M&A Accounting & Purchase Price Allocation

M&A Accounting & Purchase Price Allocation Course Overview

An analyst must understand mergers and acquisition accounting, as it’s crucial when properly building an M&A model and evaluating whether the deal makes financial sense. In this course, we cover the M&A accounting process, including fair value adjustments, calculating goodwill, deferred taxes, and various related fees and expenses. We also cover how a deal can be structured as either a stock purchase or an asset purchase and the resulting accounting implications. We will practice adding transaction adjustments to calculate a pro forma balance sheet, but we will also look at the impact of a transaction on the income statement and cash flow statement.

M&A Accounting & Purchase Price Allocation Learning Objectives

Upon completing this course, you will be able to:        

• Learn the difference between mergers and acquisitions, as well as the reasons to engage in M&A
• Understand how an acquisition changes some of the core accounting principles
• Incorporate fair value adjustments and the impact on deferred taxes
• Calculate goodwill and what it represents
• Recognize how the deal structure may change the accounting for certain items
• Identify the treatment of debt issuance fees and transaction expenses

                 

Who Should Take This Course?

This class is designed for analysts to better understand the underlying accounting rules for an acquisition. Understanding the accounting helps an analyst better evaluate the merits of a proposed transaction. 

Courses we recommend you take in advance

These prerequisite courses are optional, but we recommend you complete the stated prep course(s) or possess the equivalent knowledge prior to enrolling in this course:

1.  Accounting Fundamentals 
2. Accounting Principles and Standards