When Google purchased Israel-based Waze on June 11, 2013, many wondered how the quirky start-up had even gotten noticed. The answer was its product, an app launched from Ra'anana, Israel, that connected users with information about traffic--jams, accidents, shortcuts, cheap gas--and all sorts of driver-friendly data that was crowdsourced from drivers themselves. This acquisition provides an interesting international context for students to understand and apply consolidation accounting. As a single-class introductory-level treatment of consolidations using U.S. GAAP and an Israeli company, the case offers some side insights and perspective on the Israeli economy.

Although intended for exploring the mechanics and goals of consolidated accounting methods, the case can be used to explore a few related topics. In addition to understanding this type of accounting, the issue of purchase price allocations is raised, allowing room for discussions related to the potential softness of these numbers at the time of consolidation, as well as multi-period issues and the possible economic consequences that could ensue from alternative allocations.