Macy’s to Close 125 Stores, Cut 2,000 Corporate Jobs

Macy’s plans to close 125 of its least productive stores over the next three years and cut 2,000 corporate jobs to reduce costs and position itself for growth as more consumers shop online.The company said the stores slated for closure are in lower-tier malls and account for about $1.4 billion in...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 5, 2020

FTC Blocks the Sale of Shaving Startup Harry’s to Schick’s Owner

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to block the sale of shaving startup Harry’s by Edgewell Personal Care, the maker of Schick razors. The regulator said Harry’s had been a “critical disruptive rival” that drove down prices and spurred innovation in the wet shave market.“The Harry’s...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 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

Metric of the Month: Total Cost to Manage and Process Collections

In a perfect world, every customer would pay every invoice in full and would do so in a timely way. Unfortunately (and as any CFO knows), that’s not the world in which we live. Collections is an essential process for working down outstanding accounts receivable and unpaid balances to bring in cas...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Feb. 4, 2020

WeWork Names Real Estate Vet CEO

Sandeep Mathrani WeWork has named veteran real estate executive Sandeep Mathrani as its new chief executive officer, effective February 18.Mathrani most recently served as CEO of Brookfield Properties’ retail group. Before that, he was CEO of GGP for eight years before it was bought by Brookfield...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 3, 2020

Forever 21 Reaches Sale Deal With Landlords

Forever 21 has made a deal to sell itself for $81 million to a group of buyers including its two biggest landlords in a move that may save the bankrupt fast fashion chain from liquidation.The offer for Forever 21’s remaining stores, brands and most of its other assets from landlords Simon Propert...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 3, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending January 31

Narayan Menon Video platform Vimeo appointed Narayan Menon as CFO. Before joining Vimeo, Menon served as chief financial officer at cloud-based presentation platform Prezi. His previous leadership roles include corporate vice president at Intuit, senior director of finance at Microsoft, and senio...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 31, 2020

Reynolds Consumer to Go Public in $1.2 Billion IPO

In the first $1 billion-plus initial public offering of the year, the manufacturer of Reynolds Wrap and Hefty bags is expected to make its market debut on Friday.Reynolds Consumer Products, which claims to have a presence in 95% of U.S. households, priced its IPO at $26 per share, raising $1.2 bi...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 31, 2020

Tesla’s Scale, Ambition Hurts Bears After Another Big Quarter

Tesla beat analyst estimates when it reported fourth-quarter earnings after Wednesday’s close.On the conference call, CEO Elon Musk touted how Tesla electric vehicle demand is the highest in the world, despite no advertising spend and production facilities running at comparable speeds.Accelerated...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 30, 2020

Do CEOs Have an Economic Crystal Ball?

While predictions of an oncoming economic trough are plentiful, new data based on an extensive global survey of CEOs may be especially eye-opening.In PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 23rd annual study of chief executives around the world, conducted about three months ago, 53% of the 1,851 participants pre...

By David McCann • Jan. 29, 2020

Coronavirus Outbreak Impacting Global Business

An increasing number of companies are cutting operations and suspending travel to China as the country fights to contain the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.Major companies are responding to the outbreak in China by suspending travel and cutting business operations.Disney closed theme parks in Sh...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 29, 2020

ServiceNow to Buy AI Chat Startup Passage AI

ServiceNow has signed an agreement to acquire Passage AI, a conversational artificial intelligence platform that lets clients build chatbots in multiple languages. The platform gives ServiceNow an automated way to respond to customer inquiries.In a statement, ServiceNow said the acquisition will ...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 28, 2020

The Management Accountant, a Top Digital Transformation Pro

As business organizations face complex challenges, the skills and competencies of their finance professionals need to be up to the task. The traditional role of the accountant — someone who reports short-term financials — is no longer sufficient for a business world challenged by disruptive techn...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 28, 2020

Key Steps to the Lease Accounting Close

To comply with the new lease accounting standards, organizations have had to implement new business processes, new organizational structures, and new information systems. Most organizations have muscled through the first year of adoption using a combination of brute force and high-priced consulta...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 27, 2020

Papyrus Files for Bankruptcy, Closing All 254 Stores

Stationery and greeting-card chain Papyrus is closing its stores after its parent company, Schurman Fine Paper, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.“Despite our Herculean efforts to realign our Papyrus and American Greetings stores to fit today’s shopping environment, Schurman Retail Group...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 24, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending January 24

Milena Alberti-Perez Digital advertising firm MediaMath named Milena Alberti-Perez as CFO. Alberti-Perez joined the company from Penguin Random House where she worked for 16 years in both finance and publishing roles, most recently as CFO. She notably advised Random House in its merger with Pengu...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 24, 2020

Digital Dollar Project Envisions a Fed-Issued Digital Currency

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Christopher Giancarlo presented a detailed look into his Digital Dollar Project at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.The Digital Dollar Project aims to encourage the launch of a central bank digital currency in the United St...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 23, 2020

Oilfield Services Company McDermott Files for Bankruptcy

Houston-based oilfield services company McDermott International is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.In a statement, the company said it has secured $2.81 billion debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing that will allow it to remain in operation. It said two-thirds of its creditors have agr...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 22, 2020

WHO Considers Response to Virus Outbreak

The World Health Organization was considering Wednesday whether to declare a public health emergency as a deadly coronavirus that has killed at least 17 people in China continued to spread globally.The WHO emergency committee met in Geneva a day after the first U.S. case, involving a Washington s...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 22, 2020

4 Climate Change Myths Debunked

To mitigate climate risks at the pace needed to create real change, corporate and government leaders must fundamentally shift the way they approach their risk strategies to address climate change challenges.While finance leaders can, and should, play a crucial role in driving this change in corpo...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 21, 2020

Technical Accounting: The CFO’s Secret Weapon

Charles Holley, the retired CFO of Wal-Mart, has said that CEOs want finance chiefs who are:Adept influencersStrong communicatorsTireless change agentsNowhere on that list is “proficient accountants.” The controller-style CFO has fallen out of favor, particularly in private equity environments, w...

By Shauna Watson • Jan. 21, 2020

Starbucks Lays Out Sweeping Goals to Combat Climate Change

Starbucks said it was committed to becoming a resource-positive company and set preliminary targets for the reduction of carbon emissions, water use, and waste by 2030.The targets included a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from direct operations and the supply chain and a 50% reduction in waste...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 21, 2020

Gap Cancels Plan to Spin Off Old Navy

Gap said it had cancelled plans to spin off Old Navy into a separate standalone public company, citing its “commitment to value creation” from its portfolio of iconic brands.“While the objectives of the separation remain relevant, our board of directors has concluded that the cost and complexity ...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 17, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending January 17

Deepak Ahuja Verily, the health and life sciences unit of Google parent company Alphabet, named Deepak Ahuja as chief financial officer. Deepak was CFO for Tesla from 2008 to 2015, then again from February 2017 until he retired in 2019. Prior to Tesla, he was at Ford Motor Company as a finance ex...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 17, 2020

McClatchy Gets Standstill Agreement on Pension Payments

McClatchy Co. has reached a standstill agreement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) to extend negotiations with its creditors.The month-long standstill agreement was effective January 14. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McClatchy said it had a minimum funding ...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 16, 2020

Why Some of Today’s Corporate Powerhouses May Not Survive

This article is part of an 11-part series titled “Tesla, Elon Musk, and the EV Revolution” by investment manager Vitaliy Katsenelson, who gave CFO the right to publish this segment. You can order the full Tesla analysis here.Today, electronic vehicle sales account for a tiny rounding error of tot...

By David McCann • Jan. 16, 2020