# Goodwill and the bottom line

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodwill-and-the-bottom-line/152973>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 5, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodwill-and-the-bottom-line/152973 "2003-02-05T16:47:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodwill-and-the-bottom-line/152973/1 "2003-02-05T16:47:15Z")

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I was just reading an article about various drillers and noted that Parker Drilling reported a net loss for 2002 of $114.1 million; this includes a $73.1 million charge for good will.

I’ll confess that, although I’ve even used the term, I still don’t have a very good handle on what “goodwill” means in terms of a company’s bottom line. Can one of y’all define it in terms I can understand?

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**Author:** ![IzzyR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@IzzyR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IzzyR)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodwill-and-the-bottom-line/152973/2 "2003-02-05T17:01:09Z")

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[link](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/News/news/2002/april/ap0427.html)