Hacker News Reader

Not the OP- it's not fudging. As a business you get to choose what kind of accounting standards you want to follow. When someone says GAAP basis, it means the closest to a good or universally accepted accounting method (or straightforward means of calculating a profit).

View on HN

You don't really have a choice. A company has to provide GAAP financial statements. And can also include non-GAAP financial metrics that "give a more accurate view of the operations and financial situation of the company." But they cannot do anything they want, there are rules imposed by the SEC (for example, they have to explain how to reconcile the GAAP and non-GAAP results).

For LinkedIn, from the press release for Q1 results: "GAAP net loss attributable to common stockholders was $46 million and non-GAAP net income was $99 million."

https://investors.linkedin.com/events-and-news/corporate-pre...

You have to provide both, but you can focus on non-GAAP. For instance, earlier this year Facebook and Amazon moved to report on a GAAP basis, having previously focused on non-GAAP.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com