The distorting effects of acquisitions and dispositions on net operating cash flow

These potentially distorting effects are important because they may impair the usefulness of NCFO in valuation models of the firm as well as in loan covenants and management compensation plans; they may also impair the reliability of investment decisions and empirical research findings based on NCFO. There is some anecdotal evidence that management manages NCFO, often with the acquiescence (if not encouragement) of institutional stockholders and sell-side analysts. Acquisition and disposition transactions provide management with another means of managing NCFO. Suggestions are offered to make the cash flow statement more transparent with respect to acquisitions and dispositions.