Goodwill and Value Creation of Acquisitions

In 2001, some important changes took place in the US accounting regime. As a result of these changes, acquiring companies are obliged to provide more extended as well as more uniform information concerning the mergers and acquisitions in their annual accounts. The intention of this research is to gain an insight into the information content of purchased goodwill with regard to the value creation of the acquisition for the business combination. This research contains two studies. The first study investigates whether the new regulation affects reporting on goodwill. The second study focuses attention on goodwill under the new regime as a measure of value creation.