Basis of Presentation and Recently Issued Accounting Standards | Note 1. Basis of Presentation and Recently Issued Accounting Standards Background IMS Health Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) is a leading global information and technology services company providing clients in the healthcare industry with comprehensive solutions to measure and improve their performance. The Company has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of healthcare information in the world, spanning sales, prescription and promotional data, medical claims, electronic medical records and social media. For information offerings, the Company receives data without patient identifiers and standardizes, organizes, structures and integrates this data by applying its sophisticated analytics and leveraging its global technology infrastructure to help its clients run their organizations more efficiently and make better decisions to improve their operational and financial performance. The Company has a presence in over 100 countries and generated 61% of its 2015 revenue from outside the United States. The Company serves key healthcare organizations and decision makers around the world, spanning the breadth of life science companies, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer health and medical device manufacturers, as well as distributors, providers, payers, government agencies, policymakers, researchers and the financial community. The Company’s information and technology services offerings, which it has developed with significant investment over its 60+ year history, are deeply integrated into its clients’ workflow. Basis of Presentation The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information. The Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements do not include all the information and notes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments, all of which are of a normal recurring nature, considered necessary for a fair statement of financial position, results of operations and comprehensive income, cash flows and stockholders’ equity for the periods presented have been included. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results expected for the full year. The December 31, 2015 Condensed Consolidated Statement of Financial Position was derived from audited financial statements, but does not include all disclosures required by U.S. GAAP. The Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes should be read in conjunction with the audited Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes of IMS Health Holdings, Inc. included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to conform to the 2016 presentation. Amounts presented in the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements may not add due to rounding. Merger with Quintiles Transnational Holdings, Inc. On May 3, 2016, the Company and Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc. (“Quintiles”) entered into a definitive merger agreement, pursuant to which the companies will be combined. The merged company will be renamed Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. Under the terms of the merger agreement, the Company’s shareholders will receive 0.3840 shares of Quintiles common stock for each share of IMS common stock. Upon completion of the merger, the Company’s shareholders will own approximately 51.4 percent of the shares of the combined company on a fully diluted basis and Quintiles shareholders will own approximately 48.6 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and approval by both IMS and Quintiles shareholders, and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter of 2016. Recently Issued Accounting Standards In March 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued guidance which simplifies certain aspects of accounting for share-based payments to employees, including the requirement for companies to recognize the income tax effects of awards in the income statement when the awards vest or are settled. Additionally, companies can elect to estimate forfeitures or recognize when they occur. The guidance is effective for the Company’s interim and annual periods beginning January 1, 2017. Earlier adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this standard on its consolidated financial statements. In May 2014, the FASB issued revised guidance on the recognition of revenue from contracts with customers. The guidance provides that revenue should be recognized for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods and services. The guidance also requires enhanced disclosures. In August 2015, the FASB delayed the effective date of the guidance. In March 2016, the FASB issued further guidance on assessing whether an entity is a principal or an agent in a revenue transaction, which impacts whether an entity reports revenue on a gross or net basis. Additionally, in 2016, the FASB issued implementation guidance for the revenue standard, including guidance on identifying performance obligations. These revenue standards are effective for the Company’s interim and annual periods beginning January 1, 2018. Earlier adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of these standards on its consolidated financial statements, as well as the method of transition it will use in adopting the new standards. In February 2016, the FASB issued updated guidance on leases. The guidance requires a lessee to recognize a right-of-use asset and a lease liability on the statement of financial position for all leases with terms more than 12 months. The new standard must be adopted using a modified retrospective transition approach, which requires application of the new guidance at the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented In May 2015, the FASB updated the accounting standards related to fair value measurement for investments that are measured at net asset value. The update eliminates the requirement to categorize within the fair value hierarchy all investments for which fair value is measured using the net asset value per share as a practical expedient. Adoption of this guidance on January 1, 2016 only impacts disclosures related to certain assets held by its pension plans and did not impact the Company’s consolidated financial results. In April 2015, the FASB issued guidance to help entities evaluate the accounting for fees paid by a customer in a cloud computing arrangement. Under the new guidance, if a cloud computing arrangement includes a software license, then the customer should account for the software license element of the arrangement consistent with the acquisition of other software licenses. If a cloud computing arrangement does not include a software license, the customer should account for the arrangement as a service contract. Adoption of this guidance on January 1, 2016, which is applied prospectively, did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. |