CFOs On the Move: Week Ending November 6

Stanley Sutula Stanley Sutula is the new finance chief at Colgate-Palmolive, effective November 9. Sutula has served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Pitney Bowes since February 2017 and previously spent 28 years at IBM. His tenure at IBM included financial management ro...

By Lauren Muskett • Nov. 6, 2020

Gig Companies Win Victory With Prop 22 in California

Gig economy companies won a battle to pass Proposition 22 in California, which classifies app-based drivers as independent contractors and not employees.“With the passage of Prop 22, app-based ride-share and delivery drivers across the state will be able to maintain their independence, plus have ...

By Lauren Muskett • Nov. 4, 2020

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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

Ant Group Suspends Mammoth IPO

Ant Group has abruptly suspended its initial public offering following a meeting between top company executives and regulators in China.The IPO, in which Ant was seeking to raise $37 billion, was expected to be the largest ever share offering. The current record is held by Saudi state oil company...

By Lauren Muskett • Nov. 3, 2020

Twitter CEO Survives Elliott Ax as Company Offers Concessions

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is set to continue at the helm of the company after a board committee appointed earlier this year to look into leadership and succession recommended that the current management stays in place.What Happened: The committee, formed with the cooperation of activist investor El...

By Lauren Muskett • Nov. 3, 2020

Two Mall Owners File for Chapter 11

Mall owners CBL Properties and PREIT have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the retail sector continues to struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic.CBL, the larger of the two companies, owns about 100 malls in the U.S., mostly in the Southeast and Midwest. PREIT is the largest mall owner i...

By Lauren Muskett • Nov. 2, 2020

Nielsen Offloads Its Global Connect Business for $2.7B

Data analytics company Nielsen Holdings has agreed to sell its Global Connect business segment to private equity firm Advent International for $2.7 billion.The company announced Sunday that former CEO of TransUnion, Jim Peck, would partner with Advent to accelerate Global Connect’s innovation.By ...

By Lauren Muskett • Nov. 2, 2020

Nestlé Buys Prepared Meal Delivery Service

Global food giant Nestlé said Friday that it reached a deal to acquire Freshly, a fresh prepared meal delivery company.Freshly delivers fresh, chef-cooked meals to customers across the U.S. with a mission of “breaking down the barriers to healthy eating by delivering nutrition and convenience at ...

By Vincent Ryan • Nov. 2, 2020

GM Names Delta Executive Paul Jacobson as CFO

General Motors has hired Paul Jacobson as CFO, adding the Delta Air Lines executive to the team that is steering the automaker toward an all-electric future.Jacobson, 48, comes to GM fresh from helping Delta raise billions of dollars to weather the coronavirus pandemic. He joined the company as a...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 2, 2020

Starbucks Changing Format of Business District Stores

Starbucks reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of 51 cents Thursday, beating analyst expectations of 31 cents, and fourth-quarter sales of $6.2 billion that beat the Street estimate of $6.04 billion.Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” and discussed store tr...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 30, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending October 30

Noel Watson Noel Watson will become the new CFO at LegalZoom on November 17. Most recently, Watson was chief financial officer at digital car-buying marketplace TrueCar. Before that, he spent 13 years at TripAdvisor, where he was most recently vice president of finance and chief accounting offic...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 30, 2020

Under Armour to Sell MyFitnessPal for $345M

Under Armour has reached a deal to sell MyFitnessPal to Francisco Partners for $345 million, including earn-out payments.In a statement, Under Armour said it was selling the platform to simplify its business and connect more deeply with its target consumer.Under Armour paid $475 million for MyFit...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 30, 2020

CFOs Must Embrace a Culture of Equality

The numbers don’t look so good: Only 11 of the Fortune 100 companies in the U.S. have an African American, Black, Asian, Asian American, Hispanic, or Latinx CEO. Just seven have a woman at the helm. (Latinx is a gender-neutral neologism, sometimes used to refer to people of Latin American cultura...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 29, 2020

LVMH, Tiffany Reach New Agreement On Merger

Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. has agreed to a $400 million discount on the purchase price to salvage its takeover by LVMH. In a joint statement, the companies said they’d agreed to modify terms so LVMH will pay $131.50 per share rather than $135 per share as the companies originally agreed.The...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 29, 2020

Tech Execs Face Questions on Immunity Law

Chief executives of Twitter, Google, and Facebook appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday to parry calls to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 protects online platforms from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to moderate t...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 28, 2020

DOJ Considers Blocking Visa’s Acquisition of Fintech Firm Plaid: Report

The United States Department of Justice is considering filing a lawsuit in a bid to stop Visa’s acquisition of fintech company Plaid over antitrust concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.What Happened: The Justice Department is already lining up witnesses and could take a final decisi...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 28, 2020

Ford Earnings Beat Estimates; China Growth, Ford Credit Highlighted

Revenue and earnings per share from one of Detroit’s “Big Three” came in above consensus for the third quarter after the automobile company reported earnings after market close on Wednesday.Ford Motor reported third-quarter revenue of $37.5 billion, beating estimates of $32.9 billion. Earnings pe...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 28, 2020

Small Businesses Embracing Subchapter V Bankruptcies

Many small businesses are using a niche part of the Bankruptcy Act to discharge their debts amid the COVID-19 crisis, and bankruptcy experts are encouraging other ailing small businesses to consider the option instead of shutting down entirely.About 1,000 small businesses have filed under the so-...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 27, 2020

AMD to Buy Xilinx for $35B

Advanced Micro Devices has reached an agreement to buy Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion.Under the terms of the deal, Xilinx stockholders would get 1.7 shares of AMD common stock for each Xilinx share, valuing Xilinx at $143 per share. After closing, AMD stockholders would ...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 27, 2020

Charles Schwab to Ax 3% of Workforce

Charles Schwab announced 3% job cuts, or roughly 1,000 layoffs, from Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade’s combined workforce on Monday. Schwab claimed it would extend support for the affected employees with reemployment assistance and severance benefits.What Happened: The current round of layoffs w...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 27, 2020

AIG to Spin Off Life & Retirement Business

AIG has announced it will pursue a separation of its life and retirement business from the rest of the company to focus on property-casualty insurance.AIG shares jumped 6.6% to $33.33 on news of the move, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, “would be the latest dramatic change at a compa...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 27, 2020

Bayer to Buy Gene Therapy Company AskBio

Bayer AG has agreed to buy the U.S. biotech company Asklepios BioPharmaceutical for as much as $4 billion, the companies announced.Under the deal, Bayer agreed to pay $2 billion upfront and potentially another $2 billion if milestones are met for the privately held company.“With this acquisition,...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 26, 2020

Goldman Sachs to Claw Back Exec Bonuses and Cut Compensation

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay more than $2.9 billion as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice as well as authorities in the United Kingdom and Singapore over the bank’s involvement in a bribery scheme. The scheme involved paying bribes to obtain business f...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 23, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending October 23

Patrick Goris Patrick Goris was named finance chief at heating, ventilation, and air conditioning company Carrier Global, effective November 16. Goris comes to the company from Rockwell Automation, where he has held several senior roles since joining in 2006 including, vice president of investor ...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 23, 2020

Pool and Spa Company Leslie’s Plans IPO

The direct-to-consumer pool and spa brand Leslie’s is planning to raise up to $640 million through an initial public offering.The company said it would look to sell 40 million shares at a price between $14 and $16 per share. At the high end of its range, it would have a valuation of $2.98 billion...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 22, 2020

LIBOR No More: Transition Creates Challenges

Undeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate, commonly known as LIBOR, remains to occur at the end of 2021. Although the effort began in 2014, federal and state regulators, financial institutions, and other interested stakeholders continue to gra...

By James T. Shearin, Brion J. Kirsch, and Amanda G. Gurren • Oct. 22, 2020