WeWork IPO Filing Reveals Massive Loss Last Year

WeWork’s parent company The We Company filed to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering on Wednesday, revealing revenues of $1.54 billion and a net loss of more than $900 million for the first six months of 2019.The office-sharing startup reported it lost $1.8 billion last year on $1.9 bil...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 14, 2019

Core CPI Rises 0.3% for Second Straight Month

U.S. underlying inflation surged for a second straight month in July, reducing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by half a percentage point next month.The Labor Department reported Thursday that so-called core CPI — the consumer price index excluding the volatile food ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 13, 2019

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From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

Rolls Royce Downgraded on Cash Flow Worries

Moody’s Investors Service cut its long-term credit rating for Rolls-Royce Holdings from “A3” to “Baa1,” citing the company’s high leverage levels, weak cash flows, and need to resolve issues related to the cracking blades of the Trent 1000 aircraft engines.In a report, the ratings agency said the...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 13, 2019

BlackRock Buys 30% Stake in Owner of Sports Illustrated, Nautica

BlackRock has acquired a roughly 30% stake in Authentic Brands Group for $875 million. The deal is the first by BlackRock’s new private equity fund, Long Term Private Capital.“The fund itself put $625 million and we have another $250 million that is coming from related entities and co-investors,”...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 12, 2019

Mattel Shares Tank on Whistleblower Disclosure

Mattel shares plunged on Friday after the toy maker disclosed it had canceled a bond offering, citing an anonymous letter from a whistleblower.The offering of 6.00% Senior Notes due 2027, which was worth an estimated $250 million, had been scheduled to close on Thursday but Mattel said in a regul...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 9, 2019

Broadcom Buys Symantec’s Enterprise Security Business for $10.7B

Chipmaker Broadcom is buying cybersecurity company Symantec’s enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in cash. The deal is part of Broadcom’s ongoing effort to diversify beyond its memory chip business.Broadcom expects the transaction to generate more than $1 billion of run-rate cost syner...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 9, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending August 9

Scott Hinkle Specialty chemistry company Hallstar named current chief financial officer Scott Hinkle as president of Hallstar Services. Hinkle, who has been finance chief at the company since October 2018, will retain his CFO title and responsibilities. Prior for Hallstar, he was CFO for EnviroVa...

By Joan Urdang • Aug. 9, 2019

When the International Tail Wags the Domestic Dog

This article is adapted from a presentation at the Turnaround Management Association’s 2019 Mid-America Regional Conference.At our firm we frequently find ourselves involved in transactions where, after much effort, we believe that we’ve set a distressed U.S.-based company on a glide path for a r...

By David McCann • Aug. 8, 2019

Pay Increases to Remain Flat in 2020: Study

U.S. employers are not planning big pay increases in 2020, despite a tight labor market, according to a survey from Willis Towers Watson.The 2019 General Industry Salary Budget Survey found employers are budgeting pay increases of between 2.9% and 3.1% for management employees, non-management emp...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 8, 2019

How Finance Leaders Can Hire and Keep Talent

CFOs who offer their teams a career culture based on experiences (rather than titles and promotions) and the ability to move between departments can reduce the compensation premium companies must offer to new hires by half, according to Gartner.In the current highly competitive labor market, fina...

By David McCann • Aug. 7, 2019

IT Outsourcing at a Five-Year High

Companies are outsourcing more of their total information technology budgets, after a drop last year, according to a study from Computer Economics.The study found the percentage of the total IT budget being spent on outsourcing increased from 9.4% in 2018 to 12.7% in 2019, hitting a five-year hig...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 6, 2019

Barneys New York Files for Bankruptcy; Closing Most Stores

Luxury department store chain Barneys New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after facing increasing rents and unsuccessful attempts to find a potential buyer for the iconic retailer.The retailer will close 15 of its 22 stores including five smaller concept stores and seven of its warehouses. I...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 6, 2019

Metric of the Month: How Quickly Businesses Adapt to New Risks

Risks pose a financial and reputational threat to organizations that can be disastrous if left unchecked. The good news is that the warning signs of risks are often hiding in plain sight for those careful enough to look. For example, there were plenty of early warning signs ahead of the Great Rec...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Aug. 6, 2019

IBM, Chainyard Launch Blockchain Network for Suppliers

IBM and blockchain consultancy Chainyard launched a blockchain network to improve manual supply chain management.The Trust Your Suppliers network is designed to improve supplier qualification, validation, onboarding, and life cycle information management. The companies said blockchain technology ...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 5, 2019

A Creative Way to Reduce Execs’ Taxes on Equity Pay

Like everyone, corporate executives want to minimize taxes on their compensation. Therefore, one of an employer’s goals when structuring executive pay is to minimize the tax burden on their most senior officers.But a dilemma persists for achieving this objective. Most top executives pay substanti...

By David McCann • Aug. 5, 2019

KPMG Fined $6.1 Million by U.K. Regulator

Accounting giant KPMG has been fined$6.1 million by the UK’s watchdog agency, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), for failing to properly audit client accounts at Bank of New York Mellon, the latest in a series of penalties levied on KPMG for poor performance.The FRC says KPMG, the auditor of ...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 2, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending August 2

Tom Kurrikoff Former TGI Fridays finance chief Tom Kurrikoff has been named CFO of fast-casual restaurant platform REGO Restaurant Group, the parent company of Quiznos and Taco Del Mar. At TGI Fridays, he led the sale of the company, completed debt financing, and refranchised over 300 company sto...

By Joan Urdang • Aug. 2, 2019

The London Stock Exchange Buys Refinitiv for $27B

The London Stock Exchange Group agreed to buy Refinitiv in a deal that will help the exchange compete with Bloomberg by combining data from the LSEG with Refinitiv’s analytics and distribution.Refinitiv shareholders will own a 37% stake in the LSEG. Including its debt, the all-share deal values R...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 1, 2019

Buybacks on Pace to Hit Record Level in 2019

Stock buybacks by S&P 500 companies are heading for another record year, raising alarms about declining levels of corporate cash.Goldman Sachs is now projecting that S&P 500 firms will spend $940 billion on share repurchases in 2019, easily beating last year’s record of $806.4 billion. To...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 1, 2019

BlackRock Raises $2 Billion for Global Credit Opportunities Fund

BlackRock has raised $2 billion for its flagship opportunistic credit fund, Global Credit Opportunities, as part of its push to establish a global private credit franchise.The fund invests in corporate credit assets across geographies and industries, the world’s largest asset manager said.Over th...

By Lauren Muskett • July 31, 2019

Uber Lays Off 400 People; Lyft Eliminates Chief Operating Officer Role

Uber and Lyft experienced separate staff shake-ups on Monday as Uber announced it will lay off 400 of its 1,200-member global marketing staff, and Lyft’s chief operating officer is leaving the company after 18 months on the job. Lyft will not hire a replacement.The nation’s two leading ride-shari...

By Lauren Muskett • July 30, 2019

J.P. Morgan Downgrades Starbucks to Neutral

J.P. Morgan lowered its rating on shares of Starbucks to neutral from overweight while saying the “upside from here is limited” since the stock has climbed more than 90% in the past 12 months.In a note to clients, J.P. Morgan analyst John Ivankoe added that post-earnings gains have taken the comp...

By Lauren Muskett • July 29, 2019

Pfizer and Mylan to Combine Off-Patent Drugs Businesses

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Mylan have reached a deal under which Mylan would combine with Upjohn, Pfizer’s off-patent medicines business, to create a new company.Under the deal, which is structured as an all-stock, reverse Morris trust transaction, Pfizer shareholders would own 57% of th...

By Lauren Muskett • July 29, 2019

Charles Schwab Buys USAA Investment Management Assets for $1.8B

Charles Schwab agreed to acquire the assets of USAA’s Investment Management Company for $1.8 billion in cash. This includes the brokerage and managed portfolio accounts.For Schwab, the deal adds over one million new accounts and approximately $90B in client assets.The companies have also agreed t...

By Lauren Muskett • July 26, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending July 26

Cheryl Miller AutoNation‘s chief financial officer, Cheryl Miller, has been named the car dealership chain’s CEO and president. Miller has been with the company since 2009 and CFO since 2014. She replaces Carl Liebert, who had only joined the company in March. AutoNation’s board and Liebert mutua...

By Joan Urdang • July 26, 2019