3 ms·
some of these reasons are quite spurious. the amount of detail you need to disclose about your r&d is nowhere near a level of detail that would help competitor
by aaavl2821 9y ago
some of these reasons are quite spurious. the amount of detail you need to disclose about your r&d is nowhere near a level of detail that would help competitors, and is probably less than would be disclosed through the press anyway. alphabet discloses almost nothing about many of its subsidiaries, and big public pharma companies generally dont even list any drugs earlier than phase 2 in public filings
the whole GAAP thing is also a weak argument. investors know that tech startups arent going to have tons of tangible assets and pp&e and actually like capital-light models. investors are smart enough to figure out when gaap is useful for valuation and when it isnt
- kelnos 9y agoI don't think the issue is really any confusion around whether or not GAAP is appropriate for many companies, it's just that there's no alternate standard, and that can be confusing. My understanding is that "non-GAAP" can encompass a variety of different methods of calculating performance, and it's harder for an investor to evaluate if the chosen method actually represents the business well, or if it was just chosen because it yielded the best numbers.
- monocasa 9y agoThere's IFRS.