Flipkart Gets $3.6B to Invest in Indian E-Commerce

Flipkart has raised $3.6 billion in capital from global investors, valuing the Indian e-commerce firm at $37.6 billion as it prepares to go public.Investors in the funding round — by far the largest for any Indian startup — included Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, the Canada Pension Plan Inv...

By Matthew Heller • July 13, 2021

Regulators Can and Will Crack Down on Crypto

Swiss banking giant UBS Group AG said in a recent note to clients that regulatory crackdowns could pop the “bubble-like” crypto markets.According to a report from Business Insider, UBS’s global wealth management division pointed to China’s crypto crackdown as an example of the considerable negati...

By Lauren Muskett • July 7, 2021

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

Will Your Tech Stack Attract the Talent You Want?

Competition for talent — from recent graduates to seasoned, experienced professionals — is fiercer than ever. CFOs face the additional challenge of building out, engaging, and bolstering a talent pipeline that will thrive in a future we’re all still figuring out.As leaders consider the future of ...

By Vincent Ryan • June 30, 2021

5 SPACs To Watch In The Second Half

As the close of the first half of 2021 nears, investors have a chance to look at some companies that could have big moves in the second half of 2021.Here is a look at five SPACs to watch in the second half.Churchill Capital Corp IVElectric vehicle company Lucid Motors is merging with Churchill Ca...

By Vincent Ryan • June 29, 2021

FASB Launches Agenda Consultation Project

Last Thursday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) published an invitation to comment (ITC) that gives issuers, investors, auditors, and other stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on the organization’s future standard-setting agenda.Said FASB Chair Richard R. Jones: “What ...

By Vincent Ryan • June 28, 2021

Memo to SPACs: The Bar Has Been Raised

Last year was a record one for special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPOs. But that record was broken in just the first quarter of 2021, with 298 SPAC IPOs raking in $87 billion. But the days of easy money in the SPAC game may be behind us as hundreds of SPACs are in the hunt for “unicorn” c...

By Crocker Coulson • June 28, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending June 25

Geir Karlsen Norwegian Air promoted CFO Geir Karlsen to CEO. Karlsen has been chief financial officer at the airline since April 2018. Before that, he was acting chief executive officer of Norwegian. Over the last 12 years, he has held various CFO positions at international companies such as Gold...

By Lauren Muskett • June 25, 2021

Microsoft Reveals Windows 11, Latest Version Since 2015

Microsoft made interesting revelations of its latest Windows operating system, Reuters reported.The new Windows App Store will allow software developers to use their own in-app payment system and keep 100% of the fees or use Microsoft’s payment processor for a 12% commission.Recently, Microsoft h...

By Vincent Ryan • June 24, 2021

Supreme Court Rejects Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Investors’ Claims

Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went into a tailspin after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a major portion of a lawsuit brought by investors challenging the federal government’s pocketing of profits from the government-sponsored enterprises.The Back Story: The case dates to September 2008, w...

By Vincent Ryan • June 23, 2021

Goldman Sachs Tests Tokenized Treasury Bonds

Goldman Sachs Group has made its first trade on JPMorgan Chase’s private blockchain network.A report from Bloomberg revealed that the repo trade was conducted on June 17, and the transaction was completed after three hours and five minutes. However, the value of the transaction remains unknown.Go...

By Vincent Ryan • June 23, 2021

Vertical Integration: A Solution to Supply Chain Issues?

Vertical integration has frequently appeared on the agenda of corporate board meetings as a consideration of dealing with the prospect of current supply chain disruptions becoming more the norm than a COVID-induced apparition. Trying to offset supply chain issues via vertical integration may prov...

By Chuck Franzetta • June 22, 2021

Biden Appoints Big Tech Critic Lina Khan as FTC Chair

Joe Biden has appointed 32-year-old Columbia University law school professor and a prominent Big Tech critic Lina Khan as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair, insinuating aggressive enforcement of U.S. antitrust and consumer-protection laws, the Financial Times reported.What Happened: Khan l...

By Lauren Muskett • June 16, 2021

Offering Product Warranties? Think Twice

In 2020, warranty offering S&P 500 firms paid a total of $20.2 billion to cover their customers’ warranty claims, with the average warranty payments being $246.1 million (according to Calcbench). The potential financial implications of warranty claims cannot be overlooked. For instance, in 20...

By Vincent Ryan • June 15, 2021

Lordstown Motors Overhauls Management; CEO, CFO to Step Down

Lordstown Motors, which sounded out a “going concern” warning last week, announced a C-suite shakeup Monday. What Happened: Lordstown announced a slew of management changes, including the exit of CEO Steve Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez.The changes are effective immediately, the company said.Lords...

By Lauren Muskett • June 14, 2021

Closer to Real-Time for Real-Time Payments

What’s holding up real-time payments? In 2017, the veil was lifted off an interbank payment system providing near-instantaneous settlements instead of next-day automated clearinghouse (ACH) transactions. The real-time payments (RTP) network worked and was ready for adoption by banks, businesses, ...

By Russ Banham • June 8, 2021

Esoteric ABS Market Provides Strong Post-COVID Liquidity

The asset-backed securities (ABS) market has proven remarkably resilient in the months following the initial COVID-19 crisis. CFOs may be aware of traditional ABS asset classes like credit cards, student debt, and auto loans and leases. But there is a subset of the ABS sector — “esoteric ABS” — w...

By Vincent Ryan • June 8, 2021

Creditor Compositions — Cheaper Than Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is expensive. The professional fees can be overbearing even for the largest companies. It also is very public. It causes tremendous devaluation of a debtor’s business. Customers tend to flee when they hear of it.Then there is the potential loss of control. Among other things, the debto...

By Kenneth A. Rosen • June 3, 2021

The Return of the Finance Talent War

Senior executive hiring has returned at an increased pace over pre-pandemic levels in recent months. Pent-up demand, stimulus-induced growth, and less-than-predicted economic damage have many organizations aggressively seeking to bring in new leadership talent. This year is already among the top ...

By John Touey  • June 1, 2021

Assessing Cyber Risk: Metric of the Month

An employee recently received an email from me, letting him know that I was in an important meeting and asking if he could text me. The only problem was that it wasn’t me. “Fake Perry,” as we call the would-be scammer, had been messaging our employees in an attempt to gain access to the company’s...

By Perry D. Wiggins • June 1, 2021

Enterprise Risk Management: How to Make It a Priority

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is how enterprises identify and manage a broad portfolio of significant risks in an integrated way. It’s a fast-growing discipline. Even the best organizations don’t escape risk: More than half of executives we surveyed said they had a high-impact risk occur withi...

By Lauren Muskett • May 26, 2021

Aeropostale, Forever 21 Owner Authentic Brands Exploring IPO

The owner of several retail brands and a licensing business could hit the public markets with a $10 billion IPO being explored for 2021.Authentic Brands is the owner of Aeropostale, Brooks Brothers, Juicy Couture, Forever 21, Barneys New York, Airwalk, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Lucky Brand, Nauti...

By Vincent Ryan • May 25, 2021

5 Key Elements of a CFO’s Successful Investor Pitch

Creating a message that resonates with private equity investors or other suppliers of private capital requires more than a nice-looking PowerPoint. It means understanding the investor’s mindset. Investores are primarily focused on getting their original investment back (plus a return, naturally) ...

By Frank Williamson • May 24, 2021

Cybersecurity Evolves to Handle Remote Workers

Audit, tax, and advisory firm Grant Thornton surveyed more than 250 CFOs in February 2021 and asked them to name the three biggest challenges facing their companies. Nearly half cited cybersecurity risks, and 30% said a remote workforce. The two are closely related.“The pandemic pushed almost all...

By Vincent Ryan • May 21, 2021

AT&T, Discovery Confirm $43B Media Merger

AT&T and Discovery Communications have confirmed media reports that the companies will merge AT&T’s WarnerMedia assets with Discovery’s platform for the creation of a standalone global entertainment company. The merger is defined by the companies as an all-stock, Reverse Morris Trust tran...

By Benzinga • May 17, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending May 14

Ger Dwyer Ger Dwyer, CFO of Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo, is leaving the company this month. His departure comes after the exit of chief executive officer John Krafcik, who was replaced by two co-CEOs. Dwyer started at Google in 2006 and moved over to Waymo in 2016. He led finance for Googl...

By Lauren Muskett • May 14, 2021