GDP Growth Slows to 2.1% in Second Quarter

Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.1% in the second quarter of 2019, down from 3.1%, the Commerce Department said, as falling business investment was offset by an increase in spending by consumers.Economists polled by MarketWatch said they expected an increase of 1.9%.It...

By Lauren Muskett • July 26, 2019

Nissan to Cut 12,500 Jobs After Profit Plunge

Japan’s second-biggest automaker is cutting 12,500 jobs — about 9% of its workforce — in a turnaround effort after reporting a 99% plunge in operating earnings. The car maker also plans to cut global production and model lineups by 10% by the end of fiscal 2022.The job cuts, the company’s most si...

By Lauren Muskett • July 25, 2019

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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

Facebook Hit with Record $5B Fine Over Privacy Breaches

The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion and ordered the company to take steps to improve its oversight of users’ personal data as part of a settlement.The fine, approved in a 3-to-2 vote by FTC commissioners this month, was a record by the federal government against a tech company....

By Lauren Muskett • July 24, 2019

New Top Emerging Risk: Pace of Change

Companies are, of course, concerned about their ability to keep up with a rapidly changing business landscape. But driving that, in part, are concerns about their own lagging and misconceived digitalization strategies.So says Gartner in its latest Emerging Risks Monitor Report. In a second-quarte...

By David McCann • July 24, 2019

Microsoft Invests $1B in Artificial Intelligence Startup

Microsoft is investing $1 billion to partner with Elon Musk’s OpenAI to focus on creating artificial general intelligence — an AI system that can learn and understand intellectual tasks that humans can do.“The creation of AGI will be the most important technological development in human history, ...

By Lauren Muskett • July 23, 2019

Fire Forces Philadelphia Energy Solutions to File for Bankruptcy

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), which operates the largest oil refinery on the East Coast, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after an explosion and fire in June.Multiple giant explosions erupted at the refinery and closed the plant. One explosion was so large it was detected fro...

By Lauren Muskett • July 22, 2019

Etsy Buying Musical Instrument Marketplace Reverb

Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods is buying Reverb, a marketplace for new, used, and vintage musical instruments, for $275 million in cash. Reverb will operate as a standalone business when the deal closes.Reverb helps Etsy expand into a new vertical, with a company that has a simil...

By Lauren Muskett • July 22, 2019

PepsiCo to Buy South Africa’s Pioneer Foods for $1.7B

PepsiCo is pressing ahead into the African food market, agreeing to acquire Pioneer Foods Group of South Africa in a bid to expand its international growth. The approximately $1.7 billion transaction, announced today, will give PepsiCo control of one of South Africa’s biggest food and be...

By Sam Silverstein • July 19, 2019

Pier 1 Appoints New CFO and President

Pier 1 Imports named Robert Riesbeck chief financial officer starting July 22. He succeeds Deborah Rieger-Paganis who has been interim CFO since April after Nancy Walsh left the struggling home furnishing retailer.Riesbeck was most recently chief financial officer of Fullbeauty Brands. He leaves ...

By Lauren Muskett • July 19, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending July 19

Suk Shah Retail mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate has chosen Suk Shah to fill the top finance spot. He formerly headed finance for the U.S. and Canadian divisions of a global commercial bank. Shah began his career with General Electric and spent over eight years with the company in various finance ...

By Joan Urdang • July 19, 2019

10 Steps to Effective Finance Staff Meetings

First, a confession: What I’m about to tell you applies to meetings of any department in an organization, not just finance.A high-functioning team needs to have a weekly meeting to make sure it stays on track with goals. That goes for finance, the company leadership team, the HR team, or any part...

By Mitchell York • July 18, 2019

U.S. Housing Starts Decline in June

U.S. homebuilding fell again in June for its second straight month and permits have dropped to a two-year low, despite lower mortgage rates.The Commerce Department reported that housing starts fell 0.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.253 million units last month, but were 6.2% above th...

By Lauren Muskett • July 17, 2019

Nomura to Pay Misled Bond Customers $25 Million

Nomura Securities International agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it failed to adequately supervise traders in mortgage-backed securities.Regulators said Nomura bond traders made false and misleading statements to customers while negotiat...

By Lauren Muskett • July 16, 2019

Barnes & Noble Education Rejects Several Offers from Bay Capital

Barnes & Noble Education’s board has rejected multiple offers from Bay Capital Finance over the past six months, while the company’s shares have lost nearly 40% of their value since the first all-cash offer.In an announcement on Tuesday, the board of Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) conclu...

By Lauren Muskett • July 16, 2019

Consumers Boost Citigroup’s Second-Quarter Performance

Thanks to Citigroup‘s global consumer banking franchise and a one-time gain from an IPO, Citigroup posted a solid second quarter. Revenues and profits rose despite poor performance in trading and investment banking.Revenue in Citigroup’s global consumer bank rose 3% to $8.5 billion as profit clim...

By Vincent Ryan • July 15, 2019

China Posts Lowest Economic Growth in 27 Years

The incendiary trade war with the United States has resulted in China reporting its lowest economic growth in nearly three decades.According to reports from the Chinese government on Monday, the gross domestic product of China increased 6.2% in the quarter ended June, the slowest quarterly growth...

By Lauren Muskett • July 15, 2019

AB InBev Scraps Mega-IPO of Asian Business

Anheuser Busch InBev has cancelled what would have been the year’s largest IPO as investors apparently balked at its valuation of its Asian business.The world’s largest brewer cited “prevailing market conditions” in announcing it would not proceed with the listing of Budweiser APAC on the Hong Ko...

By Matthew Heller • July 15, 2019

Hackers Steal $32 Million in Cryptocurrency

Bitpoint lost $32 million and suspended all services on Friday in the latest breach of a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange.Parent company Remixpoint said that $23 million of the stolen funds belonged to Bitpoint customers, while the remainder belonged to the exchange itself. The company will compe...

By Lauren Muskett • July 12, 2019

U.S. Producer Prices Rise 0.1% in June

U.S producer prices rose slightly in June, providing further evidence of a low inflation environment as the Federal Reserve considers a possible interest rate cut.The Labor Department reported Friday that the producer-price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in June from a month earlier, with ...

By Matthew Heller • July 12, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending July 12

Michael McLaughlin Michael McLaughlin will fill the top finance spot at analytics software firm FICO, starting August 3. He takes over from Mike Pung, who announced his retirement in January but will stay on with the company through the end of the year. McLaughlin currently is managing director a...

By Joan Urdang • July 12, 2019

U.S. Budget Deficit Increases 23% in Nine Months

The U.S. budget deficit increased $140 billion to $741.1 billion for the first nine months of the fiscal year, an increase of 23.1% over the same period last year, according to the Treasury Department.The Trump administration is projecting the deficit will top $1 trillion for the full fiscal year...

By Lauren Muskett • July 12, 2019

Reckitt Benckiser to Pay $1.4B in U.S. Opioid Treatment Settlement

U.K. consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to end federal investigations into how it marketed an opioid addiction treatment drug by its former prescription pharmaceuticals business Indivior.In an announcement, RB has reached agreements with the U.S. Departme...

By Lauren Muskett • July 11, 2019

Amazon to Spend $700 Million to Upskill Employees

Amazon plans to spend $700 million to retrain 100,000 workers, one-third of all U.S. employees, by 2025 to help them move into more advanced jobs or find new careers.The company said the program entails expansions of its existing training programs and the introduction of new ones.The training wil...

By Lauren Muskett • July 11, 2019

Virgin Galactic IPO Ready for Takeoff

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism venture backed by Richard Branson, announced it is going public through a merger with a publicly traded special purpose vehicle.Under the deal, Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH) will own a 49% stake in the new company. SCH trades on the New York Stock Exchange.The...

By Lauren Muskett • July 10, 2019

Fed Chair Powell Signals a Rate Cut is Coming

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinted at a rate cut later this month as he told Congress on Wednesday that trade tensions and concerns about global growth have slowed U.S. business investments.In his semi-annual monetary report to Congress, Powell said that based on incoming data and othe...

By Lauren Muskett • July 10, 2019