Will the Federal Reserve Cut Interest Rates Below 0% This Week?

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will be conducting its April meeting this week as the U.S. COVID-19 economic shutdown drags on.With interest rates already essentially at zero and 11 different emergency lending programs already in place, some traders are growing concerned the Fed may be f...

By Vincent Ryan • April 27, 2020

Diamond Offshore Files for Bankruptcy

Houston-based contract drilling company Diamond Offshore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas on Sunday. The company cited a drop in demand due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the oil price war between OPEC and Russia. The company also said the market for its services “wors...

By Lauren Muskett • April 27, 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

Managing Through COVID-19: Six Imperatives for CFOs

Slightly more than a decade after the Great Recession, COVID-19 has brought back the dreaded “R” word to haunt executives in the global economy. The practice of social distancing to slow the contagion has abruptly and sharply curtailed economic activity around the world. Moreover, it is becoming ...

By Vincent Ryan • April 27, 2020

DraftKings Goes Public

The fantasy sports and online sports betting platform DraftKings has gone public through a previously announced three-way “blank check” merger.DraftKings merged with special purpose acquisition company Diamond Eagle Acquisition, which trades on Nasdaq. The other party to the deal is betting-techn...

By Lauren Muskett • April 24, 2020

How Finance Can Lead the Effort to Drive Revenue Synergies

Deals that deliver the highest value to shareholders are those that not only achieve cost reduction but also amplify revenues. In the EY Buy & Integrate global pulse survey, the largest category of respondents — over 40% — cited entry into new markets or growing product capabilities as the ke...

By Vincent Ryan • April 24, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending April 24

Delta CFO Paul Jacobson has rescinded his retirement, which he announced in February. CEO Ed Bastian asked Jacobson to reconsider his decision to retire while the carrier navigates though the devastating impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on air travel. Jacobson joined the company in 19...

By Lauren Muskett • April 24, 2020

Apple Reportedly Shifting Away from Intel

After Microsoft ditched Intel in favor of Advanced Micro Devices for its Surface laptops, Apple is reportedly making a similar move.Apple is contemplating the use in-house chips for one or more of its Mac computers, moving away from its longtime supplier Intel, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing...

By Lauren Muskett • April 23, 2020

Gap Halts Rent Payments Amid Liquidity Challenges

Gap said it did not pay rent on North America stores that were closed in April and may not have enough cash flow to sufficiently fund operations.In a securities filing, the retailer said it is looking for ways to find liquidity over the next 12 months, including taking on new debt, cutting jobs, ...

By Lauren Muskett • April 23, 2020

United Confronts Corona With $1B Stock Sale

United Airlines is selling 39 million of its shares in an unusual move to weather the financial storms of the coronavirus pandemic.The secondary offering, which is priced at $26.50 a share and is set to close on Friday, could raise $1 billion for United, which reported earlier this week that it l...

By Matthew Heller • April 23, 2020

Digital Transformation: Defying Definition

If your company is not in the midst of a “digital transformation,” it’s an outlier.McKinsey estimates that 80% of large companies are, or at least believe themselves to be. Ditto many smaller organizations.But what exactly is digital transformation?Depending on a company’s circumstances and visio...

By David McCann • April 23, 2020

Chevron Ordered to ‘Wind Down’ Venezuela Operations

Chevron has been ordered by the Trump administration to wind down its business operations in Venezuela by December 1 as the U.S. seeks to ramp up pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro.Chevron was the last major U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela. It has been operating under a specia...

By Lauren Muskett • April 22, 2020

Special Report: Fixing Some Holes

Within a couple of weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning to corporate executives and the wider public about trading on insider information.“Corporate insiders are regularly learning new material nonpublic information that may ...

By Bob Violino • April 22, 2020

Co-CEO Jennifer Morgan to Leave SAP

SAP’s co-CEO, Jennifer Morgan, is stepping down from her role at the of the German software giant on April 30. Going forward, Christian Klein will be the sole CEO.Klein and Morgan were co-CEOs following the departure of longtime chief executive Bill McDermott, who announced he was leaving the com...

By Lauren Muskett • April 21, 2020

Redefining ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’ in the Wake of COVID-19

Humanity has largely embraced the “we are in this together” mentality from a health-crisis perspective. Yet, even as world leaders scramble to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, we have yet to fully grasp the follow-on impact from the pandemic and particularly, how it will affect world economies. For...

By Vincent Ryan • April 21, 2020

Oil Plunges to 21-Year Low

U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has fallen to the $15 range, its lowest since 1999.The oil price collapse comes as an agreement to cut supply failed to offset plummeting demand and global oil storage is reaching its limits.Analysts say demand has fallen by up to 30 million barr...

By Lauren Muskett • April 20, 2020

Why Shake Shack is Returning $10M Government Loan

Shake Shack announced on Sunday it’s returning the $10 million the company has received through federal loans.The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is designed to keep people employed and paid.“The loan program set aside $349 billion in the stimulus law called the CARES Act to help small business...

By Lauren Muskett • April 20, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending April 17

Vivian Liu Vivian Liu will become finance chief at Shutterfly on April 23. Most recently, Liu was chief financial officer at laser printer manufacturer Lexmark. Before that, she was vice president of finance, Enterprise BG at Huawei Technology. Before Huawei, Liu spent eight years in finance posi...

By Lauren Muskett • April 17, 2020

Is COVID-19 a Triggering Event for Impairment Testing?

The longest-running bull market since World War II began in March 2009, and over the past few years, many debated “when, not if,” a downturn would occur. But no one could have predicted that a global pandemic would lead to unprecedented disruption and dislocation in the capital markets and the qu...

By Steve Hills • April 16, 2020

Verizon to Buy Teleconferencing Company BlueJeans

Verizon Business has reached an agreement to buy the video conferencing platform BlueJeans Network.The companies did not disclose financial terms, but a spokesperson for Verizon said the company would pay less than $500 million. CNBC reported Verizon would pay about $400 million.The announcement ...

By Lauren Muskett • April 16, 2020

GoPro to Lay Off 20% of Employees, Shift to Direct Sales

GoPro will lay off more than 200 employees and sell its adventure cameras directly to consumers amid the coronavirus pandemic.With its restructuring efforts, GoPro, which manufactures action cameras, video-editing software, and mobile apps, will save more than $100 million in 2020. The company al...

By Lauren Muskett • April 16, 2020

Frontier Communications Files for Chapter 11

Frontier Communications has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.In a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York the company said it has reached an agreement with more than 75% of its bondholders on a restructuring plan that would reduce its debt by $10 billio...

By Lauren Muskett • April 15, 2020

Revolver Drawdowns Keeping Corporates Liquid

This story was updated at 5:11 p.mRevolving lines of credit are a critical capital source for funding payroll, buying raw materials, paying rents, and backstopping commercial paper programs. And that goes double during a crisis that grounds the U.S. economy to a halt.So, it’s no surprise that com...

By Vincent Ryan • April 15, 2020

CFO Optimism Drops to 12-Year Low

U.S. CFO optimism has dropped to a new low due to the widespread and sudden effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook survey.In the second half of March, the CFO optimism index fell to 42 (on a scale from 0 to 100), which reflects that CFO s...

By Lauren Muskett • April 15, 2020

Estimated Global Airline Losses Rise to $314B

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revised its estimate for the economic losses to the global airline industry from the coronavirus pandemic to $314 billion, up 25% from the $252 billion forecasted on March 24.The IATA said it was basing its estimate on a projected 6% decrease...

By Lauren Muskett • April 14, 2020

XFL Files for Bankruptcy

Vince McMahon’s XFL football league declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday afternoon.Alpha Entertainment, the parent company behind the XFL, suspended operations on April 10 and the league wasn’t expected to return in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.The XFL folded with assets and liabiliti...

By Lauren Muskett • April 14, 2020