Google.

http://www.google.com/machine_translation.html

DOING BUSINESS IN

Each time a U.S.-based researcher treks outside the 50 states, that brave soul hopes to find the same sort of reporting requirements -- the financial transparency -- that public companies must meet here. Not so, Brave Researcher, not so.

Instead of scrambling in the dark, begin your education with Ernst & Young's "Doing Business In" resources. Choose the country and then download the free Ernst & Young (EY) pdf report for that country. The download requires Adobe Acrobat. Search the report for keywords like "listed companies," "disclosure" or "reporting requirements." Page 96 of the "Doing Business in Canada" report outlines what it takes to have a public company in the Great North Country. In the "Doing Business in Brazil" report, you'll learn (on page 66) that public companies must file a Director's Report annually and that it contains "basic information about the company." EY even tells us that Brazil's reports aren't anything like the SEC reports we know and love. If you have time, glance at other sections of these reports. You'll discover tax issues facing your international prospects as well as typical employment practices in the country you are researching.

http://www.ey.com/GLOBAL/gcr.nsf/EYPassport/Welcome-Doing_Business_In-EYPassport

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TIP

The way to a non-U.S. company's public report is often through the homeland's stock exchange. Let's go to Italy to demonstrate. The Italian Stock Exchange offers us the chance to pick Company Profiles from the menu bar and then enter the name of an Italian company or pick one from the alpha sort. I'm choosing Fiat (because my sister had one that she had to push the entire time she owned it). The information returned gives me a too-brief profile and a link to the Fiat Web page, where I can find everything I need, including financial information.

http://www.borsaitalia.it/en/309/732.html

Visit other stock exchanges to see what you'll find in the line of company profiles, links to home pages and more. Here is a well-organized page of stock exchanges worldwide:

http://www.fawpir.com/exchlatn.htm

Cecilia Hogan