ABSTRACT
One area of accounting where there is much variation and several
"generally accepted accounting principles" is the area of business
combinations. Currently there are two major accounting treatments for
business combinations. Under one alternative, purchase accounting, the
assets or capital stock of the acquired company are entered on the books
of the acquiring compainy at cost, which is presumably faiir value. This
treatment is similar to that accorded other asset acquisitions. Under
the second alternative, pooling-of-interests accounting, the accounts
of the combining companies are recorded at the book values previously
recorded by the separate companies.
Since the use of the pooling alternative is permissive, management
has a choice of two accounting treatments for business combinations that
produce extremely diverse results in many business combinations. It is
obvious that management will select the alternative that will place
themselves in the best light. Such a situation contains the seeds of
possible destruction of the public's faith in the accounting profession.
The purpose of this study is to examine the present criteria for
determining whether a pairticulair combination is to be accounted for ais
a purchase or as a pooling of interests in order to determine if the
criteria are adequate. If they are not, should the criteria be changed
or should the pooling alternative be dropped? A related problem is the
determination of what should be done with the goodwill arising from
accounting for a business combination as a purchase♦