Adapt or Watch Your Business Erode

Did you know that in 1958 ( a year after the creation of the index in its current form), the expected tenure in the index for an S&P 500 company was 61 years and that by 1980, this had dropped by more than half — to 25 years? It’s been declining steadily ever since — now down to around 15 yea...

By John Parkinson • Oct. 7, 2014

HP Announces Historic Breakup

Hewlett-Packard is splitting up into two separate, publicly-traded companies, a historic move for the Silicon Valley institution that it said was part of CEO Meg Whitman’s five-year turnaround plan.Whitman will lead the new Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which will sell business technology, includin...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 7, 2014

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

Audit Fees for Public Companies Up 4.5%

Audit fees for public companies rose 4.5% last year, reflecting the impact of recent Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspections, according to a new survey by the trade group Financial Executives International.The 87 public companies that participated in FEI’s annual Audit Fee Survey fo...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 6, 2014

PCAOB Exploring Alternative for Auditor Identification

Bowing to the concerns of the accounting profession, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is considering an alternate way of publicly identifying audit-firm partners.Since 2005, the board has been exploring how to make auditors’ reports more transparent. As part of that process, it propo...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 2, 2014

High Court to Hear ERISA Fiduciary Breach Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case that could make it easier for pension plan participants to sue their plans for imprudently managing investments.Lower courts have held that Edison International employees could not sue their 401(k) plan administrator for breach of fiduciary dut...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 2, 2014

Google Escalates Cloud Price War

In a further escalation of a price war with Amazon, Microsoft and others, Google said Wednesday it was slashing prices of a cloud-based computing service by 10%.The drop in prices for all instances of Google’s Compute Engine is smaller than the massive cuts it announced in March for all of its cl...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 1, 2014

Three Pointers for Fighting Bribery and Corruption

For many corporations, bribery and corruption rank among the most significant risks, and their prominence is increasing. Though virtually no business is completely free of risks associated with bribes and other corrupt payments, the danger is particularly significant for multinationals and those ...

By John Verver • Oct. 1, 2014

Fair Value Continues to Trip Up Auditors

About 42% of all audits inspected by the Public Accounting Oversight Board in 2012 were deficient, with the number of deficiencies attributable to fair value measurement (FVM) continuing to be significant, according to a new report.FVM deficiencies have continued to decline from their peak in 201...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 30, 2014

Are Companies Set to Shed Pension Liabilities En Masse?

Ever since General Motors and Verizon Communications offloaded a combined $33 billion in pension obligations to Prudential Financial in 2012, pension-market observers have been speculating when an anticipated boom in such deals might occur.Now, after Friday’s news of a third large deal with Prude...

By David McCann • Sept. 30, 2014

FASB Revisits the Cash-Flow Statement

With the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board parting ways from their convergence projects, FASB is taking a fresh look at a number of standards that may have fallen by the wayside in the pursuit of the ambitious goal of achieving a common global f...

By David Katz • Sept. 30, 2014

The Black Hole of Restricted Cash

There’s no doubt that Apple, with nearly $38 billion of cash on its balance sheet, is the company that critics of corporate cash-hoarding love to hate.Charles Mulford, director, Georgia Tech Financial Analysis Lab Financial statementBut the personal-computing goliath isn’t alone in its preference...

By David Katz • Sept. 30, 2014

Software Bug Could Infect 500M Machines

Hackers have already begun to exploit a newly-disclosed vulnerability in a small piece of software that could compromise more than 500 million computers, servers and devices, the Fiscal Times and ZDNet report.The bug, dubbed “Shellshock,” was first reported by security researchers Wednesday. Secu...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 26, 2014

Fed Officials Warn Against Premature Rate Hike

Three Federal Reserve presidents have been making the case for continued monetary accommodation, warning the Fed not to raise interest rates above zero prematurely.Wall Street is expecting a rate increase in mid-2015 but the trio of Fed officials cautioned that the Fed shouldn’t make a change bef...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 26, 2014

U.S. Treasury Denies GM and Ally Execs Were Overpaid

The U.S. Treasury is slamming a report that said it allowed top executives at GM and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC) to receive “excessive pay” at a time when those two companies were getting federal bailout money, reports Reuters.The accusation was made by Christy Romero, special inspector genera...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 24, 2014

IRS Urged to Move Up W-2 Filing Deadline

To fight identity theft and tax fraud, the Internal Revenue Service is being asked to move up its W-2 filing deadline to January 31, forcing employers to file wage data earlier.Accounting Today says a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office is recommending the action, and the Tr...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 23, 2014

Philips Announces ‘Dramatic’ Strategic Step

In what Forbes called a “dramatic” restructuring move, Dutch electronics giant Philips announced Tuesday that it planned to combine its health care and consumer lifestyle businesses into one company while splitting off its historical lighting activities.The creation of two separate companies is “...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 23, 2014

Auditors Can’t Leave Going Concern Evaluation to Management

Public company auditors should continue to follow their existing professional standards in conducting a “going concern” evaluation, despite recent changes to U.S. GAAP, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has announced.A PCAOB staff audit practice alert issued Monday stresses that, for ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 23, 2014

Up with People

It’s a common way to develop future CFOs: rotate promising candidates through leadership roles in different disciplines, such as operations, supply chain, and human resources.Human resources? OK, that’s not very common — but maybe it should be. Those who have held both CFO and chief human resourc...

By David McCann • Sept. 23, 2014

SEC to Award $30M to Whistleblower

Hot on the heels of announcing a $300,000 whistleblower award given for the first time to an internal auditor on Sept. 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed today that it’s planning to pay out 100 times that amount  — the most the agency has ever dished out to an informant.The award,...

By David Katz • Sept. 22, 2014

Texas Man Fined $40M for Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme

A Texas man has been fined $40.6 million for running a virtual currency scam that caused investor losses of more than $149 million.The case against Trendon Shavers is one of the first in which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged illegal transactions in virtual currency.Shavers...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 22, 2014

Is Fair Value Foul?

As investors learned the hard way during the financial crisis, we live in a much faster financial world than the one that spawned historical accounting principles. The value of an asset — say, a mortgage-backed security — can fall off a cliff in a matter of days. When that happens, the most recen...

By David Katz • Sept. 22, 2014

The Cyber Liability Shell Game

Tremors from two recent cyber breaches are still reverberating in the corner offices of companies and insurance underwriters alike.The first incident was “celebgate”— the theft and online posting of revealing photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton in late August. Presumably f...

By David Katz • Sept. 22, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Sept. 19

Larry Ellison is stepping down as CEO of Oracle, which he founded 37 years ago, and will become executive chairman of the board and chief technology officer. Safra Catz, president and CFO, will become co-CEO along with president Mark Hurd.Dede Wakefield GT Nexus, which says it’s the world’s large...

By Joan Urdang • Sept. 19, 2014

Big Business Joins U.S. Fight Against HFC Gases

The White House announced Tuesday that some of the largest U.S. companies, including Coca-Cola, Kroger, Honeywell and DuPont had joined the fight against climate change by pledging to cut emissions of the powerful greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons.Under voluntary agreements with the Ob...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 17, 2014

FASB Moves Closer to Intangible Assets Exception

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has taken another step toward exempting private companies from separately recognizing and measuring non-competition agreements and customer-related intangible assets that are not capable of being sold or licensed independently in a business combination.The...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 17, 2014