Hacker News Reader

There are a lot of things that go into GAAP EPS. You can be profitable and have negative GAAP EPS.

Can you list some real world examples where the difference was in the multiple of billions?

Writing down a merger/acquisition is probably the main scenario where this could extend to the billions.

I don't have an exact list but I think you'll see differences of that order in the years following big acquisitions like AMD / Xilinx for this sector.

A very recent example - but the other way around - is Credit Suisse which is going a paper accounting profit of $14bn in Q1, while also having basically gone bankrupt. In addition UBS is also going to post a $53bn paper profit in Q2, without actually having “earned” any surplus money from acquiring Credit Suisse…

Matt Levine goes into the gory detail: https://archive.is/0T1CG

Reply on news.ycombinator.com