Pier 1 Files Chapter 11, Plans Sale of Company

Pier 1 Imports has filed bankruptcy to facilitate a sale of the home furnishings company after nine consecutive quarters of revenue declines.The Chapter 11 filing on Monday came three months after Robert Riesbeck was appointed Pier 1’s CEO after serving as its finance chief since July. The move h...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 18, 2020

‘Extreme Language’ in Earnings Calls Linked to Outperformance

“It’s been five full years since I called BS and declared war … against [this] stupid, broken, arrogant industry…. We have great financial results [and] very strong free cash flow.”What to make of extreme language like that from the transcript of a top company executive in an earnings call? Hype?...

By David McCann • Feb. 18, 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

Experts React to Apple’s Revenue Warning, Coronavirus Threat

Shares of Apple were trading lower by 2% early Tuesday morning after the iPhone maker said it doesn’t expect to meet its prior fiscal second-quarter revenue guidance of $63 to $67 billion due to the coronavirus outbreak.Here’s how several experts reacted to the announcement.Quantifying Apple’s Ex...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 18, 2020

Is Your Dividend Merely a ‘Shiny Object’ to Investors?

I was recently going through a new investment client’s portfolio and found it full of the likes of Coca Cola, Kimberly-Clark, and Campbell Soup. I call these pseudo bond substitutes.Each one is a stable and mature company. Your mother-in-law would be proud if you worked for any of them. They have...

By David McCann • Feb. 17, 2020

Huawei Hit With New Charges; CFO Named as Defendant

U.S. prosecutors have charged the Chinese tech giant Huawei with racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.The three new allegations, which add to earlier charges the company engaged in bank fraud and violated U.S. sanctions against Iran, were unsealed Thursday by a U.S. District Court i...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 14, 2020

Three Ways of Driving Success in An Acquisition

Global corporations have continued to show a strong appetite for acquisitions in the last several years, and 2020 is likely to be no different. More than two-thirds of companies (68%) said they expect the mergers and acquisitions market to improve in the next 12 months, according to the October 2...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 14, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending February 14

Eoin Tonge Eoin Tonge will be joining UK retail giant Marks and Spencer in June as chief financial officer. Tonge has been CFO of convenience foods manufacturer Greencore Group since 2016. Before his CFO role, he was the managing director of the grocery business and was previously the chief strat...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 14, 2020

Newspaper Publisher McClatchy Files for Bankruptcy

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks to restructure more than $700 million in debt.The company publishes 30 newspapers including The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, and The Sacramento Bee.Pending court approval, 60% of its debt would be ...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 13, 2020

IPOs: How to Reverse the Winner’s Curse

After the storied stock market successes of such technology icons as Amazon, Facebook, and Google, investors have endured a cold soaking of late with the share price reversals of LendingClub, Uber, Twitter, and Slack. Have initial public offerings lost their mojo?A company that executes an IPO ca...

By David McCann • Feb. 12, 2020

E-commerce Companies in China Offer Jobs Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

JD.com employees are provided with protective supplies such as masks. Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com plans to make more than 20,000 new jobs available to help minimize the impact of the coronavirus on employment.The move hopes to help aid small and medium enterprises during the outbreak and supp...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 12, 2020

Shipping Giant Maersk Hires New CFO

Patrick Jany Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk has named Patrick Jany as its new chief financial officer.Jany joins the company from Swiss chemical firm Clariant where he has most recently served as CFO, a role he has held since 2006.“We very much regret Patrick Jany’s decision to leave Cl...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 12, 2020

Fintech Varo Wins FDIC Approval To Take Deposits

Fintech startup Varo Money announced it has received approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to receive deposit insurance and take customer deposits directly rather than relying on a partner.In a statement, the company said the approval was, “a significant step in [its] application proc...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 11, 2020

SoftBank-Backed Online Store Brandless Shutting Down

Brandless, an online store backed by SoftBank Group that sold household goods for $3 each, is shutting down.What HappenedBrandless, based out of San Francisco, will wind down operations. The company is the first SoftBank Vision Fund-backed startup that has shut shop as it lays off 70 people. It h...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 11, 2020

A Game Plan for Quantum Computing

Pharmaceutical companies have an abiding interest in enzymes. These proteins catalyze all kinds of biochemical interactions, often by targeting a single type of molecule with great precision. Harnessing the power of enzymes may help alleviate the major diseases of our time.Unfortunately, we don’t...

By David McCann • Feb. 11, 2020

Xerox Ups Offer for HP, But Is It Enough?

Xerox Holdings on Monday announced a sweetened tender offer for HP at about $24 a share, or $34 billion, an increase of about $2 per share from its previous bid.Xerox called its proposal “compelling” and said it would allow HP shareholders “to realize immediate cash value and enjoy approximately ...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 10, 2020

Simon Property to Buy Taubman Centers in $3.6B Deal

Top U.S. mall operator Simon Property Group agreed to buy Taubman Centers in a deal valued at $3.6 billion.Under the agreement, Simon will buy an 80% stake in the Taubman Realty Group (TRG), the entity that Taubman Centers uses to conduct its retail shopping center business.The companies said the...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 10, 2020

Warner Music Pitches IPO on Streaming Surge

After a nine-year absence, Warner Music Group is planning to return to the public markets in a bet on the streaming-fueled resurgence of the music industry.Cardi B performs onstage during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. In a prospectus filed on Thursday, the company said the industry “has undergon...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 7, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending February 7

Cathy Graham Cathy Graham is joining cyber AI company Darktrace as chief financial officer, effective February 10. Graham was most recently CFO at education technology company 2U. Before 2U, she was CFO and executive vice president of Online Resources Corp. With more than two decades of professio...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 7, 2020

Economy Adds 225,000 Jobs in January

The U.S. economy added 225,000 jobs in January, with mild weather and the easing of trade tensions helping to boost hiring, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected an increase of 150,000 and 160,000 jobs.At the same time, unemployment rose to 3.6% as...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 7, 2020

Anheuser-Busch InBev CFO to Step Down

Anheuser-Busch InBev CFO Felipe Dutra Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that its longtime chief financial officer, Felipe Dutra, will be stepping down from his role after the company’s shareholder meeting on April 29.Dutra, who has been CFO since 2005, was also AB InBev’s chief technology officer.“F...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 6, 2020

6 Potential M&A Targets For Tesla

The last few weeks, it seems like everyone has wanted to buy shares of Tesla, which has been on a run that’s seen its share price rise by about 80% over the last month. But what if Tesla were looking to buy?Cascend Securities Chief Investment Strategist Eric Ross had a look Wednesday at six poten...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 6, 2020

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

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