Business Combinations Focus of Briefings.

• Position: Financial Executives International launches education effort about the new accounting statements on business combinations and intangibles - Brief Article

FEI has launched an extensive education effort about the new statements on business combinations and intangibles issued during the summer by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. A teleconference was held Sept. 17, with a follow-on session scheduled for Oct. 23. In addition, FEI will be holding one-day conferences on the new rules in New York on Dec. 12 and in San Francisco Dec. 14.

In the Sept. 17 conference, moderated by FEI President Philip B. Livingston, FASB Chairman Edmund Jenkins joined with Project Manager Kim Petrone to go over implications raised by Statements 141 and 142. The statements, which cover business combinations and accounting for intangibles, have raised a number of reporting-related issues.

Statement 141, Petrone said, eliminated the pooling-of-interests method of accounting and supersedes Opinion 16 in its entirety, though it carries through that opinion's guidance on the purchase method of accounting. It sets up criteria for recognizing intangible assets that are separate from goodwill -- such as...