What Is a Goodwill Impairment?
Goodwill impairment is an accounting charge that companies record when goodwill's carrying value on financial statements exceeds its fair value. In accounting, goodwill is recorded after a company acquires assets and liabilities, and pays a price in excess of their identifiable net value.
Goodwill impairment arises when there is deterioration in the capabilities of acquired assets to generate cash flows, and the fair value of the goodwill dips below its book value. Perhaps the most famous goodwill impairment charge was the $54.2 billion reported in 2002 for the AOL Time Warner, Inc. merger.
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This was, at the time, the largest goodwill impairment loss ever reported by a company.
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