Bad Chat and Cybersmears

Many companies battle the effects of bad chat and cybersmears — disparaging material posted on the Internet’s many bulletin boards, message boards, newsrooms, and other common areas. These battles often result in lawsuits for defamation, business disparagement, tortious interference with a contra...

By Courtney L. Birnbaum and Dori Ann Hanswirth • Oct. 1, 2000

Building a Better Bureaucracy

Al Gore’s personal involvement aside, there’s no doubt that the federal government can take credit for creating the Internet. But while E- commerce is now routinely discussed in such terms as “B2B” and “B2C,” the letter “G” has been conspicuously absent.No longer. Government entities from Capitol...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Oct. 1, 2000

Top Cops of Risk

Michael Hofmann’s job didn’t exist in January. In February, Hofmann became the first chief risk officer (CRO) of Wichita-based Koch Industries Inc., a privately held diversified energy company. His title gives him oversight responsibility for several risk-related areas that had previously been ke...

By Russ Banham • Sept. 1, 2000

No Shareholders Allowed

Everyone hates to be ignored, especially shareholders. But according to a recent finding by the Investor Responsibility Research Center, they should be used to it. The data showed that between 1998 and the first quarter of 2000, only 15 percent of the nonbinding shareholder proposals approved by ...

By Kris Frieswick • Aug. 1, 2000

Information for All. Will Companies Clam Up?

The mantra is: a level playing field for all investors. But the recently approved Securities and Exchange Commission rule that seeks to eliminate selective disclosure may redefine the relationship between companies and the analysts that cover them so that less, not more, information is available....

By Kris Frieswick • Aug. 1, 2000

The Whisper Game

At a time when finance executives have become adept at managing Wall Street expectations, a new hurdle has entered the realm of investor relations: whisper numbers.And unlike the estimates of a cadre of analysts, whisper earnings expectations have a secret life of their own. “With the whisper-num...

By Stephen Barr • July 1, 2000

Power Struggle

When Jonathan Swann took a job in the corporate finance department at The Limited Inc., in 1995, he was happy to escape the turmoil at Dayton Power & Light, which was struggling with the pending deregulation of the electric industry. The Limited, a $9.7 billion (in revenues) clothing retailer...

By Tim Reason • June 1, 2000

Better Balance

While shareholder lawsuits show no sign of abating, the recent settlement of a class-action suit against Cendant Corp. may represent a sea change in securities litigation. Yet that change has less to do with the unprecedented size of the settlement than with the fact that institutional investors ...

By Andrew Osterland • June 1, 2000

Whatever the Weather

Like a farmer in the Great Depression, Peter Cox battled Mother Nature with little more than skyward eyes and mumbled hopes. Although the CFO of United Grain Growers (UGG) has never tilled an acre, he knows full well that the earnings of the Winnipeg, Manitoba-based grain handler, with $120 milli...

By Russ Banham • June 1, 2000

Going Virtual

The first 800-pound gorillas of the business-to-business (B2B) E- commerce world arrived on the same day last November, when, hours apart, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. announced they were establishing Internet trading exchanges for their supply chains. Each giant automaker annually buy...

By Edward Teach • May 1, 2000

Tasting One’s Own Medicine

It’s a pension fund that makes companies flinch. Some may find it ironic, then, that the friend of shareholders, pension giant TIAA- CREF, has shareholder problems of its own.The $280 billion fund has been nagged lately by a group of advocates for “socially positive” investing, who claim TIAA-CRE...

By George Donnelly • May 1, 2000

Hazards of the Deal

Last year, the deal consolidating six metals-finishing companies into Lombard Technologies faced a potential roadblock. The private equity firm funding the amalgamation, Miami-based HIG Capital Management, wanted assurance that any as-yet-undiscovered pollution problems wouldn’t crop up one day a...

By Russ Banham • May 1, 2000

Blanketing Intellectual Risk

Insurance to protect intellectual property (IP) has been around for several years, but until recently, it usually offered too little for too much. Now Aon Corp., in Denver, has introduced a “risk-transfer service” that offers blanket protection of intellectual property assets.In the past, IP insu...

By John P. Mello Jr. • May 1, 2000

Show and Tell

James O’Donnell still isn’t sure what hit ConAgra Inc. When the Omaha-based food giant was preparing to release its third- quarter earnings last year, CFO O’Donnell invited analysts and portfolio managers to participate in a 9:00 a.m. conference call. He was eager to boast about the company’s 20 ...

By Stephen Barr • March 1, 2000

What Chinese Wall?

Do the research  and underwriting arms of securities firms collude to generate corporate finance business? Do analysts pull their punches to foster and preserve investment banking deals? After all, 70 percent of analyst reports carry a buy rating, but only 1 percent a sell. Or consider that analy...

By Stephen Barr • March 1, 2000

Direct Hit

“Breakout year” is the kind of term executives like to avoid when discussing short-term prospects. The brass at Hughes Electronics Corp., though, isn’t shy about it.“Breakout- -I like that word,” says chairman and CEO Michael T. Smith, musing on how some analysts describe the months ahead for the...

By Roy Harris • March 1, 2000

Don’t Let Branding Burn You

In the frenzied world of beverage marketing, a contamination scare can quickly turn today’s top drink into tomorrow’s sour aftertaste. So even as South Beach Beverage Co. works overtime to solidify its SoBe brand as a big-time name in health drinks, it faces a second challenge that is almost as i...

By Russ Banham • Feb. 1, 2000

How the Web was Won

If you logged on to the Internet and wanted to find out about the latest quarterly earnings for International Paper Co., you would need to look no further than the corporate home page (www.internationalpaper.com). Right there, in the middle of the computer screen, you’d find a green hyperlink lab...

By Stephen Barr • Feb. 1, 2000

When Loose Lips Delay IPOs

Nothing like spanking an unruly child in front of class to get the attention of the other children. Web-van Group, a heavily capitalized online grocery store with little revenue but abundant ambition, pulled back its initial public offering in early October after the Securities and Exchange Commi...

By George Donnelly • Dec. 1, 1999

In Pursuit of Cybersquatters

What’s in a name? Hamburger giant Wendy’s International Inc. is about to find out. Wendy’s recently filed a lawsuit against Beswick Adams Corp. for allegedly registering a number of Internet domain names (Web addresses, such as www.wendysrestaurants.com) that were closely related to its trademark...

By Kris Frieswick • Nov. 1, 1999

Details, Details

When Reebok International Ltd., International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF), and Technitrol announced their earnings in the second quarter, they characteristically declined to publish a full income statement or balance sheet at the same time. The practice is unusual for corporations, and is...

By Leslie Schultz • Oct. 1, 1999

A New Day in Court

It was a runaway record for punitive damages. In 1978, a California jury awarded $125 million to a boy injured when his Ford Pinto was rear-ended and its gas tank exploded. Using internal Ford memos, plaintiffs’ attorneys convinced the panel that the automaker saved less than $15 per car by going...

By S.L. Mintz • Sept. 1, 1999

A New Day In Court

It was a runaway record for punitive damages. In 1978, a California jury awarded $125 million to a boy injured when his Ford Pinto was rear-ended and its gas tank exploded. Using internal Ford memos, plaintiffs’ attorneys convinced the panel that the automaker saved less than $15 per car by going...

By S.L. Mintz • Sept. 1, 1999

They’re Singin’ in the Rain

You could call it a weather swap. This past winter in Rhode Island was extraordinarily warm, melting away revenues of Valley Resources Inc., a Cumberland, Rhode Island­ based public utility holding company. But Valley Resources, with $81.6 million in 1998 consolidated revenues, had prepared by pu...

By Russ Banham • Aug. 1, 1999

The Suharto Road to Excess

The turmoil that has swept Asia, has descended upon Russia, and now threatens Latin America raises a question about U.S. joint ventures there. Can these ventures withstand the kind of upheaval that has toppled the Suharto Suharto regime in Indonesia and may threaten ruling cliques in other market...

By Michelle Celarier • Nov. 1, 1998