BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Goodwill games

June 21, 1999 7:00 AM UTC

If Roche surprised Wall Street earlier this month with its plans to buy out Genentech and then sell some of it back on the equity market, equally clever are the pharma company's plans to leave GNE with the writeoffs of the goodwill and other intangibles that are part of the purchase.

Indeed, the burden of the amortization that will fall on GNE's P&L has gone largely unnoticed in the euphoria over the pharma company's decision to leave part of GNE in public hands and with the stock free of its $82.50 cap prior to the takeout...