A Scorecard for Technology Debt

CFOs in middle-market organizations are increasingly responsible for the IT function. In many companies, IT now reports directly to the CFO, while in others, the IT leader relies on the CFO to approve spending. However, as CFOs become more strategic, they must avoid getting into “technology debt,...

By Bill Kracunas • May 12, 2015

Toshiba Shares Tumble on Accounting Revelations

Toshiba lost close to $2.5 billion in market value on Monday after the Japanese industrial giant disclosed that irregularities in its accounting may be more extensive than originally thought.Toshiba withdrew its earnings forecast for the last fiscal year and canceled a year-end dividend pending a...

By Matthew Heller • May 11, 2015

Explore the Trendline➔

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

Activist Fund Forces Tempur Sealy CEO to Quit

In another coup for activist investors, mattress maker Tempur Sealy International announced Monday that CEO Mark Sarvary will step down as part of an overhaul of its management and board.Sarvary and other Tempur Sealy executives had been the target of activist hedge fund H Partners Management, wh...

By Matthew Heller • May 11, 2015

Former JPMorgan CFO Named Comcast Finance Chief

Comcast has named Michael J. Cavanagh its chief financial officer, to replace Michael J. Angelakis, who is leaving to head a previously announced joint investment company with Comcast “that will focus on investing in and operating growth-oriented companies,” the company said Monday.Cavanagh, 49, ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 11, 2015

The Anti-Bribery Business

Even for a company with Wal-mart’s heft, $800 million is a sizable sum. That is what the giant retailer will have spent by the end of this fiscal year on its internal probe into alleged bribing of Mexican officials, into whether subsidiaries elsewhere may have been greasing palms and on related c...

By Economist Staff • May 11, 2015

Investors Pressuring Energy Firms to Go Green

Shareholder activism is taking on an increasingly green tint, with at least 14 energy companies facing shareholder resolutions on environmental and social policies this year.Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total SA, Chevron and Eni SpA are among the major oil companies targeted by investors, acco...

By Matthew Heller • May 8, 2015

Jobs Report: Good, Not Great

After a dismal March jobs report that had economists worrying about a potential downturn, the U.S. Labor Department Friday said the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, a seven-year low.“This was a good and important number,” Janney Capital chief invest...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 8, 2015

China Says No QE Needed

China doesn’t need to use quantitative easing, despite short-term downward pressure on its economy, the People’s Bank of China said in its first-quarter monetary policy report.The central bank has been considering the use of “unconventional monetary measures,” similar to the European Central Bank...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 8, 2015

Will You Be Happy if Obamacare Goes Poof?

While CFOs haven’t generally felt all warm and fuzzy about the Affordable Care Act, the associated compliance demands and administrative costs that they dislike pale in comparison with the law’s impact on the individual insurance market.Indeed, the Supreme Court ruling expected in late June that ...

By David McCann • May 8, 2015

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending May 8

Sean Creamer has resigned from his post as finance chief of The Madison Square Garden Co. Donna Coleman, who recently retired as executive vice president of corporate financial planning and control at Cablevision, will become interim CFO.Peter Leemputte Keurig Green Mountain has announced that Pe...

By Joan Urdang • May 8, 2015

Contingency Plans in Focus After Baltimore Unrest

Retailers and other companies in urban areas across the United States are reassessing their contingency plans in the wake of riots that destroyed facilities in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, according to a Risk & Insurance story.“Organizations that have robust plans and contingencies may ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 7, 2015

Oil Firms Take an Ax to Their Headcounts

Job cuts surged in April due to falling crude oil prices, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ latest report on monthly layoffs released Thursday.U.S. employers cut 61,582 jobs last month, a 68% surge from March and a 53% rise from April 2014 — and the highest monthly total since May 20...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 7, 2015

6 Ways to Combat Internal Threats to Data Security

More than 9 out of 10 health-care data breaches affecting 500 or more individuals published on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website were caused by organizations’ own employees, not hackers. Virtually every complaint of privacy violations investigated by the Office for Civil ...

By Mary A. Chaput • May 7, 2015

Regulators Fine Virtual Currency Firm $700,000

In the first enforcement action against a virtual currency exchange, U.S. regulators have fined Ripple Labs and a subsidiary $700,000 for failing to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act.Ripple Labs, which is bitcoin’s main competition in the cryptocurrency market, agreed to the fine as part of a sett...

By Matthew Heller • May 6, 2015

Jobs and Productivity Numbers Disappoint

The private sector added a lower-than-expected 169,000 jobs from March to April, according to the April ADP National Employment Report released on Wednesday.“Fallout from the collapse of oil prices and the surging value of the dollar are weighing on job creation,” Moody’s chief economist Mark Zan...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 6, 2015

Millennials Cite Stagnant Pay as Top Reason for Quitting

Minimal wage growth is the top reason why U.S. millennials quit their jobs, according to an Ernst & Young survey.Seventy-eight percent of millennials questioned as part of E&Y’s Global Generations survey cited stagnant wages as a reason for quitting, just ahead of lack of advancement oppo...

By Matthew Heller • May 5, 2015

Apple Exec Is Top-Paid Woman

Technology leaders were among the highest-paid U.S. female executives last year, according to a list compiled by Bloomberg.Topping the list was Angela Ahrendts, 54, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores, who was awarded $82.6 million in 2014.Angela Ahrendts Ahrendts, formerly ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 5, 2015

Trade Deficit Largest Since 2008

Imports surged in March after the settlement of a West Coast port labor dispute, while exports lagged in the face of the strong dollar — causing one of the largest U.S. trade deficits in years, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.The goods and services deficit rose 43.1%, to $51.4 billion in Mar...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 5, 2015

Share Your Views on the Future of the Finance Function

.header-ad {display:none; }In more than 350 issues of CFO over the past 30 years, we have covered a host of events, trends, and changes — some good, others not so good — that have affected the world of the chief financial officer (more on that here) and the finance function. The CFO used to be t...

By Alexander Johnson • May 5, 2015

Operations Pro Tackles Finance Leadership

Brian Helwig’s title at startup Netwrix Corp. is vice president of operations, but he’s also the de facto head of finance. Unlike the common path of CFOs who came up through the accounting track and took on more diverse functional responsibilities as their careers flourished, Helwig was always in...

By David McCann • May 5, 2015

Cheating Incident Jolts Faith in Chinese Cyber Security Firm

News that Qihoo 360 cheated on product evaluations conducted by testing labs is the latest blow to the credibility of major Chinese digital security products, The Hill reports.Three of the world’s most prominent testing labs — Virus Bulletin, AV-Comparatives, and AV-Test Institute — revoked all r...

By Matthew Heller • May 4, 2015

Is Berkshire Hathaway Systemically Important?

While Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 80 businesses, including a major railroad and a reinsurance company, Warren Buffet doesn’t think his firm should be considered “systemically important.”When asked at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Saturday whether it would face additional scrutiny...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 4, 2015

Employees Socking Away More in 401(k)s

Average balances and contributions to retirement accounts increased in the first quarter, according to Fidelity Investments’ Quarterly Retirement Snapshot.The average 401(k) balance at the end of the quarter was $91,800, up 0.5% from last quarter and up 3.6% from one year ago.More than a million ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 4, 2015

Microsoft Sees Money in the Cloud

Microsoft is fully focused on the cloud to drive growth.Like many software companies, the company is migrating to cloud-based subscriptions for its software and relying less on one-time licensing of packaged software, according to a Wall Street Journal story on Thursday.Chief executive Satya Nade...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 1, 2015

Employers Plan to Bump Up 401(k) Contributions

Defined contribution plans are “here to stay,” but employers are increasing their share of contributions, according to Vanguard’s report, “Global Trends in DB and DC plans,” released last month.More than half (57%) of the roughly 90 multinational companies responding to Vanguard’s survey expect t...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 1, 2015