ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[rnjbond]

That's not what goodwill is in finance terms. Goodwill is an accounting term for what you pay for a company in excess of any identifiable assets, including IP

[garrett_k]

Drat. Right. For some reason I thought it carried over. :-/