conditions, personnel reductions in our customers’ information technology departments, tighter controls over discretionary spending and greater use of outsourcing solutions.

Acquisitions

An active acquisition program is another important element of our corporate strategy. In recent years, we have invested billions of dollars to acquire a number of complementary companies, products, services and technologies including Art Technology Group, Inc. (ATG) and Phase Forward Incorporated (Phase Forward) in fiscal 2011 and Sun in fiscal 2010, among others. We believe our acquisition program strengthens our competitive position, enhances the products and services that we can offer to customers, expands our customer base, provides greater scale to accelerate innovation, grows our revenues and earnings, and increases stockholder value. We expect to continue to acquire companies, products, services and technologies in furtherance of our corporate strategy. See Note 2 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional information related to our recent acquisitions.

We believe we can fund our pending and future acquisitions with our internally available cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, cash generated from operations, additional borrowings or from the issuance of additional securities. We estimate the financial impact of any potential acquisition with regard to earnings, operating margin, cash flow and return on invested capital targets before deciding to move forward with an acquisition.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as set forth in the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (Codification) and consider the various staff accounting bulletins and other applicable guidance issued by the SEC. GAAP, as set forth within the Codification, requires us to make certain estimates, judgments and assumptions. We believe that the estimates, judgments and assumptions upon which we rely are reasonable based upon information available to us at the time that these estimates, judgments and assumptions are made. These estimates, judgments and assumptions can affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the periods presented. To the extent there are material differences between these estimates, judgments or assumptions and actual results, our financial statements will be affected. The accounting policies that reflect our more significant estimates, judgments and assumptions and which we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our reported financial results include the following:

	•	 	Revenue Recognition

	•	 	Business Combinations

	•	 	Goodwill and Intangible Assets—Impairment Assessments

	•	 	Accounting for Income Taxes

	•	 	Legal and Other Contingencies

	•	 	Stock-Based Compensation

	•	 	Allowances for Doubtful Accounts

In many cases, the accounting treatment of a particular