Abstract From an accounting viewpoint, business combinations are categorized into purchases or poolings. Many corporate executives, who have actually participated in business combinations, are still unaware of just what makes a pooling. A study of poolings indicates that the accounting profession itself has undergone an evolution in its concept of poolings that might have contributed to the state in business information. Accountants themselves are not certain of the criteria that distinguishes pooling from purchasing. The dividing line which distinguishes pooling from purchasing is narrow. In many instances, purchasings are made and recorded that have all the earmarks of poolings, and vice versa. This article examines the present-day pooling concept in the light of its development in the last decade. The significance of the concept is important because from it stems changes in reported earnings, changes in rates of return on investment, interpretation of financial reports by investors and other reactions.
Samuel R. Sapienza (Sun,) studied this question.