[kgwgk]

> Goodwill is the amount you paid beyond the tangible assets

Wrong. For example "Hewlett-Packard purchased Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011. The purchase price represented a greater than 65 percent premium over the price at which Autonomy was trading at the time of the announcement. Hewlett-Packard recorded $6.9 billion of goodwill and $4.3 billion of other intangible assets in connection with the acquisition."

[dkrich]

Ha and how'd that work for them? According to the Wikipedia entry, "within a year HP had written off $8.8 billion of the value."

Thanks for helping me make my point.

[kgwgk]

You're welcome. Just to be clear, I agree that paying too much when making acquisitions is not a good business model. But goodwill is not the reason for overpaying, or an excuse for overpaying. Goodwill is the consequence of overpaying.