CFOs to Watch 2019: Will They Sink or Swim?

Several themes pop out in our fifth annual lineup of CFOs who we’ll be observing closely in the next year.First, all of the finance chiefs hail from companies that face powerful competitors and tumultuous industry changes: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Macy’s, Ford, to name three. Second, all of thei...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 9, 2019

Special Report: Government Fixes for the Retirement Problem

Companies want their older employees to afford a timely, secure retirement. That’s not simply altruism: such workers tend to be highly paid, consume more health care, and miss work more often than others, and block the upward mobility of younger high achievers who may become frustrated and leave ...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 9, 2019

Explore the Trendline➔

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

Cannabis Operator Nixes Deal, Fires CFO

Cannabis dispensary company MedMen Enterprises announced Tuesday it has terminated the deal to acquire multi-state cannabis operator Pharmacann. The company is also terminating its chief financial officer, Michael Kramer.In a conversation with Benzinga, MedMen CEO Adam Bierman explained the compa...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 8, 2019

Boeing to Invest $20 Million in Virgin Galactic

Boeing’s venture arm Horizon X is investing $20 million in Virgin Galactic, the space-tourism venture founded by Richard Branson. Virgin Galactic has invested $1 billion to develop reusable spaceflight systems to create space tourism.The investment comes as Virgin Galactic prepares to list public...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 8, 2019

Should the Chairman and CEO Roles Be Held Separately?

The question of whether the roles of chairman and chief executive officer should be held by separate individuals has long been a source of conversations, and sometimes conflicts, in boardrooms and among shareholders.Zuckerberg: Faced ouster as chairman Only last May, Facebook CEO and co-founder M...

By David McCann • Oct. 8, 2019

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Amazon Bid to Block Worker Suit

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a petition by Amazon and a contractor, Integrity Staffing Solutions, that sought to dismiss a lawsuit from warehouse workers who were seeking pay for the time they spent in post-shift security screenings.In their 2010 lawsuit, the workers said the scree...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 7, 2019

New York Sues Student Loan Servicer

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, saying the agency has failed to properly administer the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was created to encourage graduates to work in public service by off...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 4, 2019

6 Cybersecurity Misconceptions

It seems like every few months we hear about a major hack or data breach affecting millions of people. This summer, it was Capital One and some 100 million Americans whose personal data was harvested. Increasingly, it’s small and midsize businesses that are the target of cyberattacks, and because...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 4, 2019

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending October 4

Shake Shack promoted CFO Tara Comonte to the expanded role of president and CFO. Comonte joined the fast-casual food chain in 2017 and has more than 20 years of strategy, finance, technology, and operations experience in the public and private sector, spending much of her career at global media a...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 4, 2019

Samsung, Finablr Partner on Cross-Border Payments

Samsung and global payments platform Finablr announced they have launched an in-app international money transfer service. Under the arrangement, Samsung Pay users will be able to use the “Money Transfer” feature of the app to make cross-border payments to 47 countries, including India, Mexico, Ch...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 3, 2019

GM Idles Mexico Plant and Lays off 6,000 Workers as Strike Continues

General Motors idled a plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, temporarily laying off 6,000 workers, amid a strike by the United Auto Workers union that is pushing into its third week.The automaker cited a parts shortage due to the strike as the reason for the plant closure.The plant produced highly-profita...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 2, 2019

5 Keys to a Strong Employee Value Proposition

In today’s candidate-driven hiring market, marked by jobs growth, low unemployment, and high quit rates, employers need to ensure they’re positioning themselves as competitively as possible to attract and retain top-performing talent.Beyond the standard job description, a well-thought-out employe...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 2, 2019

Ford Partners with Mumbai-based Mahindra

Ford and Mahindra & Mahindra are forming a joint venture, valued at $275 million, to develop, market, and distribute Ford-branded vehicles in “high-growth emerging markets around the world.”Mahindra will own a 51% controlling stake, and Ford will own a 49% stake. The joint venture will be ope...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 1, 2019

AI is Ushering in a New Era of Integrated Receivables

The idea of implementing AI as part of a business process is often received with mixed feelings. Many believe that AI will take over jobs — or even entire industries. But in reality, fears may be overblown. Jobs, as we know them, may change, but adapting to innovative technologies will free up ti...

By Sayid Shabeer • Oct. 1, 2019

Blackstone to Buy Colony Warehouses for $5.9B

Private-equity giant Blackstone Group has agreed to acquire Colony Capital’s industrial warehouse business for $5.9 billion as it continues to build a logistics empire to support e-commerce.The deal, announced on Monday, includes 465 “last-mile” warehouses owned by Colony’s industrial platform. T...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 30, 2019

Fast and Easy G&A Cuts Won’t Cut It in the Next Downturn

More than half of executives who lead general and administrative (G&A) functions, including finance, expect a downturn this year or next, a new Bain & Company survey shows.The good news is that most believe the next downturn will be shallower and shorter than the last one, and will requir...

By David McCann • Sept. 30, 2019

Forever 21 Scaling Back Global Ambitions in Bankruptcy Plan

Retail chain Forever 21 has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, saying it plans to carry out a global restructuring to focus on its core operations while exiting most international locations in Asia and Europe. Its Canadian subsidiary also filed for bankruptcy, saying...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 30, 2019

Law Allowing College Players to Profit From Their Image Has Big Implications

We may be about to see the NCAA lose near-total control over athletes at the school with the most college basketball championships, UCLA, and those on the vaunted USC Trojan football team, a national brand, that has helped make Southern California a top-20 region in terms of college sports revenu...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 30, 2019

Flurry of SEC Cases Disclosed

As the U.S. government heads toward its September 30 fiscal year-end, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced a flurry of lawsuit settlements and charges against seven different organizations in two days. Three of the cases involved wrongdoing in China, and two of them involved viola...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 27, 2019

Mylan Settles Charges With SEC

Pharmaceutical company Mylan has agreed to pay $30 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting and disclosure failures relating to its EpiPen.According to the SEC’s complaint, Mylan classified the EpiPen, its largest revenue and profit-generating product,...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 27, 2019

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending September 27

Rahim Lakhani Letgo, an app to buy and sell locally, hired Rahim Lakhani as its first chief financial officer. Most recently, Lakhani was chief operating officer and CFO at online real estate platform OfferPad. Prior to that, he was CFO, India/Southeast Asia at Anheuser-Busch InBev and a vice pre...

By Joan Urdang • Sept. 27, 2019

AI Gets Real in Professional Services

Remember when researchers predicted that professional services jobs in industries like insurance, tax and accounting, and finance and legal would soon be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI)? That was in 2013 when AI was just starting to peak on the hype cycle, and headlines like “Your Next A...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 26, 2019

SoFi Launches Crypto-Trading Service

San Francisco-based fintech startup SoFi has launched a cryptocurrency trading service that allows users to trade bitcoin, ether, and litecoin. The company said it will add more cryptocurrencies in the coming months.The company said users will not be able to withdraw their cryptocurrencies to an ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 26, 2019

Juul Replaces CEO; Altria-Phillip Morris End Merger Talks

E-cigarette giant Juul Labs is undergoing a major corporate shakeup and two giant tobacco companies are ending merger discussions amid government criticism that the company’s advertising targets young people.Juul, which is the main target in several federal investigations, said CEO Kevin Burns wi...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 25, 2019

DOL Updates Overtime Rules

The United States Department of Labor released a final rule on overtime compensation, updating the earnings thresholds necessary to exempt executive, administrative, and professional employees from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.Under the new rule, emplo...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 25, 2019