We investigate if the size of goodwill compared to total assets has any effect on the shareholders return on companies listed on the Swedish Stock market. We put up two different hypotheses with a foundation from previous research and later dismiss one of them. Our evidence does not show any indicators that the size of goodwill have an effect on the shareholders return, which brings us to believe that there, from a share holders point of view, isn?t any need for concern regarding the standards about accounting for goodwill as stated by IFRS. .

Since January 1 2005 all companies listed on a regulated stock exchange within the EU are required to present their consolidated accounts in conformity with IFRS. Among many other consequences goodwill will no longer be amortized over its useful life but instead annually tested for impairments in accordance with IFRS 3. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the impairment test of goodwill as outlined in IAS 36 and analyze its implications. We conclude that the impairment test will probably lead to the recognition of internally generated goodwill in the consolidated accounts. We also conclude that the impairment test on highly aggregated levels will probably hasten the pace of this recognition since internally generated goodwill is used to shield acquired goodwill from impairments.

The main aim of this paper is to consider the possible effects of a transition to a new accounting standard for goodwill. According to IASBs Exposure Draft of Proposed Amendments to IFRS 3 Business Combinations there is an inconsistency in the currently used purchased goodwill method. The full goodwill method is considered to be a superior alternative and is therefore suggested to become the standard from 2007. This paper comprises a quantitative study of the effects on certain key ratios for companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, arising due to the proposed transition. The period examined is 2004 and 2005.

Studien ämnar undersöka värderelevansen för goodwill-nedskrivningar beträffande företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Studien är en återupprepning av en tidigare studie utförd på den brittiska marknaden. Goodwill har länge varit ett kontroversiellt ämne och reglerna för hur goodwill ska hanteras i redovisningen har tvingats genomgå förändringar i och med att IFRS 3 infördes. Företagen som ingår i studien är noterade på OMX NASDAQ Large, Mid och Small Cap och undersökningen avser åren 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 och 2012.Från årsredovisningar har data gällande eget kapital, resultat innan skatt, goodwill samt antal utestående aktier samlats in. I studien används associationstest med hjälp av mulitivariat regressionsanalys.

Background: Goodwill has always been frequently discussed and a lot of scientific research has been done regarding factors that affect companies? impairment of goodwill. Previous research has concluded that companies reporting low results are more prone to do impairments of goodwill than companies reporting better results which possibly can be seen as a form of earnings management.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine if goodwill impairments occur to a greater extent among Swedish listed companies when the companies are reporting lower earnings. A subsidiary purpose is to see if there has been an improvement since 2008 regarding the size of reported goodwill in comparison to equity in the years 2009-2011. And to analyze the development of the companies goodwill impairments in relation to reported goodwill.Methodology: Three quantitative studies have been performed for the years 2009-2011 where all the listed companies on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm have been included.

Since year 2005 the accounting has changed for public companies because of the new international standards, IFRS. IFRS 3 provides a single international accounting treatment for acquisitions and has broadened the definition of intangible assets. By IFRS 3 goodwill is defined as the excess of the cost of acquisition and is separated from intangible assets. Now goodwill must be annually tested by an impairment test. There are many valuation issues to considerate when it comes to deciding the value of goodwill.

Leverage buyout?s is an opportunity for companies, who can strengthen its market position by expanding its operations, and it add?s value to the company. At every LBO, copmanies make different values of the target company to finally come upp to a final bid. The final bid may in many cases be made of a surplus value, which is the differens between the value of the net-assets and the final bid. This we call goodwill and it has been a target in many discussions.

The problems and the opinions regarding accounting of Goodwill have always been an issue. In the search for a more standardised accounting standard IASB made a series of changes with the implementation of IFRS/IAS, which means that all companies who are listed on any stock exchange in Europe have to follow these new standards. During the process IASB wanted some feedback from the users to get a better understanding of how different participants in the economic market would respond to a number of questions regarding different changes in the accounting. In total IASB got 126 responses for the 'Comment Letters' (CL) they sent out.This paper aims to review these CL and examine how different participants will stand on different questions, mainly regarding the elimination of the pooling method and if goodwill is to be amortised but also any opinions regarding the implementation of the impairment tests. The present study comprises 126 CL, which represent participants from all the corners of the Earth.

Denna undersökning behandlar frågan om vilka faktorer som påverkar nedskrivningen av goodwill. Vi har valt tre faktorer utifrån redan existerande teorier och ställt upp hypoteser kring dessa med syfte till att kunna hitta samband mellan de och nedskrivning av goodwill. De undersökta faktorerna är lågkonjunktur, VD-byte och negativt resultat och urvalet av företag är hämtat från OMX Stockholm index för perioden 2006-2008. Företagens årsredovisningar har analyserats för att få fram nödvändig empiri och sedan har chi2- och Fisher-test utförts för att kunna testa trovärdigheten hos hypoteserna. Resultaten visar att goodwill endast skrivs ned vid negativt resultat..

Vårt syfte med denna uppsats var att analysera föreställningar i praktiken kring redovisning av goodwill enligt IFRS/IAS i Sverige. Uppsatsen syftade vidare till att belysa eventuella skillnader hos revisorer respektive företag avseende dessa föreställningar. Resultatet av vår studie visar att såväl revisorer som företag anser att redovisningen av goodwill har blivit mer jämförbar och transparent, men även detaljerad och subjektiv i högre utsträckning. Dock råder det delade uppfattningar om huvuvida avskaffandet av avskrivningar på goodwill är positivt. Även åsikterna om marknadsvärdering och interaktionen mellan revisorer och företag skiljer sig åt..

Denna C-uppsats behandlar den immateriella tillgången goodwill på koncernnivå. International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) publicerade den 31 mars år 2004 ett förslag om nya redovisningen av goodwill, vilken EU beslutade skulle träda i kraft den 1 januari år 2005. Publiceringen avser att förbättra kvaliteten på den finansiella rapporteringen och att skapa mera internationella och enhetliga redovisningsregler. Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för vad konsekvenserna blir för svenska börsnoterade företag vid införandet av IFRS år 2005. Vilka konsekvenser det får för redovisningen av goodwill och hur väl de nya reglerna harmoniserar med redan rådande redovisningsprinciper som rättvisande bild.

Time has passed since the new standards regarding goodwill were introduced. Duringthe period that occurred pre the financial crisis several companies managed to creategreat goodwill assets on their balance sheet. These assets were highlighted during thefinancial crisis and the aim of this study is to evaluate analysts contemporaryconsideration of these assets. The study will be of interest due to the fact that we nowfind ourselves in-between periods, post financial crisis and pre euro crisis. Ourempirical study has been carried out by interviewing analysts covering IT-companiestraded on the Swedish stock exchange.Our analysts were chosen with consideration to the fact that they were coveringcompanies where acquisitions are common.

Since 2005 all companies listed on a regulated stock exchange within the European Union are required to present their financial reports in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS). The purposes of these standards are to accomplish international harmonization of accounting rules to make financial reports more comparable. However, recent research has shown that some firms tend to use goodwill strategically in a business combination by manipulating the acquired assets and consciously allocate the intangible assets to goodwill to reduce the depreciation in the income and decrease costs. This phenomenon may reduce the comparability between financial reports and thus has an opposite effect on the purpose of IFRS and IAS.The aim of this study is to show how the companies involved in this study allocate goodwill strategically. Furthermore, the introduction of the new standards has contributed to that goodwill now is a subject for impairment test, therefore we want to show whether this affected the comparability of the companies in this study.An empirical study was conducted, based on interviews with four Swedish managers.

Från år 2005 är det obligatoriskt för börsnoterade bolag i Sverige att tillämpa IFRS-reglerna. Enligt de nya reglerna IFRS 3 och IAS 36 får goodwill inte längre skrivas av utan ska istället nedskrivningsprövas minst en gång per år. Huruvida de nya reglerna har gjort det lättare eller svårare för analytiker och investerare att tolka de bakomliggande orsakerna till en goodwillnedskrivning är flitigt omdebatterat. Studier på den amerikanska marknaden har visat att en nedskrivning av goodwill har en begränsad effekt på bolagens börskurser. Studiens syfte är att undersöka goodwillnedskrivningars effekt på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Frågeställningen som avses besvaras lyder ?Påverkar en nedskrivning av goodwill svenska företags aktiekurs, och har i så fall företagets resultat, storlek och branschtillhörighet någon betydelse för hur börskursen påverkas?? .

This study aimed to explore how 31 collage students' cognitive performance and their ability to create false memories were affected by the exposure of an extraneous background noise. The studies main hypotheses were based on previous research on how extraneous noise affect the cognitive ability and the creation of false memories: 1) that an extraneous background noise increases the ability to create false memories, 2) that an extraneous background noise impairs the learning of cognitive information, 3) that an extraneous background noise contributes to an increased representation of fictional words, 4) that an extraneous background noise impedes the ability to understand speech . The results showed a tendency in which false memories increased in the condition without background noise, a result which goes in the opposite direction of the hypothesis. Furthermore, the result supported the hypothesis that the extraneous background noise impairs the learning of cognitive information. The results also showed that there was no effect between the conditions regarding the representation of fictional information.