Goodwill Impairment
Categories: Accounting
When Goodwill is um, impaired. Like...it's not worth what we thought it was.
So now you have to write it down in value on the assets tab thingy on your balance sheet. It's not bad will now; just less good goodwill.
The most famous case of Goodwill impairment came from AOL's purchase of (or merger with) Time Warner, where, about 18 months after the merger closed, the company was forced to write down some 80 billion dollars of goodwill. The event is still in the running for worst merger...ever.