Accounting Standards Recently Adopted

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Abstract]

New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Text Block]

New Accounting Pronouncements

Revenue Recognition

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued a comprehensive new revenue recognition standard that will supersede existing revenue recognition guidance under United States generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The issuance of this guidance completes the joint effort by the FASB and the IASB to improve financial reporting by creating common revenue recognition guidance for U.S. GAAP and IFRS.

The core principle of the new guidance is that a company should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The standard creates a five-step model that requires companies to exercise judgment when considering the terms of a contract and all relevant facts and circumstances. The standard allows for several transition methods: (a) a full retrospective adoption in which the standard is applied to all of the periods presented, or (b) a modified retrospective adoption in which the standard is applied only to the most current period presented in the financial statements, including additional disclosures of the standard’s application impact to individual financial statement line items.

This standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within that reporting period. In April 2015, the FASB agreed to propose a one-year deferral of the revenue recognition standard's effective date for all entities, which would change the effectiveness to annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period. We are currently evaluating this standard and our existing revenue recognition policies to determine which contracts in the scope of the guidance will be affected by the new requirements and what impact they would have on our consolidated financial statements upon adoption of this standard. We have not yet determined which transition method we will utilize upon adoption.

Discontinued Operations

On January 1, 2015, we adopted an accounting standard update issued by the FASB related to discontinued operations, which added criteria providing that only those disposals of a component of an entity or a group of components of an entity that represent a strategic shift in operations should be presented as discontinued operations. The update allows an entity to present a disposal as discontinued operations even when it has continuing cash flows and significant continuing involvement with the disposed component. The update also requires expanded disclosures for discontinued operations and individually significant components of an entity that does not qualify for discontinued operations reporting. The adoption of this update did not impact our condensed consolidated financial statements. This new pronouncement may have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements in connection with the anticipated divestitures related to the pending acquisition of Baker Hughes. The anticipated divestitures discussed in Note 11 will not be presented as discontinued operations under this new standard, as it does not represent a strategic shift in our business.