Ann: Appendix 4E and Full Year Statutory Accounts, page-66

For some reason HC wouldn't let me reply directly to @BootBoot

The value of the Appstab deal was $5.75m at the time the parties agreed to the acquisition for consideration in the form of 825m shares. Between the time the deal was struck and announced to the market, they did the deals with Visa, Mastercard, Fiserv and the SP had gone for a run.

If the SP had gone down, instead of up, between the time the deal was announced and when it was completed (i.e. shares issued) would you have agreed that more shares should have been issued to the vendors based on the downward SP movement??

What the fuss is all about is that the accounting standards require the acquisition consideration to be recorded at the time of issuing the shares and not at the time of the deal being agreed. Because of that, the deal value appears to be too high and now the large writedown (non-cash) is also reflecting the change in SP since the shares were issued.

If the shares were issued at the time the deal was announced, then the goodwill would have been recorded as $5.75m, the same number of shares would have been issued to the vendors and there would not have been a writedown of goodwill in this year's annual report.