Oäkta Goodwill
Den oäkta goodwilldelens effekt på nedskrivningar av koncerngoodwill
Since January 2005 new rules have been introduced from the International Financial Reporting Standards for accounting of Business Combinations. Goodwill, which is the difference between the purchase price and the value of the net assets in an acquired firm, should no longer be amortized but should instead be treated as an object for yearly impairment tests. Nevertheless, there are many companies making the tests but not impairing goodwill. The theoretical frame of reference looks at goodwill from its two parts; true goodwill and false goodwill. False goodwill is defined as a measurement bias and constitutes a certain percentage of the operating net assets. False goodwill, in accordance to theory, makes up a safety net for the impairment of true goodwill, which means that necessary impairments don?t take place. The aim of this paper is to study if two of the measurement bias? components, namely large cash generating units and short length of life for acquired assets, influence the existence of goodwill impairments. The empirical study of the question at issue, which includes an analysis of 78 different Swedish companies listed at OMX, confirms the theory since the results show that large cash generating units and short length of life for acquired assets do impact the existence of goodwill impairments. The conclusion is thus that false goodwill does make a safety net for the impairment of true goodwill.