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This case provides students with the statement of cash flows from three diverse companies: Etsy, Inc., Akorn, Inc., and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (named in case as Alpha Inc., Beta Corporation, and Gamma Enterprises, respectively). Each company represents a different industry and stage in the life cycle and provides unique learning opportunities. The lack of any background (or identifying) information provides the instructor with several teaching opportunities.

This case introduces students to an interesting and fun example of a proxy statement issued by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE). WWE is effectively run by the McMahon family, which provides opportunities for students to recognize conflicts of interest in related party transactions between WWE and family members, as well as how the dual class share structure can facilitate these transactions. Further, executive compensation is driven by accounting measures, allowing students to recognize the incentives managers face and the governance structures of firms that may impair a manager's flexibility in making self-interested financial reporting decisions. The class can also provide an opportunity to cover accounting for stock compensation.

This technical note explains how to account for leases under Accounting Standards Codification 842. This new addition to US generally accepted accounting principles became effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019. The note provides broad treatment for how a lessee will account for a short-term, operating, and financing lease, and how a lessor will account for short-term and sales-type leases with and without manufacturing profit. The intent is to provide a brief overview of lease accounting. As such, it is most appropriate for MBA or finance students who need to understand the broad effects of leases on the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows.

This case provides for a discussion about how retail banks provision for loan losses, and how to analyze the riskiness of loan portfolios and the adequacy of the allowance for loan losses. What is unique about the setting is that a smaller regional bank made a large loan based on an unsubstantiated appraisal. Students can observe how the loan moves to nonperforming status in one quarter, then is directly written off in the subsequent quarter without affecting the allowance for loan losses.

Student spreadsheet for case UV7563.

This case provides students with an opportunity to decide how to respond to an SEC inquiry and how to communicate adverse news. It does so in the context of accounting for separately priced extended warranties. LCA-Vision (LCA), a leading provider of LASIK vision-correction services, accounted for separately priced extended warranties incorrectly. Under US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), LCA was required to defer revenues associated with extended warranties. Instead, LCA recognized 93% of these revenues immediately, and deferred the 7% in accordance with the proportion of customers needing follow-up treatment. During the routine review process, the SEC posted a comment letter questioning this accounting treatment, which subsequently led to a restatement and shareholder litigation. Therefore, the case is an opportunity to examine how managers interact with regulatory bodies, communicate with investors, account for separately priced extended warranties, and correct erroneous filings via issuing a restatement. It is suitable for an audience of accounting students, or as an elective for general business students who have some exposure to accounting.

This exercise teaches students to account for defined benefit pension plans using a simplified example of Caperton Corporation's defined benefit plan. The simplification treats all employees as one homogeneous group (same age, retirement date, and terminal date), which allows students to calculate present values and focus on the accounting for the future cash flows. Included is a concise spreadsheet answer guide, which illustrates the present-value calculations and how they map into plan assets, plan obligation, pension expense, and other accumulated comprehensive income.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Exercise UV8889

This case examines Facebook's corporate governance by reviewing information in the company's proxy statement. Students become familiar with the nature and type of information in proxy statements. They also learn how to examine various facets of executive compensation and corporate governance such as the use of stock options and restricted stock to compensate executives, dual class share structures, board composition and characteristics, controlled companies, and classified boards.

Written using public sources, this case uses Hewlett-Packard's (HP) purchase of Autonomy Corporation (Autonomy) to analyze the accounting treatment for the acquisition and subsequent goodwill impairment. While the case focuses on the accounting for mergers and acquisitions, it also provides for a variety of other discussion topics such as the effect of managerial incentives and CEO succession on accounting outcomes, managerial "spin" on disclosure of bad news, strategy in changing institutional environments, and financial reporting limitations of new economy firms with heavy investments in intangible assets. The case opens during the fall of 2011 (when HP purchased Autonomy). Some analysts applauded the shift in strategy that the Autonomy purchase signaled for HP. Others were unsure how Autonomy's cloud computing software fit HP's businesses. From there, events at HP suggested a sense of division and frustration between HP leadership, the board, and Autonomy executives. The board replaced HP CEO Leo Apotheker with Meg Whitman. For the next few quarters, Autonomy missed expected results, and by May 2012, HP removed Autonomy's CEO Michael Lynch. Shortly after, HP announced an impairment charge of $8.8 billion related to the Autonomy acquisition, driving the company to report a loss for the year, the first in 10 years. The HP disclosure emphasized the Autonomy acquisition (which occurred prior to Whitman's tenure as CEO) and accused Lynch and Autonomy executives of cooking the books to inflate the purchase price. However, analysis of the financial statements and related footnote disclosures reveal that this $8.8 billion was less than half the $18 billion total impairment that HP recorded in 2012.

This is a flexible case that provides for discussion about the form and content of 10-K reports, managerial discussion and analysis, non-GAAP reporting, and accounting for contingent liabilities. What is unique is that Target included lengthy disclosures about the data breach, but many questions remain because the breach occurred shortly before year end. Further, the instructor can compare the contingent liability of $17 million reported in the 2013 10-K to the $201 million costs incurred by Target related to the breach as of the 2015 year end.

This technical note provides hands-on instructions for searching, classifying, and obtaining documents from the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) official document repository, EDGAR. It helps students become familiar with the different types and classifications of SEC filings available for public companies registered with the SEC.

This case provides students with the opportunity to analyze the income tax disclosures for Apple Inc. In particular, it provides for discussion about such topics as deferred taxes, valuation allowances, unrecognized tax benefits, and the statutory rate reconciliation. What is most unique about the example is that Apple reports around $200 billion of cash and investments on its balance sheet. However, students learn that Apple shareholders would incur a significant tax penalty were Apple to repatriate the cash and distribute to shareholders. Also, Apple designates some foreign earnings as permanently reinvested, but not other earnings. Therefore, students can see the accounting effects of both designations.

This exercise is taught in a Darden first-year elective, "Financial Reporting," as the second half of a module covering Managerial Accounting for Pension Plans, but would also work well in a first-year MBA core accounting course. It was designed to be taught as a follow-up case to "Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension Plans for Caperton Corporation" (UVA-C-2375), although it can be taught alone. This exercise provides students the opportunity to analyze the pension footnote disclosures for AT&T Inc. In particular, it focuses on the components of pension expense, the balance sheet accounts, and the various assumptions that drive these figures. What is most unique about the example is that the exercise is set in 2008, and in 2010, AT&T elected to immediately recognize actuarial gains and losses in net income. To provide comparable prior year financial statements, AT&T restated 2008 accounting for immediate recognition of actuarial gains and losses. Therefore, students can see the significant effect of this change in accounting policy by comparing the $12.8 billion in net income originally reported in 2008 with the $2.3 billion loss AT&T reported for the restated 2008.