The rules are changing for how companies report their investments in other businesses. As highlighted in a recent article in the New York Times, new rules from the FASB regarding how entities will have to measure certain equity investments (for example, Google’s equity holdings in Uber) may lead to increased earnings volatility and additional fair value complexities. Here are five things to know about the “new” rules and a few questions to consider as the implementation dates approach.
It seems like it was just last year when we mused if non-GAAP earnings measurements were becoming a permanent fixture of the market. How quickly the times change.
A couple of articles in the Wall Street Journal last week highlighted challenges of managing and investing in early-stage companies. From a valuation standpoint, the articles are timely reminders of the importance of cash burn rates, dilution factors, and exit probabilities in measuring the fair value of startups.
With the rapid rise of corporate venture capital and increasing pressure to jump on board with startups, it seems that many companies across the industry spectrum are making venture investments.
On the one hand, it is not difficult to imagine that tax changes would have some effect, at the margin, on the mix of the various forms of employee compensation – current cash, deferred/contingent cash, or equity scrips. On the other hand, it is difficult to conjecture a causal relationship between changing financial reporting requirements and lower aggregate (risk-adjusted) take-home worker compensation.
