FINANCIAL STATEMENT EFFECTS OF NEW ACCOUNTING RULES FOR BUSINESS COMBINATIONS AND INTANGIBLE ASSETS

摘要

Changes in accounting rules and their effects on financial statements must be understood in order tornanalyze and evaluate a company. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently issuedrnnew accounting and reporting rules regarding business combinations and goodwill which are intended tornincrease comparability in accounting for similar business transactions and improve the transparency ofrninformation reported for goodwill. This paper summarizes and compares the previous and new rules andrnthen discusses the effect of implementing these new rules on financial ratios and provides examples ofrnthese effects for The Coca-Cola Company and AOL Time Warner Inc.