Goodwill on accounting balance sheets is a useless asset because it only appears after an acquisition and is simply a plug variable—the difference between what a company cost and its book value—not a real economic asset that should be paid for separately

causalpending

Speaker

Aswath Domodaran

Evidence Quote

Goodwill is the most useless asset known to man. And here's why-- for goodwill to manifest itself in an accounting balance sheet, do you know what a company has to do? It has to acquire another company.

Source

Valuation in Four Lessons | Aswath Damodaran | Talks at GoogleTalks at Google
Created: 8/11/2026, 1:45:13 AM

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