Thus, Newcall reports a $151,000,000 goodwill impairment loss as a separate line item in the operating section of its consolidated income statement. Additional disclosures are required describing (1) the facts and circumstances leading to the impairment and (2) the method of determining the fair value of the associated reporting unit (e.g., market prices, comparable business, present value technique, etc.). The reported amounts for the other assets and liabilities of DSM Wireless remain the same and are not changed based on the goodwill testing procedure.
Reporting Units with Zero or Negative Carrying Amounts One final issue regarding goodwill impairment testing deserves mentioning. When a reporting unit has a zero or negative carrying amount, the ASC requires a special application of the testing procedure. An exception is needed because a zero or negative carrying amount for a reporting unit accompanied by a positive fair value would always permit an entity to forego Step 2 of the impairment test even though its underlying goodwill might be impaired. Therefore, in such circumstances, the ASC requires an entity to perform Step 2 of the impairment test when it is more likely than not that a goodwill impairment exists. In judging the likelihood of goodwill impairment, an entity must consider the same factors as in the qualitative assessment for individual reporting units.
Comparisons with International Accounting Standards International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and U.S. GAAP both require goodwill recognition in a business combination when the fair value of the consideration transferred exceeds the net fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed. Subsequent to acquisition, both IFRS and U.S. GAAP require an assessment for goodwill impairment at least annually and more frequently in the presence of potential impairment indicators. Also for both sets of standards, goodwill impairments, once recognized, are not recoverable. However, differences exist across the two sets of standards in the way goodwill impairment is tested for and recognized. In particular, goodwill allocation, impairment testing, and determination of the impairment loss differ across the two reporting regimes and are discussed below.
Goodwill Allocation U.S. GAAP. Goodwill acquired in a business combination is allocated to reporting units expected to benefit from the goodwill. Reporting units are operating segments or a business component one level below an operating segment. IFRS. International Accounting Standard (IAS) 36 requires goodwill acquired in a business combination to be allocated to cash-generating units or groups of cash-generating units that are expected to benefit from the synergies of the business combination. Cash-generating groups represent the lowest level within the entity at which the goodwill is monitored for internal management purposes and are not to be larger than an operating segment or determined in accordance with IFRS 8, "Operating Segments."