Should Internet operations be treated as a separate operating segment in accordance with SFAS 131?
The SEC did not assign a priority level to this issue but indicated that the staff would be monitoring it. The FASB staff believes that SFAS 131, Disclosures About Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information, and the related FASB staff Implementation Guide, Segment Information: Guidance on Applying Statement 131, provide sufficient guidance on this issue. Issue 19: Should there be more comparability between Internet companies in the classification of expenses by category? The SEC staff assigned this a priority level of 3 and the FASB staff summarized the SECs concerns as follows: The SEC staff noted that classification of expenses between various categories (for example, cost of sales, marketing, sales, and R&D) sometimes varies significantly among Internet companies for costs that appear similar. [I]t is difficult to identify common elements between the classification issues that have arisen, making the preparation of general guidance difficult. Furthermore, EITF consensuses nor
