Goodwill and impairment remain areas of continued interest for standard setters and stakeholders. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have deliberated these topics in recent years. Both boards have reaffirmed the impairment-only approach and have shifted their focus toward targeted improvements to the impairment testing process. In February 2025, the IASB decided not to revisit the impairment-only model for goodwill and instead to prioritize enhancements to disclosures. More recently, in response to feedback regarding its 2025 Agenda Consultation, the FASB has asked its staff to perform additional research with the objective of simplifying the subsequent accounting for goodwill by considering requiring an impairment test only upon a triggering event and testing for impairment at the operating segment level.
This year’s edition of our report aggregates goodwill impairment taken by U.S.-based companies in 2025, based on information collected and available through March 31, 2026 via the S&P Capital IQ platform, and presents the Top 10 impairments in 2025. The report also provides historical GWI trends over the 2021-2025 period.
In 2025, the total amount of goodwill impaired in the U.S. increased by approximately 1% from $96 billion to $97 billion.
The top ten impairments taken in the U.S. in 2025 totaled approximately $40 billion, which represented approximately 42% of total goodwill impaired in the U.S.
Impairments in 2025 in the U.S. were concentrated in the Healthcare, Consumer Staples, and Industrials industries (approximately 60% of the total goodwill impaired in the year).
