Two national companies both sell a variety of soaps and lotions. When looking at the balance sheets, one company lists goodwill as an asset, but the other company does not. What does this tell you about these companies

A. The first company purchased an entire business to expand the company, whereas the second company likely has not yet purchased another entire business.

Explanation:

Goodwill is the value over a company's net value that it is purchased for. For instance, if a company is worth $15,000 but was purchased for $20,000, $5,000 is the goodwill.

A company only expresses goodwill in its books when it has purchased another company for more than the company's value and when the balance sheets of the purchaser and the purchased were consolidated, the goodwill is therefore shown.

If the first company has goodwill as an asset then it means that it has purchased a company before unlike the second company which has not purchased any company as of yet.

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