That said, the goodwill thing is clarified in the next sentence. Also, the text doesn't make the connection between goodwill and debt. In fact it is nice that you try to explain what 'most people' will think after reading this while in fact the only thing your post proofs is you poor understanding of intermediate level texts in english language.
I don't know why you try to discredit the text here.
I can assure you I'm able to grasp simple concepts of English grammar, but thanks for the feedback anyway!
The connection between goodwill and debt isn't clarified in the next sentence. I stand by my point that a reader unfamiliar with goodwill would, after reading the article, understand it to be the result of debt.
My comment about the article was motivated by the fact that I found it poorly written by the standards of newspaper journalism. No other reason.
For example, it says "In order to then balance the financial statement, there must be a debit of $20 million to equalize the new credit of $20 million ($30 million of loan less the $10 million of new worth that has been eliminated). To do this, a “plug” asset usually under the heading of goodwill (here for $20 million) is added to the asset side of the financial statement."
Most people reading this would conclude that 'goodwill' is some accounting thing that is required due to the use of debt, or because the company doesn't received the money from the lender.
But goodwill has nothing to do with debt. Whenever one company purchases another, paying more than the book value (accounting value) of the target (which is almost always the case), goodwill arises on the acquiring company's balance sheet.