One objective of financial accounting is to provide relevant information for decision-making, including investment decisions by shareholders and potential shareholders. In this case, the balance sheet of LinkedIn showed a shareholders equity at September 30, 2016 that was much smaller than what Microsoft, after a bidding process, paid for that equity.

Discuss whether you feel that the accounting process resulted in a misleading presentation of LinkedIns equity at September, 30, 2016.

If you feel the accounting process could be improved, suggest a way of improving it. If you feel not improvement is feasible or desirable, explain your opinion.