SEC Company Response from SCHOLASTIC CORP (SCHL) (CIK 0000866729) (SCHL) — Jul 23, 2008
SCHOLASTIC CORP (SCHL) (CIK 0000866729)
Date: July 23, 2008 · CIK: 0000866729 · Accession: 0000930413-08-004393
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 000-19860
Referenced dates: June 19, 2008
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July 23, 2008
Mr. Joseph Foti
Senior Assistant Chief Accountant
Division of Corporation Finance
Mail Stop 3561
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20549-5546
Re:
Scholastic Corporation
File No. 000-19860
Form 10-K: For the Fiscal Year Ended May 31, 2007
Form 10-Q: For the Quarterly Period Ended November 30, 2007
Form 10-Q: For the Quarterly Period Ended February 29, 2008
Dear Mr. Foti:
We have received your follow-up letter dated June 19, 2008 regarding the above-referenced reports filed by Scholastic Corporation (“Scholastic” or the “Company”) under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 (the “Form 10-K” and “Form 10-Q”). Please note that Exhibits 1, 2 and 3, sent under separate cover in support of our responses, contain data which the Company considers confidential in nature and would not want disclosed
beyond the use of the Staff in conjunction with this response letter. Therefore, the Company respectfully requests that Exhibits 1, 2, and 3 be treated as confidential.
We have set forth below a response to each of the Staff’s comments set forth in its June 19, 2008 comment letter.
Form 10-Q: For the quarterly period ended November 30, 2007
Item 1. Financial Statements
Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
12. Subsequent Event, page 14
1.
We appreciate your
detailed responses to our prior comment numbers 3 and 4. In response
number 4, you stated that the DTH business is a component of the “Children’s
Book Publishing and Distribution” operating segment. Therefore,
it is a reporting unit pursuant to paragraph 30 of FAS 142. Your response
reasons that it is appropriate to test impairment of goodwill associated
with the DTH business on an aggregated basis with other components within
the same operating segment as that of the DTH business. We note that
your accounting treatment is based upon your conclusion that DTH exhibits
similar economic characteristics as the remainder of the “Children’s
Book Publishing and Distribution” segment. In this regard we note
that your conclusion is partially based upon the assertion that DTH realizes
similar gross margins as the other components of the operating segment
to which DTH belongs.
Scholastic Corporation
July 23, 2008
Page 2 of 9
We
note that you have referenced footnote 20 to paragraph 30 of FAS 142
and paragraph 17 of FAS 131 to support your assertion that DTH’s
realized gross margins are evidence of economic similarities to the
other components of the “Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution” segment.
In this regard, we believe that gross margin would be an appropriate
measure of economic similarity if it were a primary performance measure
used by management in the evaluation of your business. However, based
upon your segment disclosures provided in Note 2 to your Form 10-K,
it appears that “operating income” or “business income” is
the measure used by management to evaluate the performance of your
segments. Furthermore, we note that gross margin does not appear to
be a key performance measure of your consolidated company, as the measure
does not appear in your statement of operations, MD&A, or elsewhere
in your Form 10-K. Based upon the aforementioned facts, we do not believe
that gross margin is the appropriate measure to be compared for purposes
of determining whether your reporting units are economically similar.
Furthermore, it appears that “operating income” or “business
income” may be the most appropriate measure for your assessment.
In addition, to the extent that
you continue to believe that gross margin is an appropriate measure
of performance to assess economic similarity, we are not convinced
that the long term gross margin percentages of DTH versus all other
components of the “Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution” segment
are similar. First, you have responded that the company has experienced
declining profit margins in the DTH business and that these margins
may no longer be comparable to the long term average gross margins
of the other components within the segment. Second, from the information
provided supplementally in Exhibit B, it appears to us that the gross
margin percentage materially differs between the DTH business and the
other components. The gross margin percentage for DTH has a regular
pattern of decrease over the period presented ranging from 74.9% to
58.9%, whereas the gross margin percentage of the other components
are relatively consistent over the same period, ranging between 55.9%
and 50.0%. We note that the weighted average gross margin percentage
over this period is 67.4% for DTH compared to 53.6% for the other components.
Furthermore, as you have pointed
out, EITF D-101 specifies that the assessment of whether two components
have similar economic characteristics is one that is more qualitative
than quantitative, and that the FASB Board did not intend that the
determination of whether two components are economically similar be
limited to the consideration of the factors described in paragraph
17 of FAS 131. You have pointed out other factors that you believe
are determinative in your circumstances. However, we noted additional
characteristics of the DTH business that you have previously identified
or disclosed that may be unique to it or sufficiently different from
those associated with other components. We believe that such characteristics
should also be considered in your analysis. For example, these characteristics
include (i) the “bill me later” basis of billing for DTH,
(ii) the DTH business requires significantly higher provisions for
returns and bad debts, (iii) the nature of marketing for the DTH business,
(iv) the higher SG&A as a % of revenue associated with the DTH
business, (v) the continuity program structure of the DTH business,
and (vi) the substantial amount of promotional costs associated with
the DTH business that are accounted for on a deferred basis. We believe
that a high degree of similarity of economic characteristics is needed
to justify aggregation of reporting units, and it is not clear to us
that your circumstances warrant aggregation.
In view of the preceding and
absent any other compelling evidence to the contrary, we believe that
your periodic testing of impairment of goodwill attributable to the
DTH business should be evaluated on a DTH reporting unit basis and
not on an aggregated basis with other components.
Scholastic Corporation
July 23, 2008
Page 3 of 9
Accordingly, the carrying
amount of the DTH business should include the carrying amount of goodwill
attributable to it for purposes of the first step in testing impairment
of goodwill pursuant to paragraph 19 of FAS 142. In this regard, please
provide us with impairment analyses of the DTH business on this basis,
in compliance with the requirements of FAS 142, as of May 31, 2007 and
2006, as well as your conclusions based upon these analyses. This analysis
should be performed on the basis determined after consideration of comment
numbers 3 and 6 below.
Comment 1 Response:
We have performed
impairment tests for prior years, assuming the DTH business was a reporting
unit/segment as requested by the Staff. On this basis, the goodwill associated
with the DTH business would have been impaired
$92.4 million ($59.3 million after tax) in 2005. As indicated in discussions
with the Staff on July 14, 2008, we will amend our financial results for these
periods to reflect these impairments commencing in our annual report on Form
10-K for the year ended May 31, 2008. Please see the goodwill impairment analysis
for the period ended May 31, 2005 provided under separate cover as Exhibit 1.
Included as Exhibit 2, provided under separate cover, are the additional disclosures
we propose to make regarding this adjustment.
2.
You attributed only $4.3 million
of goodwill to the DTH business upon your intention to sell this business,
as disclosed in the February 29, 2008 Form 10-Q. In the 2007 Form 10-K,
you attributed $92.4 million to this business at May 31, 2007 and
2006. Please explain to us the reason for this inconsistency. In this
regard, we note from your prior disclosures that you obtained the DTH
business when you acquired Grolier in 2000, and that $168.1 million
of the purchase price was allocated to goodwill. Since it appears that
the principal operations of Grolier was the DTH business, and it appears
that you intend to dispose of all of the DTH business, it reasons and
we would expect that the amount of goodwill attributed to the DTH business
would be the $92.4 million disclosed in your Form 10-K. As such,
please provide us with a roll-forward of the goodwill attributed to the
acquisition of Grolier from the consummation of the acquisition through
the period ended February 29, 2008. Your roll-forward should show the
original allocation of goodwill to each reporting unit, including DTH,
upon adoption of FAS 142. In this regard, refer to paragraph 54 of FAS
142. In addition, please tell us the basis/methodology used in your initial
assignment of goodwill to reporting units. Unless otherwise determined,
please note that it is expected that the impairment testing referred
to in comment number 1 would include a carrying amount for goodwill of $92.4
million.
Comment 2 Response:
In order to perform
the impairment test requested in Comment 1, we applied the guidance in
SFAS 142 assuming the DTH business is a reporting unit/segment. We have
determined that the value of the DTH business did not deteriorate significantly
during the period from the Grolier acquisition on June 22, 2000 until
the implementation of SFAS 142 on June 1, 2001. Based upon this determination,
the lack of anticipated synergies with existing CBPD businesses, and
the guidance in SFAS 142 paragraph 54 directing us to consider the original
source of the goodwill, we reassessed that all of the $87.3 million
of unamortized goodwill originally attributed to the DTH business at
the time of the Grolier acquisition and the $5.1 million from the
2002 acquisition of another business to the DTH business assuming the
DTH business is a reporting unit. These amounts were used in the impairment
analysis discussed in our response to Comment 1. Please see the
roll-forward of
Scholastic Corporation
July 23, 2008
Page 4 of 9
the goodwill attributed
to the Grolier acquisition as requested, and provided under separate
cover, in Exhibit 3, assuming the DTH business is a reporting unit.
3.
Additionally,
it appears to us that the DTH reporting unit is an asset group that
also represents the lowest level of independent identifiable cash flows,
pursuant to paragraph 4 of FAS 144. Paragraph
12 of FAS 144 specifies that “Goodwill shall be included in an
asset group to be tested for impairment under this Statement only if
the asset group is or includes a reporting unit.” Accordingly,
the carrying amount of the DTH business should include the carrying
amount of goodwill attributable to it for purposes of testing impairment
of long lived assets pursuant to FAS 144.
Furthermore, the testing of
recoverability presented in Exhibit A, which you supplementally provided
to us, appears to be performed on an individual asset basis. However,
paragraph 4 of FAS 144 specifies that “If long-lived asset (or
assets) is part of a group that includes other assets and liabilities
not covered by this Statement, this Statement applies to the group.
In those situations, the unit of accounting for the long-lived asset
is its group. For a long-lived asset or assets to be held and used,
that group (hereinafter referred to as an asset group) represents the
lowest level for which identifiable cash flows are largely independent
of the cash flows of other groups of assets and liabilities.” Additionally,
paragraph 7 of 144 specifies that “An impairment loss shall be
measured as the amount by which the carrying amount of a long-lived
asset (asset group) exceeds its fair value.” Further, paragraph
10 of FAS 144 specifies that “For purposes of recognition and
measurement of an impairment loss, a long-lived asset or assets shall
be grouped with other assets and liabilities at the lowest level for
which identifiable cash flows are largely independent of the cash flows
of other assets and liabilities.”
In view of the preceding, we
believe that the carrying amount of the DTH business should have included
the carrying amounts of both goodwill and long-lived assets associated
with the business, when performing your periodic evaluation of the
recoverability and impairment of long-lived assets of the DTH business.
In this regard, please provide us with impairment analyses of the DTH
business on this basis at May 31, 2007 and 2006 in compliance with
the requirements of FAS 144, along with your conclusions represented
by these analyses. This analysis should be performed on the basis determined
after consideration of comment number 6 below.
Comment 3 response:
The staff notes that
paragraph 4 of SFAS 144 defines unit of accounting as the asset group.
Pursuant to paragraph 4 of SFAS 144, prior to the discontinuance of the
DTH business, the assets of the DTH group were defined as held and used.
We identified cash flows associated with certain of these long-lived
assets, primarily intangible assets associated with specific publishing
properties (i.e.; Disney and random House licenses and certain titles),
to be held and used and, accordingly, defined the asset groups to be
tested for impairment for these certain assets at that lower level. Other
long-lived assets, primarily real property, furniture and fixtures and
deferred prepublication costs, did not have identifiable cash flows below
the DTH asset group level and were included in the asset group at the
DTH level. We have performed SFAS 144 impairment analyses as requested
by the Staff, for the periods ended May 31, 2006 and 2007. The long-lived
assets were not impaired in these periods prior to the discontinuance
of the DTH reporting unit based upon these analyses, which show future
cash flows in excess of the carrying value. Please see the SFAS
144 impairment analyses as requested, and provided under separate cover,
in Exhibit 1.
Scholasti