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Basis of Presentation
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Basis of Presentation
Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited financial statements of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "McGraw-Hill," the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”) have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. Therefore, the financial statements included herein should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 (our “Annual Report”).

In the opinion of management all normal recurring adjustments considered necessary for a fair statement of the results of the interim periods have been included. The operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year, partially due to the seasonal nature of some of our businesses. As a result, we have included the consolidated balance sheet as of September 30, 2011 for comparative purposes. Certain prior-year amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current presentation.

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, we have reported our Broadcasting Group, previously included in our Commodities & Commercial (“C&C”) segment, as a discontinued operation. We completed the sale on December 30, 2011 and, accordingly, the results of operations of the Broadcasting Group have been reclassified to reflect the business as a discontinued operation and the assets and liabilities of the business have been removed from the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2011 and reclassified as held for sale as of September 30, 2011. See Note 3 Acquisitions and Divestitures for further discussion.

Our critical accounting estimates are disclosed in Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, in our Annual Report. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions, including those related to revenue recognition, allowance for doubtful accounts and sales returns, inventories, prepublication costs, accounting for the impairment of long-lived assets (including other intangible assets), goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets, retirement plans and post-retirement healthcare and other benefits, stock-based compensation, income taxes and contingencies. Since the date of our Annual Report, there have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies and estimates.