LIST OF COs. THAT MAY HAVE ABUSED ACQUIRED R&D WRITEOFFS Message Board

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Non-Tech : LIST OF COs. THAT MAY HAVE ABUSED ACQUIRED R&D WRITEOFFS

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To: Robert Douglas who wrote (19)	4/21/1999 5:56:00 PM
From: Paul Berliner	Read Replies (1) of 41

Here it is: FOCUS-U.S. accounting board votes to end "pooling" (combines takes, adds background paras 7-9) NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - U.S. accounting rule makers voted Wednesday to eliminate the popular ''pooling-of-interests'' accounting method, which has helped fuel a record pace of corporate mergers, by the end of 2000. The seven-member Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted unanimously to scrap pooling after a 90-minute meeting, a board spokeswoman said. The vote had been widely expected, and the issue has been the subject of intense discussion on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms. Pooling can only be used in stock-swap transactions. Companies buying other companies for cash or a mixture of cash and stock cannot use pooling. Although the method is restrictive, many companies favor it because the alternative ''purchase'' accounting hurts earnings by forcing companies to account for costly goodwill. Goodwill is the premium a company pays above fair market value for intangible assets, such as a well-known name brand. The rule will not be retroactive to companies that have already announced deals that call for pooling, said Deb Harrington, a spokeswoman for the FASB, the body that sets accounting rules for U.S. publicly traded companies. Merger activity has skyrocketed in the past several years as companies seek combinations to compete better in a global marketplace. The pooling method has been used in a number of very large and high-profile transactions, including last year's $40 billion purchase of MCI by WorldCom (WCOM - news) and the $82 billion union of Citicorp and Travelers Group that formed Citigroup Inc.(C - news). Most merger experts believe the elimination of pooling will have little impact on the pace of corporate marriages, noting that good, strategic transactions are essential for future growth.

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