AT&T Inc. (T)

AT&T has five major classes of intangible assets: goodwill; licenses, which include Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other wireless licenses and orbital slots; other indefinite-lived intangible assets, primarily made up of the AT&T and international DIRECTV trade names including SKY; customer lists; and various other finite-lived intangible assets.

Goodwill represents the excess of consideration paid over the fair value of identifiable net assets acquired in business combinations. Wireless licenses (including FCC licenses) provide AT&T with the exclusive right to utilize certain radio frequency spectrum to provide wireless communications services. While wireless licenses are issued for a fixed period of time (generally 10 years), renewals of wireless licenses have occurred routinely and at nominal cost. Moreover, AT&T has determined that there are currently no legal, regulatory, contractual, competitive, economic or other factors that limit the useful lives of the wireless licenses. Orbital slots represent the space in which AT&T operates the broadcast satellites that support the digital video entertainment service offerings. Similar to AT&T's wireless licenses, there are no factors that limit the useful lives of the orbital slots. AT&T acquired the rights to the AT&T and other trade names in previous acquisitions. AT&T has the effective ability to retain these exclusive rights permanently at a nominal cost.

Goodwill, licenses and other indefinite-lived intangible assets are not amortized but are tested at least annually for impairment. The testing is performed on the value as of October 1 each year, and compares the book value of the assets to their fair value. Goodwill is tested by comparing the book value of each reporting unit, deemed to be AT&T's principal operating segments or one level below them (Business Solutions, Entertainment Group, Consumer Mobility, and Mexico Wireless, Brazil and PanAmericana in the International segment), to the fair value using both discounted cash flow as well as market multiple approaches. Wireless licenses are tested on an aggregate basis, consistent with AT&T's use of the licenses on a national scope, using a discounted cash flow approach. Orbital slots are similarly aggregated for purposes of impairment testing. Trade names are tested by comparing the book value to a fair value calculated using a discounted cash flow approach on a presumed royalty rate derived from the revenues related to the brand name.

Intangible assets that have finite useful lives are amortized over their useful lives. Customer lists and relationships are amortized using primarily the sum-of-the-months-digits method of amortization over the period in which those relationships are expected to contribute to AT&T's future cash flows. The remaining finite-lived intangible assets are generally amortized using the straight-line method.

Source: AT&T Inc., Annual Report

AT&T Inc., Statement of Financial Position, Goodwill and Intangible Assets

Source: Based on data from AT&T Inc. Annual Reports

AT&T Inc., adjustments to financial data

AT&T Inc., adjusted ratios

2017 Calculations

2017 Calculations

2017 Calculations

2017 Calculations