Benchmarking Identifiable Intangibles and Their Useful Lives in Business Combinations

Book excerpt: As valuation analysts know only too well, analysts, auditors and CFOs have been on their own in estimating remaining useful lives of intangible assets without significant benchmarks ever since the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) created the uniform procedure whereby the acquiring entity in a business combination must perform a purchase price allocation (PPA) that matches the purchase price to asset values of the acquired company, including, importantly intangible assets. Benchmarking Identifiable Intangibles and Their Useful Lives in Business Combinations delivers a compilation of reported data, particularly on useful lives of intangible assets as reflected in over 360 purchase price allocations. Analysts will use the data to benchmark what intangibles are being discovered, categorized and valued in what industries, and the ratios of individual intangible asset categories to total assets.The guide is easy to use, allowing readers to view the data extracted from over 360 PPAs in three sections:Review of intangible asset categories complete with detailed descriptions of valuation approaches and checklists of factors to consider View data slices organized by intangible View intangible categories data by industry Benchmarking Identifiable Intangibles and Their Useful Lives in Business Combinations also delivers key statistical data that can be used to benchmark non-compete agreements, support statistical claims of the dominance of intangible assets and assist in identifying amortization tendencies.