New Accounting Pronouncements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

New Accounting Pronouncements

New Accounting Pronouncements

(3)   New Accounting Pronouncements

        The following is a summary of new accounting pronouncements that apply or may apply to our business.

        In June 2009, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued guidance to improve financial reporting by enterprises involved with VIEs and to provide more relevant and reliable information to users of financial statements. The guidance no longer exempts qualifying special-purpose entities from the scope of the Consolidation Topic of the Codification. In addition, the amended guidance requires continuous reconsideration for determining whether an enterprise is the primary beneficiary of another entity, and ignores kick-out rights unless the rights are held by a single enterprise. Consolidation is required if an entity has power and receives benefits or absorbs losses that are potentially significant to the VIE. However, consolidation is not necessary if power is equally shared amongst unrelated parties. The guidance requires enhanced disclosures that will provide users of financial statements with more transparent information about an enterprise's involvement in a VIE. The guidance is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after November 15, 2009. We adopted the guidance on January 1, 2010 with no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In September 2009, the FASB issued guidance with the objective of amending revenue recognition for arrangements with multiple deliverables. The guidance eliminates one previous revenue recognition criterion so that objective and reliable evidence of fair value for undelivered item(s), in a multiple element deliverable arrangement in which the delivered item or items are considered a separate unit or units, is no longer required. The guidance also determines a hierarchy for an entity to use when estimating the selling price of deliverables that meet the other two conditions for separation as follows: (1) vendor-specific objective evidence of the selling price, (2) third-party evidence of the selling price, or (3) an estimate of the selling price. In addition, the term "selling price" replaces all references to fair value in the guidance. The guidance also has eliminated the residual allocation method and requires an entity to apply the relative selling price allocation method in all circumstances where there is an absence of objective and reliable evidence for the delivered item(s) in an arrangement. Lastly, the guidance requires enhanced disclosures about the judgments and assumptions used in evaluating arrangements. Entities may elect to apply this guidance (1) prospectively to new or materially modified arrangements after the effective date or (2) retrospectively for all periods presented. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning on or after June 15, 2010. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2011 with no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In September 2009, the FASB issued an amendment to guidance related to revenue recognition for certain revenue arrangements that include software elements. The amendment was to the scope of prior guidance, such that all tangible products containing both software and non-software components that function together to deliver the product's essential functionality will no longer be within the scope of the Software Revenue Recognition Topic of the Codification. That is, the entire product (including the software deliverables and non-software deliverables) would be outside the scope of revenue recognition guidance specific to software and would be accounted for under other accounting literature. Lastly, the guidance requires enhanced disclosures about the judgments and assumptions used in evaluating arrangements. Entities may elect to apply this guidance (1) prospectively to new or materially modified arrangements after the effective date or (2) retrospectively for all periods presented. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning on or after June 15, 2010. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2011 with no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In January 2010, the FASB issued an amendment to guidance related to fair value disclosures. The amendment adds new requirements for disclosures about (1) transfers in and out of Levels 1 and 2 fair value measurements in which a reporting entity should disclose separately the amounts of significant transfers in and out of Levels 1 and 2 fair value measurements and the reasons for the transfers, and (2) the activity in Level 3 fair value measurements, including the reconciliation for fair value measurements using significant unobservable inputs in which an entity should present separately information about purchases, sales, issuances, and settlements. This amendment provides clarification of existing disclosures for (1) the level of disaggregation for fair value measurement disclosures for each class of assets and liabilities and (2) the valuation techniques and inputs used to measure fair value for both recurring and nonrecurring fair value measurements required for Levels 2 or 3. Lastly, this update amends guidance on employers' disclosures about postretirement benefit plan assets to require that disclosures be provided by classes of assets instead of by major categories of assets. The disclosure requirements for significant transfers in and out of Levels 1 and 2 are effective for periods beginning on or after December 15, 2009. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2010 with no material impact on our consolidated financial statements. The requirement to provide the Level 3 activity of purchases, sales, issuances, and settlements on a gross basis is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2010. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2011 with no material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

        In July 2010, the FASB issued guidance to provide greater transparency about an entity's allowance for credit losses and the credit quality of its financing receivables. The objective is to provide disclosures that facilitate financial statement users' evaluation of (1) the nature of credit risk inherent in the entity's portfolio of financing receivables, (2) how that risk is analyzed and assessed in arriving at the allowance for credit losses, and (3) the changes and reasons for those changes in the allowance for credit losses. These objectives are achieved by providing disclosures on a disaggregated basis. This guidance also amends existing disclosure requirements to include (1) a rollforward schedule of the allowance for credit losses from the beginning of the reporting period to the end of the reporting period on a disaggregated basis, (2) the related recorded investment in financing receivables for each disaggregated ending balance, (3) the nonaccrual status of financing receivables by class of financing receivables, and (4) the impaired financing receivables by class of financing receivables. Finally, the following additional disclosures are required (by class of financing receivables unless otherwise noted): (1) credit quality indicators of financing receivables at the end of the reporting period, (2) the aging of past due financing receivables at the end of the reporting period, (3) the nature and extent of troubled debt restructuring that occurred during the period and its effect on the allowance for credit losses, (4) the nature and extent of financing receivables modified as troubled debt restructuring within the previous 12 months that defaulted during the reporting period and their effect on the allowance for credit losses, and (5) any significant purchases and sales of financing receivables during the reporting period disaggregated by portfolio segment. The guidance is effective for the first reporting period ending on or after December 15, 2010. We adopted this guidance on December 31, 2010 with no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In December 2010, the FASB issued guidance to modify the goodwill impairment test by eliminating an entity's ability to assert that a reporting unit is not required to perform Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test if the carrying amount of the reporting unit is zero or negative, despite the existence of qualitative factors that indicate that the goodwill is more likely than not impaired. For such reporting units, an entity is required to perform Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test if it is more likely than not that goodwill impairment exists. In determining whether it is more likely than not that a goodwill impairment exists, an entity should consider whether there are any adverse qualitative factors indicating that impairment may exist. The qualitative factors are consistent with the existing guidance, which require that goodwill of a reporting unit be tested for impairment between interim or annual tests if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying amount. The guidance is effective for the first reporting period beginning after December 15, 2010. We adopted the guidance on January 1, 2011 with no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In December 2010, the FASB issued guidance to clarify that if a public entity presents comparative financial statements for business combinations that are material on an individual or aggregate basis, the entity should disclose revenues and earnings of the combined entity as though the business combination had occurred as of the beginning of the comparable prior annual reporting period only. Additionally, the guidance expands the supplemental pro forma disclosures to include a description of the nature and amount of material, nonrecurring, adjustments directly attributable to the business combination included in the reported pro forma revenue and earnings. The guidance is effective prospectively for business combinations for which the acquisition date is on or after the beginning of the first annual reporting period beginning on or after December 15, 2010. We adopted the guidance on January 1, 2011 and have provided the necessary disclosures in Note 4 to the consolidated financial statements herein.

        In June 2011, and amended in December 2011, the FASB issued guidance to revise the presentation of comprehensive income by requiring entities to report components of comprehensive income in either a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or two separate but consecutive statements. The single continuous statement of comprehensive income must include the components of net income, a total for net income, the components of other comprehensive income ("OCI"), a total for OCI, and a total for comprehensive income. The separate but consecutive statements must report components of net income and total net income in the statement of net income, which must be immediately followed by a statement of OCI that must include the components of OCI, a total for OCI, and a total for comprehensive income. Each method requires entities to display adjustments for items that are reclassified from OCI to net income in both net income and OCI. The guidance is effective for the first reporting period beginning after December 15, 2011 and must be applied retrospectively for all periods presented in the financial statements. Early adoption is permitted. We have not yet adopted this guidance and do not expect the adoption to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In September 2011, the FASB issued an amendment to guidance related to testing goodwill for impairment. Under the revised guidance, entities testing goodwill for impairment have the option of performing a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount as a basis for determining whether it is necessary to perform the two-step goodwill impairment test under Topic 350 of the Codification. If entities determine, on the basis of qualitative factors, that the fair value of the reporting unit is more likely than not less than the carrying amount, the two-step impairment test would be required. The amendment is effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011. Early adoption is permitted, including for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed as of a date before September 15, 2011. We have not yet adopted this guidance and do not expect the adoption to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

        In September 2011, the FASB issued an amendment to guidance related to the disclosures about an employer's participation in a multiemployer plan, to add to the disclosure requirements for businesses that take part in multiemployer pension plans. The amendment adds significant new qualitative disclosures about the multiemployer plans including background information and descriptions of the plan. The amendments also require employers to state if their payments are more than 5% of a plan's total contributions and indicate if there are any plans that have programs to make up for funding shortfalls and state the expiration date of any collective bargaining agreements with employees and minimum funding arrangements. The disclosures are required to address a plan's funding status as defined by the Pension Protection Act of 2006. If the status is unavailable, the disclosures are to indicate whether the plan is less than 65% funded, between 65% and 80% funded, or more than 80% funded. For public companies, the amendments are effective for annual reporting periods ending after December 15, 2011, with early adoption permitted, and should be applied retrospectively for all prior periods presented. We adopted the guidance for the year ended December 31, 2011 and have provided the necessary disclosures in Note 10 to the consolidated financial statements.

        In December 2011, the FASB issued an amendment to disclosure requirements related to offsetting, whereby entities are required to disclose both gross information and net information about both instruments and transactions eligible for offset in the statement of financial position and instruments and transactions subject to an agreement similar to a master netting arrangement. These disclosures assist users of financial statements in evaluating the effect or potential effect of netting arrangements on a company's financial position, including the effect or potential effect of rights of setoff associated with the recognized assets and recognized liabilities within the scope. The amendment applies to a) recognized financial and derivative instruments that are offset in accordance with either ASC 210-20 or ASC 815-10 and b) financial and derivative instruments and other transactions that are subject to an enforceable master netting arrangement or similar agreement that covers similar instruments and transactions. This amendment will be effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2013, and interim periods within those annual periods, and shall be applied retrospectively for all comparative periods presented. We have not yet adopted this guidance and do not expect the adoption to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.