6. Goodwill

During fiscal year 2016, the Company made a voluntary change in the method of applying an accounting principle to change the date of the annual goodwill impairment assessment. The date was changed from September 30 to July 1. As a result, the annual goodwill impairment assessment was performed as of July 1, 2016 for fiscal year 2016.

The goodwill of acquired companies is primarily related to the acquisition of an experienced and knowledgeable workforce.

A reporting unit represents a component of an operating segment that (a) constitutes a business, (b) has discrete financial information, and (c) its performance is reviewed by management. At fiscal year-end 2015, the Company had two reporting units—LSI-Retail Supply Chain Group (RSCG) and LSI-Capital Assets Group (CAG). During fiscal year 2016, in light of new business ventures and management restructuring, the Company concluded it now has five reporting units—RSCG, CAG, LSI-GovDeals, LSI-Truckcenter, and LSI-IronDirect.

As part of the Company's fiscal year 2016 annual impairment assessment, the Company identified indicators of impairment and as a result performed step one of the goodwill impairment test. The Company performed the step one test using a discounted cash flow method. The Company concluded that the carrying value exceeded fair value for one of the Company's five reporting units that had goodwill. Accordingly, the Company performed the step two test to derive the fair value of the goodwill, and as a result the Company recorded a $19.0 million impairment charge during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016. The goodwill impairment was due to updated assumptions used in the fair value calculation.

As of December 31, 2014, the Company identified indicators of impairment and as a result performed an impairment test and concluded as part of the step one test that the carrying values of both of the Company's two reporting units exceeded their estimated fair values. The Company performed the step one test using the discounted cash flow method. As a result of the step two test, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $85.1 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2015. As of September 30, 2015, as part of the Company's annual impairment test, the Company identified indicators of impairment and as a result performed an impairment test and concluded as part of the step one test that the carrying values of both of the Company's two reporting units exceeded their estimated fair values. As a result of the step two test, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $51.2 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015. Goodwill impairment losses for fiscal 2015 totaled $136.2 million and were the result of the termination of the Wal-Mart Agreement, cessation of operations of NESA, and decline in market capitalization.

The following summarizes the goodwill activity for the periods indicated:

	Goodwill
	(in thousands)
Balance at September 30, 2014	$	209,656
Impairment charge		(136,248)
Business disposition		(6,733)
Translation adjustments		(2,602)

Balance at September 30, 2015		64,073
Impairment charge		(18,998)
Translation adjustments		59

Balance at September 30, 2016	$	45,134

No goodwill impairments were recorded prior to September 30, 2014.