Do we have any good number crunchers? Flowlogic has a good post on Y!
"JPMorgan Chase acquired the banking operations of Washington Mutual Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) for $1.9 billion. The fair value of the net assets acquired from the FDIC exceeded the purchase price which resulted in negative goodwill. In accordance with SFAS 141, nonfinancial assets that are not held-for-sale were written down against that negative goodwill. The negative goodwill that remained after writing down nonfinancial assets was recognized as an extraordinary gain in 2008. The allocation of the purchase price to the net assets acquired (based on their respective fair values at September 25, 2008) and the resulting negative goodwill may be modified through September 25, 2009, as more information is obtained about the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed.
The catch is 1. Sept 25th 2009(now it is going to August 30th as per the doc posted by Boston). 2. JPM wrote down non financial assets held not for sale.So they wrote down around $31B. 3. In their own words, the correct value to be paid will be modified to nullify the negative good will.Not today, but it happens soon