DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS (Notes)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract]

Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations, Disclosure [Text Block]

DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS

On November 8, 2015, Weyerhaeuser announced that the board authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Cellulose Fibers business segment.

On May 1, 2016, we entered into an agreement to sell our Cellulose Fibers pulp business to International Paper for $2.2 billion in cash. The pulp business consists of five pulp mills located in Columbus, Mississippi; Flint River, Georgia; New Bern, North Carolina; Port Wentworth, Georgia and Grande Prairie, Alberta, and two modified fiber mills located in Columbus, Mississippi and Gdansk, Poland. This transaction is expected to close in fourth quarter 2016 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory review. We will continue to operate separately from International Paper until the transaction closes.

On June 15, 2016, we entered into an agreement to sell our Cellulose Fibers liquid packaging board business to Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., for $285 million in cash. Our liquid packaging board business consisted of one mill located in Longview, Washington. On August 31, 2016, we completed the sale and recognized a pre-tax gain of $60 million, which is included in "Earnings from discontinued operations, net of income taxes" on the Consolidated Statement of Operations.

On October 4, 2016, we entered an agreement to sell our interest in our printing papers joint venture to One Rock Capital Partners, LLC. The transaction includes the printing papers mill located in Longview, Washington. This transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016 and is subject to customary closing conditions. The printing papers joint venture will continue to operate separately from One Rock until the transaction closes.

The assets and liabilities of the pulp business, along with our investment in our printing papers joint venture, met the criteria necessary to be classified as held-for-sale during second quarter 2016 and continue to meet those criteria as of September 30, 2016. It is our expectation that the sales of these assets are probable and will be completed within one year.

Results of operations for our pulp and liquid packaging board businesses, along with our interest in our printing papers joint venture, have been reclassified to discontinued operations. These operations were previously reported as the Cellulose Fibers segment. These results have been summarized in "Earnings from discontinued operations, net of income taxes" on our Consolidated Statement of Operations for each period presented. The related assets and liabilities of these operations met the criteria for classification as "held for sale" and have been reclassified as discontinued operations on our Consolidated Balance Sheetfor each date presented. We did not reclassify our Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows to reflect discontinued operations.

We expect to use after-tax proceeds from our sales of our discontinued operations for repayment of long-term debt.

The following table presents net earnings from discontinued operations.

	QUARTER ENDED						YEAR-TO-DATE ENDED
DOLLAR AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS	SEPTEMBER 2016			SEPTEMBER 2015			SEPTEMBER 2016			SEPTEMBER 2015
Total net sales	$	420		$	471		$	1,306		$	1,385
Costs of products sold	350			372			1,110			1,181
Gross margin	70			99			196			204
Selling expenses	3			3			10			10
General and administrative expenses	7			5			24			21
Research and development expenses	—			2			3			5
Charges for integration and restructuring, closures and asset impairments(1)	13			1			44			1
Other operating income, net	(2		)	(5		)	(21		)	(19		)
Operating income	49			93			136			186
Equity loss from joint venture	—			(5		)	(3		)	(18		)
Interest expense, net of capitalized interest	(2		)	(1		)	(5		)	(5		)
Earnings from discontinued operations before income taxes	47			87			128			163
Income taxes	(23		)	(28		)	(46		)	(52		)
Net earnings from operations	24			59			82			111
Net gain on divestiture of Liquid Packaging Board	41			—			41			—
Net earnings from discontinued operations	$	65		$	59		$	123		$	111

(1) Charges for integration and restructuring, closures and asset impairments consist of costs related to our strategic evaluation of the Cellulose Fibers businesses and transaction-related costs.

The following table shows carrying values for assets and liabilities classified as discontinued operations as of September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015.

DOLLAR AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS	SEPTEMBER 30, 2016		DECEMBER 31, 2015
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents	$	10	$	1
Receivables, less allowances	182		211
Inventories	173		243
Prepaid expenses	12		14
Property and equipment, net	1,130		1,339
Construction in progress	94		51
Timber and timberlands at cost, less depletion charged to disposals	—		1
Investments in and advances to joint ventures	51		74
Total assets of discontinued operations	$	1,652	$	1,934
Liabilities
Accounts payable	$	107	$	122
Accrued liabilities	89		118
Long-term debt	88		88
Deferred income taxes	280		336
Other liabilities	14		26
Total liabilities of discontinued operations	$	578	$	690

Cash flows from discontinued operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015 are as follows:

	QUARTER ENDED					YEAR-TO-DATE ENDED
DOLLAR AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS	SEPTEMBER 2016		SEPTEMBER 2015			SEPTEMBER 2016		SEPTEMBER 2015
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities	$	58	$	75		$	192	$	248
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities	$	259	$	(27	)	$	225	$	(85	)