U.S. Tariffs Violated WTO Rules, Panel Finds

Tariffs imposed by the U.S. government on Chinese goods were inconsistent with international trade rules, a World Trade Organization panel ruled Tuesday.In the report, the WTO sided with a complaint from China over tariffs imposed on some $234 billion in goods in 2018.  The tariffs were applied o...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 16, 2020

Snowflake Prices IPO Above Indicated Range to Raise $3.4B

Snowflake has raised about $3.4 billion in its initial public offering, according to several reports Tuesday.What Happened: The cloud-based software startup has sold 28 million shares priced at $120 each, the Financial Times reported. The IPO values Snowflake at about $33.3 billion.The reported I...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 16, 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

Kodak’s $765M Loan Deal Under Review

Kodak is facing an inquiry from the United States International Development Finance Corp., the federal agency that planned to extend it a $765 million loan to manufacture drug ingredients, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.What Happened: The inspector general of the agency, responsible for ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 15, 2020

New York Sports Club Owner Files for Chapter 11

Gym owner Town Sports International has filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware, citing a sharp drop in revenue due to pandemic-related closures of its facilities.“We anticipate that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to negatively impact our operating results in future periods,” the company...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 14, 2020

Smithfield Fined for Failing to Protect Workers from COVID-19

The U.S. Department of Labor cited meat-processing giant Smithfield Packaged Meats for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus.At least 1,294 Smithfield workers contracted coronavirus, and four employees died from the virus in the spring.The Labor Department’s Occupational S...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 11, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending September 11

Marie Myers HP chief financial officer Steve Fieler is stepping down after two years in the position for a job at Google. The company’s chief transformation officer, Marie Myers, was appointed acting chief financial officer. Myers will take on the additional role of CFO temporarily on October 1 w...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 11, 2020

Unsettled Markets: The Quiz

Real-life crises aren’t always reflected in the direction of the markets. While the COVID-19 pandemic has nearly suffocated economies, for example, the U.S. stock market indices have been on a tear. Still, uncertainty about business profits, consumer spending, and government stimulus does create ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 11, 2020

Reshaping the CFO Role

Surveys conducted before and during the pandemic show the coronavirus crisis may be reshaping the role of the CFO, with senior finance executives shifting their focus to crafting strategy and generating business value.CFO Research (part of Argyle Advisory and Research Services) and Grant Thornton...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 11, 2020

JC Penney Reaches Deal to Avoid Liquidation

JC Penney has reached a deal to sell its retail and operating assets to Brookfield Property Group and Simon Property Group in an $800 million deal that would buy the retailer out of bankruptcy.In a court hearing on Wednesday, a lawyer representing JC Penney said the company’s landlords had entere...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 10, 2020

Pushing Ahead With Global Expansions

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, CFOs continue to press on with international expansion, unwilling to give up opportunities to capture market share.That was one of the findings from a recent survey of 166 finance chiefs and other senior financial executives by CFO Research (part of Argyle Advisory ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 10, 2020

LVMH Breaks Off Tiffany Merger

French luxury goods company LVMH is terminating its merger agreement with U.S. jeweler Tiffany & Co., citing trade tensions between the two countries.LVMH finance chief Jean Jacques Guiony said the company received a letter from the French foreign ministry asking it to delay closing of the de...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 9, 2020

Snowflake Sets Terms for $2.7B Public Offering

In what could be the most highly valued initial public offering of the year, data warehouse startup Snowflake is seeking to raise up to $2.7 billion, with additional shares being sold privately to Salesforce and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.According to a revised prospectus, Snowflake will...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 9, 2020

Is Working Remotely the Future of Finance?

In mid-March, retail cosmetics shop Ulta Beauty closed all 1,254 stores and CFO Scott Settersten and his 200-person finance team, like much of the country, became remote workers overnight. Settersten characterizes it as “a firestorm erupted, and a dark cloud descended over us.” During a period of...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 9, 2020

U.S. Confidence Starts to Rebound

In the second quarter of 2020, U.S. finance executives said they were more optimistic about the financial prospects of their companies and the direction of the U.S. economy compared with the first quarter, according to The CFO Survey.The CFO Survey, a collaboration of Duke University’s Fuqua Scho...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 9, 2020

Apple, Google, Dropbox Face Italy Antitrust Probes

Italy’s antitrust authorities said Monday that they are opening six investigations against global operators of cloud computing services, such as Alphabet subsidiary Google, Apple, and Dropbox.What Happened: Italy’s competition authority, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, in a stat...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 8, 2020

Japan’s GDP Falls More Than 28%

Japan’s gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 28.1% in the second quarter, according to revised figures from the Cabinet Office. The drop is the largest on record since 1955.The figures revised down preliminary estimates released last month that showed the Japanese economy, t...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 8, 2020

Juul to Cut More Jobs

E-cigarette maker Juul Labs said it was cutting jobs and possibly pulling out of some markets in Europe and Asia, citing a “difficult external environment” and the uncertainty of a global pandemic and economic crisis.The company did not give specifics on planned job cuts, only that they will make...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 4, 2020

Economists Expect Slow Recovery, But Aren’t Forecasting ‘Double-Dip’ Recession

The National Association of Business Economists polls members semi-annually to gain insight on economic trends. The August 2020 NABE Economic Policy survey covered a variety of topics including stimulus spending, when the recession will end, monetary policy, and future policy focus.Elevated RiskU...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 4, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending September 4

Jeff Wallace Jeff Wallace is the new CFO at USAA. Wallace joins the company from Bank of America, where he was most recently chief financial officer of the consumer banking and global wealth and investment management business. Earlier in his career, he held financial leadership roles at Wachovia ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 4, 2020

GSX Techdu Shares Fall Amid SEC Probe

China-based online education company GSX Techedu has confirmed it is the subject of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission following allegations it was inflating sales.GSX reported revenue of about $233 million for the second quarter, a more than four-fold increase year over y...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 3, 2020

Altice Offers to Buy Cogeco Communications for $7.8B

Altice USA has offered to buy Cogeco Communications for $7.8 billion, while reaching an agreement to sell Cogeco’s Canadian assets to Rogers Communications.Rogers Communications is Cogeco’s largest long-term shareholder. It said the offer represents premiums of more than 30% for other Cogeco shar...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 2, 2020

AstraZeneca Inks COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Deal

AstraZeneca has signed a supply agreement with U.K. pharmaceutical-maker Oxford Biomedica to manufacture Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate for 18 months, the companies said.Under the terms of the deal, AstraZeneca agreed to pay Oxford Biomedica $20 million to reserve 1,000 liters of production ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 1, 2020

Better Scenario Planning Positions Companies to Benefit From Disruption

If the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that corporate scenario planning may need to account for events that executives may have never even dreamed about. While many may have planned for a variety of systemic shocks, how many had as an option a global pandemic shutting down workplaces, closin...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 1, 2020

Nestlé to Buy Biopharmaceutical Company Aimmune

Nestlé has reached a deal to buy biopharmaceutical company Aimmune Therapeutics for $34.50 per share in cash, a 174% premium to Aimmune’s closing price on August 28.Nestlé already owns a 25.6% stake in the company.Nestlé Health chief executive officer Greg Behar said Nestlé’s prior investment mea...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 31, 2020

Control Climate Risk Even If the Climate Is Beyond Control

A hurricane striking the United States and a wildfire raging on the West Coast recently presented what The New York Times called “a preview of life in a warming world and the steady danger of overlapping disasters.”Although no individual meteorological event can be solely attributed to a changing...

By Vincent Ryan • Aug. 31, 2020