THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC

In addition to the financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we use certain non-GAAP financial measures such as organic revenue growth, which is reported revenue growth, excluding the impacts of revenues from acquired/divested businesses and the effects of currency translation. We report organic revenue growth because Thermo Fisher management believes that in order to understand the company’s short-term and long-term financial trends, investors may wish to consider the impact of acquisitions/divestitures and foreign currency translation on revenues. Thermo Fisher management uses organic revenue growth to forecast and evaluate the operational performance of the company as well as to compare revenues of current periods to prior periods.

We report adjusted operating income, adjusted operating income margin, adjusted other income/(expense), adjusted tax rate, and adjusted EPS. We believe that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures, in addition to GAAP financial measures, helps investors to gain a better understanding of our core operating results and future prospects, consistent with how management measures and forecasts the company’s core operating performance, especially when comparing such results to previous periods, forecasts, and to the performance of our competitors. Such measures are also used by management in their financial and operating decision-making and for compensation purposes. To calculate these measures we exclude, as applicable:

•Certain acquisition-related costs, including charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition, significant transaction/acquisition-related costs, including changes in estimates of contingent acquisition-related consideration, and other costs associated with obtaining short-term financing commitments for pending/recent acquisitions. We exclude these costs because we do not believe they are indicative of our normal operating costs.

•Costs/income associated with restructuring activities and large-scale abandonments of product lines, such as reducing overhead and consolidating facilities. We exclude these costs because we believe that the costs related to restructuring activities and large-scale abandonment of product lines are not indicative of our normal operating costs.

•Equity in earnings/losses of unconsolidated entities; impairments of long-lived assets; and certain other gains and losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability, including gains/losses on investments, the sale of businesses, product lines, and real estate, significant litigation-related matters, curtailments/settlements of pension plans, and the early retirement of debt. We exclude these items because they are outside of our normal operations and/or, in certain cases, are difficult to forecast accurately for future periods.

•The expense associated with the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets because a significant portion of the purchase price for acquisitions may be allocated to intangible assets that have lives of up to 20 years. Exclusion of the amortization expense allows comparisons of operating results that are consistent over time for both our newly acquired and long-held businesses and with both acquisitive and non-acquisitive peer companies.

•The noncontrolling interest and tax impacts of the above items and the impact of significant tax audits or events (such as changes in deferred taxes from enacted tax rate/law changes), the latter of which we exclude because they are outside of our normal operations and difficult to forecast accurately for future periods.

We report free cash flow, which is operating cash flow excluding net capital expenditures, to provide a view of the continuing operations’ ability to generate cash for use in acquisitions and other investing and financing activities. The company also uses this measure as an indication of the strength of the company. Free cash flow is not a measure of cash available for discretionary expenditures since we have certain non-discretionary obligations such as debt service that are not deducted from the measure.

The non-GAAP financial measures of the company’s results of operations and cash flows included in this Form 10-K are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for the company’s results of operations prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are set forth within the “Consolidated Results” and “Segment Results” sections and below.

(a) Adjusted results in 2023 and in 2022 exclude charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and charges for inventory write-downs associated with large-scale abandonment of product lines. Adjusted results in 2023 also exclude $13 million of accelerated depreciation on manufacturing assets to be abandoned due to facility consolidations.

(b) Adjusted results in 2023 and 2022 exclude certain third-party expenses, principally transaction/integration costs related to recent acquisitions, charges/credits for changes in estimates of contingent acquisition consideration, and charges associated with product liability litigation.

(c) Adjusted results in 2023 and 2022 exclude restructuring and other costs consisting principally of severance, impairments of long-lived assets, charges for environmental-related matters, abandoned facility and other expenses of headcount reductions and real estate consolidations. Adjusted results in 2023 also exclude $26 million of contract termination costs associated with facility closures, $19 million of net charges for pre-acquisition litigation and other matters, and $11 million of gains on the sale of real estate. Adjusted results in 2022 also exclude $14 million of gain on the sale of intellectual property.

(d) Adjusted results exclude net gains/losses on investments. Adjusted results in 2022 also exclude $67 million of net gains on derivative instruments to address certain foreign currency risks and $26 million of losses on the early extinguishment of debt.

(e) Adjusted results in 2023 and 2022 exclude incremental tax impacts for the reconciling items between GAAP and adjusted net income, incremental tax impacts as a result of tax rate/law changes and the tax impacts from audit settlements (including a $658 million benefit from an audit settlement in 2022). Adjusted results in 2023 also exclude $14 million of charges for pre-acquisition matters. Adjusted results in 2022 also exclude a $423 million charge for the impact of deferred tax realizability assessments as a result of audit settlements.

(f) Adjusted results exclude the incremental impacts for the reconciling items between GAAP and adjusted net income attributable to noncontrolling interests.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The company’s discussion and analysis of its financial condition and results of operations is based upon its financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and related disclosure of contingent liabilities. On an on-going basis, management evaluates its estimates, including those related to acquisition-related measurements and income taxes. Management believes the most complex and sensitive judgments, because of their significance to the consolidated financial statements, result primarily from the need to make estimates about the effects of matters that are inherently uncertain. Management bases its estimates on historical experience, current market and economic conditions and other assumptions that management believes are reasonable. The results of these estimates form the basis for judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities where the values are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

The company believes the following represent its critical accounting policies and estimates used in the preparation of its financial statements:

Acquisition-related Measurements

Business Combinations

The company uses assumptions and estimates in determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination. The determination of the fair value of intangible assets, which represent a significant portion of the purchase price in many of the company’s acquisitions, requires the use of significant judgment with regard to (i) the fair value and (ii) whether such intangibles are amortizable or non-amortizable and, if the former, the period and the method by which the intangible asset will be amortized. The company estimates the fair value of acquisition-related intangible assets principally based on projections of cash flows that will arise from identifiable intangible assets of acquired businesses, which include estimates of customer attrition and technology obsolescence rates. The projected cash flows are discounted to determine the present value of the assets at the dates of acquisition. See Note 2 for additional information about our recent business combinations.

Goodwill and Indefinite-lived Intangible Assets

The company evaluates goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment annually and when events occur or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of an asset below its carrying amount. Events or circumstances that might require an interim evaluation include unexpected adverse business conditions, economic factors, unanticipated technological changes or competitive activities, loss of key personnel and acts by governments and courts, among others. Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets totaled $44.02 billion and $1.24 billion, respectively, at December 31, 2023 (see Note 1 for additional information). Estimates of discounted future cash flows require assumptions related to revenue and operating income growth rates, discount rates and other factors. For the goodwill impairment tests, the company also considers (i) peer revenues and earnings trading multiples from companies that have operational and financial characteristics that are similar to the respective reporting units and (ii) estimated weighted average costs of capital. Different assumptions from those made in the company’s analysis could materially affect projected cash flows and the company’s evaluation of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment.

The company performed the quantitative goodwill impairment test for all of its reporting units and indefinite-lived intangible assets. Determinations of fair value based on projections of discounted cash flows, which decreased from the prior year projections primarily due to higher discount rates, and based on peer revenues and earnings trading multiples, which also decreased from the prior year, were sufficient to conclude that no impairments of goodwill or indefinite-lived intangible assets existed at the end of the tenth fiscal month of 2023, the date of the company’s annual impairment testing. There were no interim impairments of goodwill or indefinite-lived intangible assets in 2023. There can be no assurance, however, that adverse events or conditions will not cause the fair values of these assets to decline. Should the fair values of the company’s reporting units or indefinite-lived intangible assets decline because of reduced operating performance, market declines, or other indicators of impairment, or as a result of changes in the discount rates, charges for impairment may be necessary.

During its annual 2023 goodwill impairment assessments, the company determined that the excess of fair value over carrying value for one of the clinical research business’s reporting units had increased to 4%. Despite this favorable increase, given that the fair value of the reporting unit was not substantially in excess of its carrying value as of the annual 2023 assessment date, relatively small decreases in future cash flows versus anticipated results, decreases in peer trading multiples and/or increases in weighted average costs of capital could result in impairment of goodwill. The reporting unit had $3.95 billion of goodwill, and an overall carrying value of $5.54 billion as of December 31, 2023.

Definite-lived Intangible Assets

Definite-lived intangible assets totaled $15.44 billion at December 31, 2023 (see Note 1 for additional information). Certain definite-lived intangible assets have largely independent cash flows. The company reviews these definite-lived intangible assets for impairment individually when indication of potential impairment exists, such as a significant reduction in cash flows associated with the assets. Actual cash flows arising from a particular intangible asset could vary from projected cash flows, which could imply different carrying values from those established at the dates of acquisition and which could result in impairment of such asset. Most of the company’s definite-lived intangible assets are used in conjunction with other assets, such as property, plant and equipment and operating lease right-of-use assets. In these situations, the company considers the asset groups to be the units of account for impairment testing. The company recorded definite-lived intangible asset impairments of $0.01 billion and $0.12 billion in 2023 and 2021, respectively (Note 16).

Income Taxes

Unrecognized Tax Benefits

In the ordinary course of business there is inherent uncertainty in quantifying the company’s income tax positions. The company assesses income tax positions and records tax benefits for all years subject to examination based upon management’s evaluation of the facts, circumstances and information available at the reporting date. For those tax positions where it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will be sustained, the company has recorded the largest amount of tax benefit with a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement with a taxing authority that has full knowledge of all relevant information. For those income tax positions where it is not more likely than not that a tax benefit will be sustained, no tax benefit has been recognized in the financial statements. Should tax return positions that the company expects are sustainable not be sustained upon audit, the company could be required to record an incremental tax provision for such taxes. The company’s liability for these unrecognized tax benefits totaled $0.54 billion at December 31, 2023, compared to $0.57 billion at December 31, 2022, primarily as a result of an audit settlement (Note 8).

The company operates in numerous countries under many legal forms and, as a result, is subject to the jurisdiction of numerous domestic and non-U.S. tax authorities, as well as to tax agreements and treaties among these governments. Determination of taxable income in any jurisdiction requires the company to interpret the related tax laws and regulations and the use of estimates and assumptions regarding significant future events, such as the amount, timing and character of deductions, permissible revenue recognition methods under the tax law and the sources and character of income and tax credits. Changes in tax laws, regulations, agreements and treaties, currency exchange restrictions or the company’s level of operations or profitability in each taxing jurisdiction could have an impact upon the amount of current and deferred tax balances and hence the company’s net income.

Valuation Allowances

The company estimates the degree to which tax assets will result in a benefit, after consideration of all positive and negative evidence, and provides a valuation allowance for tax assets that it believes will more likely than not go unused. In situations in which the company has been able to determine that its deferred tax assets will be realized, that determination generally relies on future reversals of taxable temporary differences and expected future taxable income. If it becomes more likely than not that a tax asset will be used, the company reverses the related valuation allowance. Any such reversals are recorded as a reduction of the company’s tax provision. The company’s tax valuation allowance totaled $1.32 billion at both December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 (Note 8). Should the company’s actual future taxable income by tax jurisdiction vary from estimates, additional allowances or reversals thereof may be necessary.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

A description of recently issued accounting standards is included under the heading “Recent Accounting Pronouncements” in Note 1.