The Company has not provided a GAAP reconciliation for forward-looking pro forma earnings per share because such measure cannot be provided without unreasonable efforts on a forward-looking basis due to the high variability and low visibility with respect to non-operating foreign currency exchange gains and losses and the related tax effects of such gains and losses. The impact of such foreign currency gains and losses, net of tax effects, was $0.12 per share for the 39-weeks ended September 24, 2016, as indicated above. No other pro forma income tax adjustments have been included in forward-looking pro forma earnings per share.
Free cash flow
Management believes that free cash flow is an important financial measure because it represents the amount of cash provided by operations that is available for investing and defines it as operating cash flow plus one-time cash payments associated with our inter-company restructuring less capital expenditures for property and equipment.
| Garmin Ltd. And Subsidiaries | |||||||||||||||||||
| Free Cash Flow | |||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||
| 13-Weeks Ended | 39-Weeks Ended | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sept 24, | Sept 26, | Sept 24, | Sept 26, | ||||||||||||||||
| 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 212,994 | $ | 137,834 | $ | 492,366 | $ | 122,131 | |||||||||||
| Less: purchases of property and equipment | (13,543 | ) | (13,565 | ) | (42,157 | ) | (53,297 | ) | |||||||||||
| Plus: taxes paid related to inter-company restructuring | - | - | - | 182,800 | |||||||||||||||
| Free Cash Flow | $ | 199,451 | $ | 124,269 | $ | 450,209 | $ | 251,634 | |||||||||||
