Featuring Moderator: William Johnston, Empire Valuation Consultants, Arthur Miller, Ernst & Young, Stamos Nicholas, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, Matt Pinson, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Peter Wollmeringer, KPMG
Webcast Login Interactive Conference
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
11:30am -1:10pm (Pacific Time)

Register for Big Four Roundtable Webinar for $249

Presented by Business Valuation Resources, LLC. Earn TWO INTERACTIVE CPE credits for participating in this conference. Only $249.00 for a single dial-in connection. Use your conference room and the whole office can listen in. Two CPE credits are available for each additional listener sharing the same phone connection for only $49.00 per person.

Program Level: Basic
Prerequisites: None
Advance Preparation: None
Instructional Method: Group-Live

Your one chance to hear from all the Big Four at one time!   
Join the senior valuation partners from each of the Big Four accounting firms as they discuss their standards and methods for fair value and other financial reporting engagements. Moderator Bill Johnston has worked with E&Y, Deloitte, PWC, and KPMG, so this is the one chance you'll have to learn and understand what each firm expects—and questions. Each firm has their own unique, and often contradictory, interpretation of FAS 157 (and 141R and 142R)—and that means they each look for different weaknesses when they see a BV expert's fair value report. If you anticipate doing any 157, stock option (123R), or other financial reporting engagements in 2008, you can't afford to miss this session. After the lively panel discussion by Nicholas, Pinson, Wollmeringer, and Miller, a specially-selected NACVA Expert Panel will be available live to answer questions and offer guidance to guarantee that your reports pass muster with the top accounting firms.

Learning Objectives:

• Find out what the Big Four Accounting firms are looking for from appraisers
• Discover how SFAS 157 will affect valuations for financial reporting purposes
• Understand complex issues for purchase price allocation valuations and how to address those issues
• Understand diversity of practice related to certain issues and how to respond
• Be knowledgeable about current trends, developments, and projects related to financial reporting

Program Outline:

1. What are the Big Four looking for in appraisals?
   1. Assumptions/support
   2. Product/report detail
   3. Qualifications and experience
   4. Common problems
   5. Other
2. SFAS 157
   1. Key issues relevant to the business valuation appraiser
   2. Observations – what may be lacking in appraisals
   3. What the Big Four accounting firms are expecting from appraisers
   4. Defensive value – how should this issue be dealt with
   5. Other key topics
3. Purchase Price Allocation Issues
   1. Customer valuations
1. For technology companies
   1. How do you value two assets that may both warrant an excess earnings approach? What of the following is acceptable?
      1. Use of revenue/profit splitting approach
      2. Use of relief from royalty method
      3. Use of dual excess earnings approach
2. For consumer product companies
   1. What level of customer value is there without the brands?
3. What diagnostic processes could one employ to estimate the level of customer importance?
4. General thoughts on acceptable approaches and levels of value relative to purchase price
2. Market participant/SFAS 157 assumptions
1. Applying contributory asset charges for assets contributed by acquirer such as a trademark
2. Different perspectives on determining who market participants/potential acquirers would be
3. Potential emphasis on higher level inputs versus lower level inputs
3. Other
4. Other (time permitting)
   1. Latest concerns regarding 123R/cheap stock valuations
   2. Impairment testing issues (SFAS 142)
1. Dealing with projections of stand-alone company
2. Estimating carrying value for goodwill impairment testing
3. Potential for control adjustments
4. Other
3. Emerging trends and developments
4. New standards and collaborations to develop authoritative guidance
1. Panel and Audience Q &A

 

	William A. Johnston, ASA Mr. Johnston is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) of the American Society of Appraisers. He has thirteen years of experience in business and intangible asset valuations. He has valued the equity, debt, options/warrants, carried interests etc. of publicly and privately held businesses for acquisitions, stock repurchases, lending, estate and gift tax reporting, financial reporting, re-capitalization, litigation, fairness opinions and general corporate planning purposes. He also has a significant amount of experience valuing technology companies, hedge and private equity funds, and early stage businesses. In addition, he has valued intangible assets, including trademarks/names, covenants-not-to compete, recipes, in process and finished technologies, workforces in place, customer lists and relationships, licenses, patents and patent applications, etc. and has done valuations for asset allocation purposes. He also has performed and managed numerous engagements regarding goodwill impairment testing. Mr. Johnston also has experience valuing foreign companies located in Canada, Bermuda, Europe and Asia. He also is past President of the ASA’s New York City Chapter. Mr. Johnston also acts a guest lecturer at Fordham University, speaking on the topic of intangible asset valuation. He also has taught a Center for Advanced Valuation Studies (CAVS) course on purchase price allocation (SFAS 141) and impairment testing (SFAS 142, SFAS 144) for the ASA and spoken at various ASA events on the topic of intangible asset valuation. Mr. Johnston is also a member of the Appraisal Issues Task Force (AITF), a discussion forum for financial reporting related valuation issues.
	Arthur S. Miller, CFA Mr. Miller is a principal in the New York office of Ernst & Young's Valuation and Business Modeling practice. He is responsible for practice development and quality execution of business and intangible asset valuation engagements. Mr. Miller has thirteen years of professional experience in the valuation of business enterprises, equity and debt interests, and various intangible assets associated with businesses. Types of engagements include allocation of purchase cost, valuation of minority and control equity interests for gift and estate tax purposes, corporate planning, recapitalizations, and litigation. Mr. Miller also possesses expertise in the valuation of intangible assets. Intangibles assets valued include non-competition agreements, customer relationships and contracts, technology, and trademarks.
	Stamos C. Nicholas Mr. Nicholas is a principal in the Valuation Services practice of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP. He is the national leader of the Business Valuation service line practice. He has more than 25 years of experience in providing valuation and financial valuation consulting services worldwide for the purposes of accounting, tax planning, financing, bankruptcy, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, and investment. Mr. Nicholas has particular experience in the valuation of intellectual property (i.e., patents, proprietary technology, trademarks, trade names, customer intangibles, copyrights, agreements, etc.). Mr. Nicholas has extensive experience serving national and multinational companies such as financial services, manufacturing, media/entertainment, natural resources, consumer businesses, technology and life sciences, etc. Additionally, Mr. Nicholas has supervised large, complex multidiscipline (real estate, machinery and equipment, and financial) valuation engagements and has performed several transfer pricing studies for multinational corporations. He has testified as a valuation expert on business enterprises and intellectual property in various courts of law (including bankruptcy court) and has extensive experience in dealing with the IRS, SEC and other regulatory and tax authorities worldwide on valuation issues.
	Matt Pinson Mr. Pinson has over 20 years of comprehensive experience as a valuation professional. He is currently a Managing Director in the Transactions Services Accounting Advisory Group. In this role he supports clients and audit teams in a variety of valuation issues related to financial reporting. Prior to joining PwC, Mr. Pinson was a FASB Industry Fellow. While at the FASB, he assisted the Board with issues involving fair value measurement, including the Fair Value Measurement Standard project. Prior to the FASB he was associated with the valuation practices of Standard & Poor’s CVC, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Coopers & Lybrand specializing in valuation matters related to financial and tax reporting.
	Peter G. Wollmeringer, ASA Peter is currently in KPMG’s Department of Professional Practice where he is serving the Firm as a technical valuation expert and consulting on technical inquiries and valuation issues related to new and existing accounting standards. Peter also assists with the development of educational materials for the Firm and is a national instructor related to technical valuation issues in accounting guidance. Peter’s background consists of over 16 years of experience providing valuation consulting services to domestic and international companies. He has assisted clients with valuations for mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, bankruptcy, and corporate tax planning. Peter re-joined KPMG in February 2005 after spending 5+ years with PwC / Standard & Poor’s Corporate Value Consulting and had most recently worked in KPMG’s Economic and Valuation Services practice in New York City. He has extensive experience in the valuation of businesses, equity interests, derivatives and intangible assets for a variety of purposes including financial reporting under FAS 141, 142, 144 and 123R, tax reporting and management planning. Peter has provided valuation consulting services to the following primary industries: Technology, Software, Internet Services, Medical Products, Telecommunications, Manufacturing and Retail.

CPE Credit Information Earn 2 Interactive CPE Credits (Consulting Services) Business Valuation Resources, LLC is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN 37219-2417. www.nasba.org NASBA Sponsor

Please note: To receive CPE credit, you must fill out the post conference survey. The survey link is e-mailed to participants along with the dial-in number and registration code, normally sent two or more days prior to the conference. CPE credit only registrants will be sent the survey link via e-mail.

Satisfaction Guaranteed:
For more information on this telephone conference or our past telephone conferences, please email customerservice@bvresources.com Business Valuation Resources offers a 100% money-back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied, you may submit a written request within 30 days of the date of this program to receive a full refund. Please e-mail our accounting manager at: stephaniec@bvresources.com . There are no fees associated with refunds.