Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Oct. 02, 2016

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements were prepared following the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for interim reporting. As permitted under those rules, certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) can be condensed or omitted. Balance sheet amounts and operating results for subsidiaries operating outside the United States are as of and for the three and nine-month periods ended August 28, 2016, and August 23, 2015.

Fiscal Period

We follow a 13-week quarterly accounting cycle pursuant to which the first three quarters end on a Sunday and the fiscal year always ends on December 31 for our operations in the United States and on November 30 for subsidiaries operating outside the United States. As a result of this convention, the first quarter of fiscal 2016 had six additional days and the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 will have five less days compared with the respective quarters of fiscal 2015.

Revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities can vary during each quarter of the year. Therefore, the results and trends in these interim financial statements may not be representative of those for the full year.

New Accounting Standards

In October 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued an accounting standards update that will require the recognition of the income tax consequences of an intra-entity asset transfer, other than inventory, when the transfer occurs as opposed to when the asset is sold to an outside third party. The provisions of the new standard are effective beginning January 1, 2018, for annual and interim reporting periods. Early adoption is permitted beginning on January 1, 2017. The new standard requires a modified retrospective adoption approach, as of the beginning of the period of adoption. We are continuing to assess the potential impact that adopting this new standard will have on our consolidated financial statements.

In March 2016, the FASB issued an accounting standards update which simplifies the accounting for employee share-based payments. The new standard requires the immediate recognition of all excess tax benefits and deficiencies in the income statement, and requires classification of excess tax benefits as an operating activity as opposed to a financing activity in the statements of cash flows. The standard also clarifies that all cash payments made to taxing authorities on the employees' behalf for shares withheld should be presented as financing activities on the statements of cash flows and provides for a policy election to either estimate the number of awards that are expected to vest or account for forfeitures as they occur. The provisions of the new standard are effective beginning January 1, 2017, and early adoption is permitted if all amendments are adopted in the same period. We elected to early adopt the new standard effective January 1, 2016. Excess tax benefits of $7 million generated during the first nine months of 2016 are reflected as a component of Provision for taxes on income as presented in the condensed consolidated statements of income. We have elected to apply the change in cash flow classification for excess tax benefits on a prospective basis. Cash payments made to taxing authorities on the behalf of company employees are reflected as a financing outflow in the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows, consistent with prior years. We continue to include the impact of estimated forfeitures when determining share-based compensation expense.

In February 2016, the FASB issued an accounting standards update which requires lessees to recognize most leases on the balance sheet with a corresponding right of use asset. Leases will be classified as financing or operating which will drive the expense recognition pattern. For lessees, the income statement presentation and expense recognition pattern for financing and operating leases is similar to the current model for capital and operating leases, respectively. Accounting for lessors remains largely unchanged. Companies may elect to exclude short-term leases. The update also requires additional disclosures that will better enable users of financial statements to assess the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. The provisions of the new standard are effective beginning January 1, 2019, for annual and interim reporting periods. Early adoption is permitted beginning on January 1, 2017. The new standard requires a modified retrospective adoption approach, at the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements. We continue to assess the potential impact that adopting this new guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

In July 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standards update to simplify the measurement of inventory by requiring that inventory be measured at the lower of cost or net realizable value, rather than at the lower of cost or market, with market being defined as either replacement cost, net realizable value or net realizable value less a normal profit margin. The provisions of the new standard are effective beginning January 1, 2017, for annual and interim reporting periods. The guidance will be adopted prospectively and early adoption is permitted. We plan to adopt this guidance as of January 1, 2017, the required effective date, and do not expect this guidance to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In February 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standards update that provides revised guidance on whether to consolidate certain legal entities, such as limited partnerships, limited liability corporations and securitization structures. We adopted this guidance effective January 1, 2016. This guidance did not have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In May 2014, the FASB issued an accounting standards update that outlines a new, single comprehensive model for companies to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers. This update supersedes most current revenue recognition guidance under U.S. GAAP. The core principle of the new guidance is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The guidance includes a five-step model for determining how, when and how much revenue should be recognized. This update also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from contracts with customers. We plan to adopt this guidance as of January 1, 2018, the required effective date. The new standard allows for either full retrospective or modified retrospective transition upon adoption. We continue to assess the transition method we will elect for adoption as well as the potential impact that adopting this new guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

Foreign Exchange and Interest Rate Risk

A significant portion of our revenue, earnings and net investment in foreign affiliates is exposed to changes in foreign exchange rates. We seek to manage our foreign exchange risk, in part, through operational means, including managing same-currency revenue in relation to same-currency costs and same-currency assets in relation to same-currency liabilities. Depending on market conditions, foreign exchange risk is also managed through the use of derivative financial instruments. These financial instruments serve to protect net income against the impact of the translation into U.S. dollars of certain foreign exchange-denominated transactions.

The company may use interest rate swap contracts on certain investing and borrowing transactions to manage its net exposure to interest rates and to reduce its overall cost of borrowing. In anticipation of issuing fixed-rate debt, we may use forward-starting interest rate swaps that are designated as cash flow hedges to hedge against changes in interest rates that could impact expected future issuances of debt. To the extent these hedges of cash flows related to anticipated debt are effective, any unrealized gains or losses on the forward-starting interest rate swaps are reported in Accumulated other comprehensive loss and are recognized in income over the life of the future fixed-rate notes. When the company discontinues hedge accounting because it is no longer probable that an anticipated transaction will occur within the originally expected period of execution, or within an additional two-month period thereafter, changes to fair value accumulated in other comprehensive income are recognized immediately in earnings.

All derivative contracts used to manage foreign currency risk are measured at fair value and are reported as assets or liabilities on the condensed consolidated balance sheet. The company has not designated the foreign currency forward-exchange contracts as hedging instruments. We recognize the gains and losses on forward-exchange contracts that are used to offset the same foreign currency assets or liabilities immediately into earnings along with the earnings impact of the items they generally offset. These contracts essentially take the opposite currency position of that reflected in the month-end balance sheet to counterbalance the effect of any currency movement.

Segment Information

We manage our operations through two geographic regions. Each operating segment has responsibility for its commercial activities. Within each of these operating segments, we offer a diversified product portfolio, including vaccines, parasiticides, anti-infectives, medicated feed additives and other pharmaceuticals, for both livestock and companion animal customers.

Operating Segments

Our operating segments are the United States and International. Our chief operating decision maker uses the revenue and earnings of the two operating segments, among other factors, for performance evaluation and resource allocation.

Other Costs and Business Activities

Certain costs are not allocated to our operating segment results, such as costs associated with the following:

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Other business activities includes our Client Supply Services (CSS) contract manufacturing results, as well as expenses associated with our dedicated veterinary medicine research and development organization, research alliances, U.S. regulatory affairs and other operations focused on the development of our products. Other R&D-related costs associated with non-U.S. market and regulatory activities are generally included in the international commercial segment.


•	Corporate, which is responsible for platform functions such as business technology, facilities, legal, finance, human resources, business development, and communications, among others. These costs also include compensation costs and other miscellaneous operating expenses not charged to our operating segments, as well as interest income and expense.

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Certain transactions and events such as (i) Purchase accounting adjustments, where we incur expenses associated with the amortization of fair value adjustments to inventory, intangible assets and property, plant and equipment; (ii) Acquisition-related activities, where we incur costs associated with acquiring and integrating newly acquired businesses, such as transaction costs and integration costs; and (iii) Certain significant items, which comprise substantive, unusual items that, either as a result of their nature or size, would not be expected to occur as part of our normal business on a regular basis, such as certain costs related to becoming an independent public company, restructuring charges and implementation costs associated with our cost-reduction/productivity initiatives that are not associated with an acquisition, certain asset impairment charges, certain legal and commercial settlements and the impact of divestiture-related gains and losses.


•	Other unallocated includes (i) certain overhead expenses associated with our global manufacturing operations not charged to our operating segments; (ii) certain costs associated with business technology and finance that specifically support our global manufacturing operations; (iii) certain supply chain and global logistics costs; and (iv) procurement costs.

Segment Assets

We manage our assets on a total company basis, not by operating segment. Therefore, our chief operating decision maker does not regularly review any asset information by operating segment and, accordingly, we do not report asset information by operating segment.