PC Shipments Decline 11%

As expected, worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 11.5% to 60.6 million units in the first quarter, according to International Data Corp.’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.The Framingham, Mass.-based firm anticipates lower shipments for the first half of the year, as Windows 10 enterpris...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 12, 2016

The Global Risk Agility Imperative

Technology continues to develop and change at a lightning pace. Socioeconomic forces are shifting. Collective revulsion at income inequality is growing. Concern about human rights, climate change, and the environment are prominent issues in global forums and legislative bodies. Natural resources ...

By Dante Disparte and Daniel Wagner • April 12, 2016

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Top 5 stories from CFO.com

From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

Alcoa’s Q1 Profit Falls 92% on Weak Aluminum Prices

As Alcoa moves to spin off its more profitable aerospace and automotive-focused business, the metals-maker’s topline figures for the first quarter were dragged down by weak aluminum prices and negative foreign exchange impacts.As a result, the New York-based company on Monday said it might have t...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 12, 2016

Venture Capital Has Best Quarter in 10 Years

 Due to an error by Thomson Reuters, some of the figures originally reported in this story on Monday were incorrect.Venture capitalists posted their strongest quarter in 10 years to start 2016, suggesting investors are betting that the downturn in initial public offerings is coming to an end.U.S....

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 11, 2016

Mobile Services: Bots, the Next Frontier

“You are a developer and you’ve just spent two weeks writing this amazing app. What is your dream? Your dream is to get it in front of every iPhone user.” That was how Steve Jobs, then Apple’s boss, introduced an online shop for smartphone apps eight years ago. At first few paid it much heed, but...

By Economist Staff • April 11, 2016

U.S. Wholesale Stocks Fall 0.5% in February

U.S. wholesale inventories continued in February to put a brake on short-term economic growth but analysts expect a pickup in the second quarter as companies restock their shelves.The Commerce Department said wholesale stocks fell 0.5% in February, marking the fifth-straight monthly decline and t...

By Matthew Heller • April 11, 2016

JPMorgan Chase Urges ‘No’ Vote On Breakup Proposal

JPMorgan Chase’s board of directors is recommending that shareholders vote against a proposal to break up the bank at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting to be held May 17 in New Orleans.The New York City-based financial services firm on Thursday outlined the proposal by shareholder Bartlett ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 7, 2016

Las Vegas Sands Fined $9M Over China Dealings

Las Vegas Sands has agreed to pay $9 million to settle an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into its relationship with a consultant in China who allegedly acted as a “beard” to obscure the casino operator’s role in business deals.The SEC on Thursday said Las Vegas Sands...

By Matthew Heller • April 7, 2016

Initial Claims For Jobless Benefits Fall

The labor market continues to show signs of health according to the latest report on initial claims for jobless benefits.The number of U.S. workers who applied for new unemployment benefits decreased by 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 in the week ended April 2, the Labor Department said Th...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 7, 2016

ConAgra Swings to a Profit, Beats Expectations

The turnaround of ConAgra Foods is taking root, as the Omaha food maker swung to a profit in its fiscal 2016 third quarter and beat analysts’ expectations.ConAgra on Thursday posted a profit of $204.6 million, or 46 cents a share for the quarter that ended Feb. 28. That was an improvement from a ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 7, 2016

Finance Innovation for the Future

Tomorrow’s business world will look different from today’s. And it logically follows that tomorrow’s finance teams will look different as well. Professionals joining the world of finance can look forward to a career that is more deeply engaged with, and contributes more value to, the businesses t...

By David W. Owens • April 7, 2016

Red Skies And Blue Oceans

The results of the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey for the first quarter of 2016 bring to mind the cautionary saying, “Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” Finance and corporate executives in the survey are anxiously scanning the horizon for any signs of the red ...

By David W. Owens • April 7, 2016

PayPal Withdraws Plan for Facility in North Carolina

PayPal is pulling the plug on the planned opening of a new global operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina, which would have employed more than 400 people. It is doing so because of the North Carolina General Assembly’s recent passage of a controversial “bathroom bill” that some say is targ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 5, 2016

Exchange Operator Testing IPO Waters Again

Electronic exchange operator BATS Global Markets has launched its second attempt at an initial public offering, setting the stage for a possible $212 million windfall for its investors.BATS tried to sell shares to the public in March 2012 but abruptly canceled the offering because of a technical ...

By Matthew Heller • April 5, 2016

U.S. Trade Deficit Widens 2.6% to $47B

The U.S. trade deficit rose in February to its highest level in six months, indicating foreign trade will continue to be a drag on broader economic growth in the first quarter.The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the trade gap widened last month to a seasonally adjusted $47.06 billion, a...

By Matthew Heller • April 5, 2016

Walgreens Boots Alliance Narrows 2016 Forecast

Double-digit growth in sales helped Walgreens Boots Alliance post better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal second quarter.Net sales for the quarter that ended Feb. 29 rose 13.6% to $30.2 billion, compared with the same quarter a year ago. The increase was largely due to the Deerfield, Ill.-ba...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 5, 2016

My Car, My Data?

Averages are a convenient way to characterize a lot of numbers, but are just as often misleading. The “average” U.S. driver reportedly spends around 275 hours a year driving a car, (according to the 2015 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety Survey) and spends (on average) 38 additional hours station...

By John Parkinson • April 5, 2016

Flex and Flexibility

Ask a business prognosticator what’s in store for 2016, and likely you’ll hear how gloomy the outlook is — particularly overseas. But ask a finance chief, and you may get a response along the lines of that provided by Vsevolod Rozanov, CFO of Sistema, a diversified collection of large Russian bus...

By David W. Owens • April 4, 2016

LISTEN: Climate Change and Insurance

Although climate scientists are now able to identify climate change as a contributing factor in extreme weather events, and predict that hurricanes will continue to get more intense, property insurance underwriters don’t take climate change into account when setting catastrophe insurance premiums...

By CFO Editorial Staff • April 4, 2016

IT Should Drive Decision Making, Not Just Participate

Outdated perceptions by business leaders in and outside of IT are constraining the critical contribution IT can be making to your value chain. Most likely, your IT department fails to drive revenue or leverage its technology leadership to identify new markets, products, and services.Tracy Currie ...

By Tracy Currie • April 1, 2016

U.S. Layoffs Fall for Second Straight Month

Layoffs across the United States slowed for a second straight month in March but the pace of job cuts so far this year is still well ahead of 2015, according to a new report.The global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas said U.S.-based employers announced plans in March to ...

By Matthew Heller • April 1, 2016

GE Capital Says It’s Not ‘Too Big To Fail’

A day after a federal judge struck down the designation of MetLife as a “systemically important financial institution” or “SIFI,” GE Capital on Thursday also called upon the government to stop considering it “too big to fail.”The Fairfield, Conn. firm said that its parent GE had filed a request t...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 31, 2016

Biotech Investor Accused of Stealing $18M

A biotech venture capitalist has agreed to pay more than $5.7 million to settle charges that he stole $18 million in investor funds to prop up ailing businesses he owned and finance his lavish lifestyle.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Steven Burrill took the money from Burrill Li...

By Matthew Heller • March 31, 2016

Employees Playing Fast and Loose with Passwords

More than a quarter (26%) of employees admitted to uploading sensitive information to cloud apps with the specific intent to share that data outside the company, according to a survey of 1,000 office workers at large organizations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Net...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 31, 2016

How to Boost Sales Forecast Accuracy

Companies miss quarterly numbers. Deals slipped, conversion rates sank, or there just wasn’t enough volume.Dale Chang This happens despite sales teams spending lots of time on the forecasting process. According to SiriusDecisions, reps spend on average 2.5 hours per week and managers 1.5 hours on...

By Dale Chang • March 31, 2016