The apparent dust-up highlights a key issue facing a trucking market where mergers and acquisitions are heating up: the value truckers place on the equipment and the business they’re acquiring. In the $113 million deal last July, Heartland acquired IDC’s fleet of 1,350 trucks. As M&A heats up and far-flung truck fleets attempt to integrate their operations, auditors will be paying close attention to details like the valuation of equipment assets, analysts said. A series of recent acquisitions by Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. led to wide-ranging accounting problems. “There’s heightened sensitivity among analysts because the Roadrunner fiasco kind of opened some eyes,” Mr. Regan said.

Source: Wall Street Journal March 20, 2018 20:15 UTC