Accounting for Mergers and Acquisitions: Foundations

Mergers, acquisitions, and other complex transactions (e.g., spin-offs, carve-outs, leveraged buyouts, and recapitalizations) drastically alter firms’ financial statements. In this module, you will explore main types of equity investments and learn accounting for passive and significant type of investments.

Investments between 50% and 100% give the acquirer firm control over the target firm for all operational and financial decisions of the target firm. These investments are accounted for using consolidation. In this module, you will explore accounting for consolidation

There are various special issues in mergers and acquisitions. In this module, you will explore some common special considerations in mergers and acquisitions including definition of business, identifying the acquirer firm, bargain purchase, acquisition related costs, and earnouts.