5. Accounting Dilemmas in Valuation Analysis

Market View

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company was formed in 1989 after the merger of pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Company and the Squibb Corporation. In 2004, the company agreed to pay $150 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the second-largest payout obtained by the SEC, in an accounting case against a public company. According to the SEC’s complaint, Bristol-Myers Squibb engaged in “channel stuffing” from January 2000 through December 2001 to report higher sales and profit on its income statement, presumably to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Channel stuffing refers to the practice of shipping unordered goods to customers, usually with a guarantee for ...

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