Companies wrote off $125.9 billion of goodwill in 2022. The year before, $8.9 billion.

163 write-downs, $508.6 billion

Since 2016, 116 large US companies have written down $1 billion or more of goodwill in a single year, 163 times in all. The biggest were AT&T’s $24.8 billion in 2022, GE’s $22.1 billion in 2018, Fidelity National Information Services’ $17.6 billion in 2022, Baker Hughes’ $14.8 billion in 2020 and Teladoc Health’s $13.4 billion in 2022.

Goodwill is the premium in an acquisition: the price paid above the value of the factories, contracts, customers and patents the buyer can list. It stands for whatever the buyer believed would make the combination worth more than its parts. A write-down is the buyer conceding, in its own accounts, that the belief has not held. No cash moves on the day it is taken. The money left years earlier, when the deal closed.

Write-downs follow the market, not the deal

In 2020, 282 companies wrote down $138.2 billion of goodwill. In 2021, 81 companies wrote down $8.9 billion. In 2022, 192 companies, $125.9 billion. Deals do not go bad in waves that neat. The tests that catch them do.

Each year a company must check that every business it bought is still worth what its books say. The value it puts on a business is today’s price for that business’s future earnings, and that price falls when share prices fall or interest rates rise, whatever the business itself is doing. AT&T said as much about the largest write-down on the list:

“The increase in 2022 was primarily due to $24,812 of noncash goodwill impairments associated with our Business Wireline, Consumer Wireline and Mexico reporting units and were driven by higher interest rates consistent with the macroeconomic environment” AT&T annual report, 2022

The second-largest of 2022 was at FIS, the payments company:

“Pursuant to our annual goodwill impairment test that we began conducting in November 2022 with a quantitative analysis as of October 1, 2022, as supplemented by a further analysis measured as of December 31, 2022, we recorded a total goodwill impairment charge of $17.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 for the Merchant reporting unit.” FIS annual report, 2022

FIS wrote down $17.6 billion, 1.8 times its revenue for the year. A deal that cost too much does not become cheaper in a good year. It passes a test it will fail in a bad one.

The confession comes years after the purchase

Berkshire Hathaway wrote down $10 billion of goodwill in 2020. Its annual report named the deal:

“Approximately $9.8 billion of the charges in 2020 were attributable to impairments of goodwill and identifiable intangible assets recorded in connection with Berkshire’s acquisition of Precision Castparts in 2016.” Berkshire Hathaway annual report, 2020

Four years from purchase to write-down. Teladoc took two. Its annual report for 2022 records the charges quarter by quarter:

“As a result of these assessments, we did not identify an impairment to our definite-lived intangible assets or other long-lived assets, but we recorded a $6.6 billion non-deductible goodwill impairment charge (or $40.88 per basic and diluted share) in the quarter ended March 31, 2022 and an additional $3.0 billion non-deductible goodwill impairment charge (or $18.77 per basic and diluted share) in the quarter ended June 30, 2022.” Teladoc annual report, 2022

The full year’s write-down, $13.4 billion, was more than the $12.9 billion of goodwill the Livongo deal had added:

“For example, the Livongo acquisition resulted in the recognition of approximately $12.9 billion of goodwill, $1.1 billion of Client relationship intangibles and $550 million of other intangibles.” Teladoc annual report, 2020

Walgreens wrote down $12.7 billion of goodwill in fiscal 2024, and named the deal behind most of it:

“The increase was primarily driven by a $12.4 billion non-cash impairment charge related to VillageMD goodwill and planned clinic closures, and a $332 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge related to CareCentrix.” Walgreens annual report, 2024

In each case the decision that cost the money was made when the deal was signed. The write-down only dated the moment the company stopped defending it.

Some companies write down goodwill year after year

Kraft Heinz wrote down $1 billion or more of goodwill in five different years: 2018 ($7 billion), 2019 ($1.2 billion), 2020 ($2.3 billion), 2024 ($1.6 billion) and 2025 ($6.7 billion), $18.9 billion in all. Lumen Technologies did it five times, $25.8 billion in all. The largest of Kraft Heinz’s came in 2018:

“As a result of our interim impairment test, we recognized goodwill impairment losses of $6.9 billion and indefinite-lived intangible asset impairment losses of $8.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018.” Kraft Heinz annual report, 2018

In 2025 the company announced it would split in two. Then it decided to wait:

“On September 2, 2025, we announced our intention to separate our company into two independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off (the “Separation”).” Kraft Heinz annual report, 2025

“On February 11, 2026, we announced that the Kraft Heinz Board of Directors (the “Board”) has decided to pause work related to the Separation.” Kraft Heinz annual report, 2025

A company that keeps taking write-downs is marking down, a slice at a time, values it set when it bought. Each bad year takes another slice.

Telephone companies wrote off more than any other industry

Six telephone companies took 14 write-downs of $1 billion or more between them, $86.6 billion in all, more than twice the next industry on the list. AT&T’s largest one, quoted above, names the businesses: its Business Wireline and Consumer Wireline units, written down as higher interest rates lowered their value. Lumen, Frontier, Windstream, Sprint and Verizon account for the rest.

The oilfield equipment makers show the timing most plainly. Baker Hughes, NOV, TechnipFMC and Weatherford wrote off $27.9 billion, every dollar of it between 2018 and 2020. Baker Hughes said what triggered its own:

“During the first quarter of 2020, the Company’s market capitalization declined significantly driven by current macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions including the decrease in demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and collapse of oil prices driven by both surplus production and supply.” Baker Hughes annual report, 2020

The two big drugstore chains, CVS Health and Walgreens, wrote off $26.3 billion between them, Walgreens’ VillageMD charge among it. Concentration runs through the whole list: the 163 write-downs of $1 billion or more account for 66% of all the goodwill large US companies wrote off in those years. A small number of very large write-downs make up most of the losses.

13 write-downs were larger than the company’s revenue that year

Teladoc’s was 5.6 times its revenue; FIS’s, 1.8 times. The others: Keenova Therapeutics in 2018, Alight, Inc. / Delaware in 2025, Sunrun in 2024, Mobileye Global in 2024, Mobileye Global in 2025, AMC Entertainment Holdings in 2020, Bakkt in 2022, Pacwest Bancorp in 2020, Claritev in 2024, P3 Health Partners in 2022 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings in 2020. When the premium on a deal is larger than a year of sales, the buyer was paying for growth that had not happened yet, and a write-down that size says the growth is not coming on the schedule the price assumed.

All 163, by company