The value of acquisitions worldwide in the first six weeks of 2004 more than tripled, to $353 billion, from a year ago, Bloomberg data show.
USA Networks, the media company controlled by Barry Diller, said yesterday that its first-quarter loss widened more than tenfold because the value of acquisitions fell.
The loss included $470.9 million in pretax expenses for a decline in the value of acquisitions, mostly for the $426 million purchase of Internet guide company About.com in March.
The WebMD Corporation, which makes medical practice management software, said yesterday that its third-quarter loss widened after it wrote down the value of acquisitions by $3.83 billion.
One reason could be that the value of acquisitions — like a rug, armoire or painting picked up on vacation — is more emotional than monetary.
The bank also booked losses in recognition of the diminished value of acquisitions going as far back as its purchase of Bankers Trust in the United States in 1998.
Primedia Inc., the publisher of magazines like New York and Seventeen, said its fourth-quarter loss widened to $608.3 million on expenses for writing down the value of acquisitions and reduced advertising spending.
The company, which is based in Toledo, said after the stock market closed Tuesday that it also had a $720 million charge for write-downs in the value of acquisitions, primarily in the plastics operations.
Wyndham International, the hotel company controlled by the investors Thomas Lee and Leon Black, said today that its loss narrowed in the first quarter from a year earlier, when it wrote down the value of acquisitions.
