Adjusted net earnings and earnings per share are used by our management to help enhance an understanding of ongoing operations and to communicate the impact of the excluded items. Adjusted earnings exclude impairment, restructuring charges and other related closure costs attributable to parent Company's shareholders, the impact of purchase accounting (such as in-process R&D costs and inventory step-up charges), other-than-temporary impairment (OTTI) charges on financial assets, and impairment related to equity investments, net of the relevant tax impact.  

The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors and management because they measure the Company's capacity to generate profitability from its business operations, excluding the effect of acquisitions and expenses related to the rationalizing of its activities and sites that it does not consider to be part of its on-going operating results, thereby offering, when read in conjunction with the Company's GAAP financials, (i) the ability to make more meaningful period-to-period comparisons of the Company's on-going operating results, (ii) the ability to better identify trends in the Company's business and perform related trend analysis, and (iii) an easier way to compare the Company's results of operations against investor and analyst financial models and valuations, which usually exclude these items.