Accounting for Mergers and Acquisitions: Advanced Topics

This course aims at assisting you in interpreting financial accounting information related to advanced issues in inter-corporate investments. The course will cover four main topics over four modules: (i) accounting for spinoffs and equity carveouts, (ii) accounting for leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, (iii) tax considerations in inter-corporate investments, and (iv) financial statement analysis in the presence of inter-corporate investments. The course will be useful for students to understand complex organizational structures through the lens of financial accounting information and will benefit investors, analysts, bankers, consultants, managers, and any deal-makers.

• Course Orientation
• Special Types of Divestitures
• Acquirer firms may divest their investments in other firms in some exotic ways. In this module, you will explore two notable special divestitures: spinoffs and equity carveouts.
• Corporate Reorganizations
• Acquirer firms may obtain the control of target firms in some exotic ways. In this module, you will explore two notable corporate reorganizations: leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and recapitalizations (RECAPs).
• Tax Considerations in Inter-Corporate Investments
• Inter-corporate investments can result in special tax issues for target shareholders and target firms. In this module, you will explore taxable versus tax-free transactions, step-ups versus carryovers, deferred taxes, and miscellaneous acquisition-related tax issues including loss trafficking and goodwill taxation.
• Financial Statement Analysis (FSA) with Inter-Corporate Investments
• Financial statement analysis (FSA) builds models to evaluate past position and predict future performance of a firm using financial statements. In this module, you will explore FSA in the presence of inter-corporate investments and calculation of organic versus acquired growth.