Overpaid acquisitions and goodwill impairment losses - Evidence from the US

For a sample of 929 US acquisitions first, I found that certain acquisition characteristics represent powerful indicators of subsequent goodwill impairments, suggesting that SFAS 141 is at least partially unable to avoid components other than “core goodwill” being included in goodwill. I also found that SFAS 142 annual impairment tests improved the timeliness of recognizing goodwill write-offs, eventually helping to mitigate the failure of SFAS 141.