Judge Rules Huawei CFO’s Extradition Case Can Go Forward

A judge in Canada has ruled that the U.S. extradition case against senior Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou can continue since the allegations against Meng constitutes a crime in Canada.Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei and chief financial officer of the company, was ar...

By Lauren Muskett • May 28, 2020

Finance During the Crisis: Five Lessons from CFOs

COVID-19 has changed everything for businesses, and chief financial officers and their teams have been heads down since the pandemic began. After ensuring the physical safety of their people and establishing remote working arrangements, the CFOs’ top priority has been managing liquidity in a wild...

By Vincent Ryan • May 28, 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

U.S. GDP Contracts 5% in Q1 as Corporate, Consumer Spending Plunge

The U.S. GDP contracted 5% in the first quarter of 2020, the largest since the 2008 recession.The metric was worse than the 4.8% drop economists projected, and it heralds the end of the nation’s longest recorded expansion period and a steep drop from the previous quarter’s 2.1% growth.“The declin...

By Lauren Muskett • May 28, 2020

GE to Sell Iconic Lightbulb Business

General Electric will sell its iconic lightbulb business, which dates to the period when the company was co-founded by Thomas Edison.In a statement, GE said it had reached a deal to sell the GE Lighting division to Savant Systems. Financial details were not disclosed. The Wall Street Journal repo...

By Lauren Muskett • May 27, 2020

How CFOs Can Help Accelerate Divestitures in the Current Crisis

The COVID-19 crisis has underscored the need for companies to consider divestitures to solve immediate liquidity needs and to free up the capital to invest for the future. CFOs, with their view of the overall business from both a financial and strategic perspective, can accelerate the divestiture...

By Vincent Ryan • May 27, 2020

Warner Moves Forward With IPO

Warner Music Group has restarted plans for an initial public offering.In an amended registration filing, the music giant said it will offer 70 million shares of Class A common stock at a target price of $23 to $26 per share, raising as much as $1.8 billion for shareholders. The company would be v...

By Lauren Muskett • May 26, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending May 22

Brian DelGhiaccio Brian DelGhiaccio was promoted to finance chief at waste collection company Republic Services, effective June 1. DelGhiaccio, who is currently executive vice president and chief transformation officer, joined Republic Services in 1998 and has since held roles of increasing respo...

By Lauren Muskett • May 22, 2020

The Case for a Partnership Between Trade Credit Insurers and the U.S. Government

A lifeguard on a beach, a spare tire in the trunk, and a bicycle helmet. What do these three things have in common? If you were to ask me, I’d say these are things that keep us protected if something were to go wrong. We might not think about or even appreciate them on a daily basis, but we are c...

By Vincent Ryan • May 21, 2020

Akorn Files for Chapter 11 After Failed Takeover

Generic drugmaker Akorn has filed for Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court in Delaware following a series of quality-control problems that led to the breakup of a $4.3 billion takeover offer from the German medical company Fresenius.In its petition, Akorn listed $10 billion of debt and $10 b...

By Lauren Muskett • May 21, 2020

The LIBOR Floor Is Rising

David Greenberg As interest rates collapsed during the financial crisis of 2008, lenders began incorporating LIBOR (London Inter-bank Offered Rate) floors into credit facilities primarily for non-investment-grade companies. These provisions have also been far more common in European loans as rate...

By Vincent Ryan • May 21, 2020

How Cannabis Cultivator Grassroots Upped Its Digital Game When States Shut Down

Lisa Hurwitz had only been with Grassroots for 18 months when the coronavirus pandemic rocked cannabis businesses nationwide.Like other pot professionals, she had to pivot almost overnight when shelter-in-place mandates were ordered. Shoppers were no longer able to stroll into stores with cash in...

By Vincent Ryan • May 20, 2020

Trump Administration Unveils Deal to Make COVID-19 Drugs in U.S.

The Trump administration has announced a project to use $354 million in federal funds from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) under the Department of Health and Human Services to manufacture generic medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients that are needed to treat ...

By Lauren Muskett • May 19, 2020

How to Keep the Bankers and Investors on Your Side During a Recession

I’ve been in my career long-enough now to experience four recessions: in 1991, 2001, 2008, and right now. Despite some individual differences (this is the first one brought on by a health crisis, for instance), by and large they follow the same blueprint: initial warning signs leading to a crisis...

By Vincent Ryan • May 19, 2020

SelectQuote Files for IPO

SelectQuote is looking to raise about $342 million in an initial public offering that could value the online insurance broker at more than $3 billion, the company said.On Friday, SelectQuote filed an amended prospectus to offer about 18 million shares, priced between $17 and $19. With selling sto...

By Lauren Muskett • May 18, 2020

4 Behaviors That Empower CFOs to Lead With Compassion

While added stress of managing the impact of the current pandemic has hit all leaders and functions hard, the hardest hit may be chief financial officers and the departments they are leading through these highly dynamic times. With a majority of companies predicting a loss of revenue and profits,...

By John Touey • May 18, 2020

Morningstar Settles Conflict of Interest Charges

Morningstar Credit Ratings has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it violated conflict of interest rules when its head of business development instructed analysts to identify business targets and pursue them through, among other things, o...

By Lauren Muskett • May 15, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending May 15

Charlie Pavlounis CBS News finance chief Charlie Pavlounis is leaving the company. Pavlounis joined the news organization as CFO in 2015 from CBS Corporation, where he was senior vice president and chief audit executive. Before joining CBS, he held a variety of positions in corporate compliance a...

By Lauren Muskett • May 15, 2020

Intelsat Files for Bankruptcy

Intelsat SA has filed for bankruptcy protection and obtained a commitment of $1 billion in debtor-in-possession financing to help it participate in an upcoming federal airwave auction in December.The satellite operator, which is saddled with a debt of $14.5 billion, is turning to financial restru...

By Lauren Muskett • May 14, 2020

Households’ Money Problems Started Back in March

Since consumer spending drives so much of the U.S. economy, a worsening of family finances can be the canary in the coal mine for many industries.The Federal Reserve on Thursday released its regular survey of U.S. households’ economic well-being. While most of the data (concerning 2019) was irrel...

By Vincent Ryan • May 14, 2020

SEC Charges Two Companies Over Misleading COVID-19 Claims

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against Applied BioSciences and Turbo Global Partners as well as Turbo Global’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Singerman, over misleading claims related to COVID-19.The complaint against Turbo and Singerman, filed in federal court in the M...

By Lauren Muskett • May 14, 2020

Saving Midmarket, Closely Held Companies With Traditional Workouts

Going back in time, in the middle market business world of insolvency practice, honest hard-working owners of companies that were over-leveraged but financially viable had tools available for restructuring the business while maintaining ownership. This was done in bankruptcy through a plan of reo...

By Vincent Ryan • May 13, 2020

Democrats Release Coronavirus Relief Bill

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have released their coronavirus relief bill and hope to bring it to a vote as early as Friday.The 1,800-page Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act includes nearly $1 trillion in relief for state and local governments a...

By Lauren Muskett • May 13, 2020

Amazon Releases AI-Based Enterprise Search Solution

On Monday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched Kendra, an enterprise search solution powered by machine learning.Kendra, which utilizes machine learning, will be useful for enterprises looking to index internal data sources and make them searchable. Users can deploy language queries and Kendra ret...

By Lauren Muskett • May 12, 2020

JD.com Plans to Kickstart Hong Kong IPO

Following in the footsteps of its bigger rival Alibaba, JD.Com is planning to test the IPO waters in Hong Kong very soon, if reports are to be believed.Alibaba undertook a secondary listing of its shares in the Hong Kong market late last year, raising $12.9 billion in the process.JD.com Homebound...

By Vincent Ryan • May 12, 2020

Survey: CFOs Double Down on Staff Cuts Amid Ongoing Disruption

The number of companies furloughing staff and cutting salaries could more than double between March and June, according to according to a Gartner survey of 161 finance executives.The survey found 11% of respondents reduced staff in March. Some 25% said they plan to make cuts in May and June.“CFOs...

By Lauren Muskett • May 12, 2020