Valeant Pharmaceuticals: Aggressive Accounting Games

In February 2008, as world markets slid deeper into economic decline, J. Michael Pearson joined Valeant Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceuticals company, then based in a quiet suburb of southern California. By August 2015, the stock price peaked, valuing the company at nearly $90 billion, up from $2 billion in 2008. In that time, Valeant had made over 100 acquisitions with total revenues growing from roughly $750 million in 2008 to over $10 billion in 2015. The explosive growth of Valeant in just seven-and-a-half years was not without purpose.