The 2015 U.S. Goodwill Impairment Study, prepared in partnership with the Financial Executives Research Foundation, analyzed the general and industry trends of goodwill impairment of over 8,700 U.S. publicly-traded companies.
The report also includes the annual survey of Financial Executives International (FEI) members who represent both privately-owned and publicly-traded companies.
Highlights from the study include:
- U.S. companies recorded $26 billion of goodwill impairment, representing an 18 percent increase from $22 billion in 2013.
- The average impairment amount was $75 million in 2014, a 5 percent decline from the prior year average of $79 million.
- Eighty-six percent of the survey respondents did not recognize impairment in 2014, which was the lowest level in the past three years.
- The Energy industry recorded the highest amount of goodwill impairment in 2014, nearly tripling from $2.1 billion in the prior year to $5.8 billion.
- Use of the qualitative goodwill impairment test known as Step 0 by public company survey respondents indicates record use, increasing to 54 percent from the 43 percent reported in 2014.
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