Greek Cash Crisis Heading for Crunch Time?

Things seemed to be building toward a showdown between Greece and its creditors amid concerns that the country will run out of cash on April 9, the deadline for a crucial 450 million euro payment to the International Monetary Fund.Reuters reported that euro zone officials earlier this week reject...

By Matthew Heller • April 3, 2015

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending April 3

Michael Angelakis Michael Angelakis will step down from his roles as vice chairman and CFO of Comcast to form a new venture with the company. Angelakis, who will become CEO of the new firm, will also serve as a senior adviser to Comcast once its new finance chief has been named.Robert Madore has ...

By Joan Urdang • April 3, 2015

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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

Women Gaining Corporate Board Slots

More and more women are getting seats on U.S. corporate boards, according to research by Equilar released on Thursday.The percentage of female board members at S&P 1500 companies rose from 11.3% in 2007 to 15% in 2014, according to Equilar. Female directors are younger on average than their m...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 2, 2015

Kraft, Mondelēz Charged with Wheat Price Manipulation

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Wednesday charged food companies Kraft and Mondelēz Global for manipulation and attempted manipulation of the prices of cash wheat and wheat futures.In a press release announcing the filing of a civil enforcement complaint in the U.S. District Court f...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 2, 2015

SEC Fines KBR in ‘Historic Step’ for Whistleblowers

In the first enforcement action of its kind, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday struck a blow for whistleblowers by charging government contractor KBR with potentially discouraging workers from reporting securities law violations.The engineering and construction services com...

By Matthew Heller • April 1, 2015

Executive Order Targets Overseas Hackers

President Barack Obama signed an executive order authorizing the government to impose sanctions on individuals or entities that engage in malicious cyber-enabled activities “that create a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 1, 2015

FASB Votes to Defer Revenue Recognition Rule

U.S. companies may be getting more time to prepare for implementation of the new standard on recognizing revenue from contracts with customers.At its meeting Wednesday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to delay implementation a year for both public and private companies. As a result...

By Matthew Heller • April 1, 2015

How to Stop Losing Your Talented Millennials

CFOs who are exasperated with an entrenched shortage of younger finance and accounting talent feel doubly stung when good people they do have leave the organization.Often when finance staffers leave, a key reason is a lack of opportunity for growth. “Most of the finance functions we work with are...

By David McCann • April 1, 2015

Former Polycom CEO Accused of Hiding Personal Perks

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday accused the former CEO of tech company Polycom of engaging in a long-running scheme of expense abuse, saying Andrew Miller used corporate funds to pay for $190,000 in personal perks that were not disclosed to investors.From approximately 2010...

By Matthew Heller • March 31, 2015

Consumer Spending Number Underwhelms

Consumer spending rose only 0.1% in February, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, as falling gasoline prices apparently failed to fuel a shopping spree by consumers.The uptick last month followed two months of declines of 0.2%. But economists had forecast a gain of 0.2%, predicting that co...

By Matthew Heller • March 31, 2015

Macquarie Capital Settles Over Fraudulent IPO

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said that Macquarie Capital settled charges for underwriting a public offering for China-based Puda Coal despite obtaining a due diligence report indicating that the company’s offering materials contained false information.Macquarie, a unit of Aust...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 30, 2015

Cyber Insurance Policies: Are They Worth the Money?

Cyber security concerns and massive data breaches are part of our daily news cycle. As a result, companies of every size and industry are carefully examining their cyber security preparedness, both as a matter of good business and because they are being forced to do so by regulators and their cus...

By Lynda Bennett • March 30, 2015

Lego’s Research of Kids’ Play Pays Off

The unheralded secret of Lego’s success is its intensive study of children’s play, which gives it a unique perspective on what’s important to kids and how to construct meaningful experiences for them, strategy+business reports.Much has been made of Lego’s logistics and efficiency. The Danish comp...

By Matthew Heller • March 30, 2015

Google Greets New CFO Porat With $70M Pay Package

New Google CFO Ruth Porat is getting a big raise, with the tech giant paying her more than $70 million in cash and stock to make the move from Morgan Stanley.According to a regulatory filing, Porat’s annual base salary at Google will be a relatively modest $600,000. She made $1 million a year at ...

By Matthew Heller • March 27, 2015

Territorial Imperative

The $2 trillion in U.S. corporate cash that is held, or “trapped,” in locations overseas may be the most potent evidence for the case that the nation needs to switch to a territorial system for taxing multinational companies based here. Under the United States’ so-called worldwide tax system, U.S...

By David Katz • March 27, 2015

ERP: Lessons from the Field

Special Section: IT Systems IntegrationSelecting an enterprise resource planning system represents a major investment in capital, time, and attention from the corporate finance function and the enterprise as a whole. The potential benefits are substantial, but the stakes are high. A successful im...

By CFO Editorial Staff • March 27, 2015

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending March 27

Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo has named Katy Murray senior as its CFO, treasurer and assistant secretary, effective April 1. She is a former finance chief of SourceHOV.U.S. Auto Parts Network has appointed Neil Watanabe to lead the finance function. He succeeds interim CFO Michael Yoshida, who wi...

By Joan Urdang • March 27, 2015

Where Diversity Takes a Back Seat

In the fourth quarter of 2014, the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey examined the issue of diversity on boards of directors, focusing in particular on the inclusion of women on boards.The survey found that nearly all of the companies in the survey (96%) report that they ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • March 27, 2015

Leverage Returns

Major financial crises are typically followed by an extended period of deleveraging. Yet, to the surprise of researchers at the McKinsey Global Institute, debt and leverage in most countries are higher today than they were in 2007. Find out how high by taking our quiz:1. Since 2007, global debt h...

By CFO Editorial Staff • March 27, 2015

Top Brick Maker’s CFO Sees U.S. Housing Rebound

After last month’s slump in U.S. housing starts, the CFO of Wienerberger AG, the world’s largest brick producer, is predicting a steady rebound in home construction.In the latest sign of the effect of this winter’s harsh weather on economic activity, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday that ...

By Matthew Heller • March 26, 2015

Jets Look to Tech to Score with Fans, Drive Revenue

CFOs are ordinary Americans. That is, they love football.Brian Freedman At the recent CFO Rising East conference in Miami, attendees were standing in the aisles at a breakout session featuring a presentation by Brian Friedman, finance chief for the New York Jets. There was some fun football talk,...

By David McCann • March 26, 2015

Finance Execs See Chip Cards as Anti-Fraud Boon

With issuers and retailers preparing to switch to anti-fraud, chip-based credit cards in October, 92% of finance professionals believe the technology will be effective in preventing point-of-sale fraud, according to a new survey.Europay, MasterCard, and Visa — known collectively as EMV — set the ...

By Matthew Heller • March 25, 2015

In a New Era of Work, Skills Are Lost in Translation

“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate” is a classic line heard twice in the movie “Cool Hand Luke,” once delivered by Paul Newman as he’s surrounded in a church, about to be shot. A failure to communicate about the work people do may not be as dramatic, but it’s an increasingly importa...

By John Boudreau • March 25, 2015

Executive Job Hopping Boosts Pay for Ex-Colleagues

Corporate executives who lose a colleague to another firm may have something to look forward to — a significant pay hike.According to a new study published in Journal of Accounting and Economics, companies “dramatically” raise pay for their remaining executives after losing executives in a job-ho...

By Matthew Heller • March 25, 2015

When Loan Covenant Talks Stall

While banks are eager to lend to quality businesses and are generally easing terms, they’re still requiring basic financial covenants. So what happens if your company is negotiating covenants with a lender and the talks appear to be heading toward a stalemate?Two Australian attorneys have some si...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 24, 2015