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

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

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

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

Catch-23

After DynCorp’s bid on a $40 million contract to maintain the C-141 cargo plane at Oklahoma’s Altus Air Force Base was turned down (along with several other competitors’) by the Department of Defense last year, president and CEO Paul Lombardi could hardly conceal his disgust. “It left a bad taste...

By Michelle Celarier • June 1, 1998

Up Close and Virtual

To high-tech companies, outsourcing and alliances are old hat; the pace of technology makes going it alone difficult for even the largest businesses. But EMC Corp., in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is pushing these strategies to new lengths. Since 1990, the maker of enterprise data storage systems ha...

By Kris Frieswick • April 1, 1998

Making Your Mark

Don DeNovellis is riding high on the power of branding. As CFO of $250 million Ekco Group Inc., DeNovellis recently helped mount a successful turnaround at the Nashua, New Hampshire-based company following its record loss of $30 million.Last year, the provider of kitchenware and bakeware, animal ...

By Russ Banham • March 1, 1998

Fighting Words

To the list of venues where intangible property has tangible asset value, add this one: The federal court system. Emboldened by Congress’s creation in 1983 of what many lawyers have come to view as a patent-friendly federal appellate court, and by a 1996 Supreme Court decision giving judges more ...

By Randy Myers • March 1, 1998

Sliced, Diced, and Still Obscure

When the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) adopted new rules for reporting the results of business segments last June, a snicker could be heard in finance departments from New York to L.A.In theory, Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 131 granted financial analysts their long-cherished ...

By Ian Springsteel • Feb. 1, 1998

HELL IN YOUR HALLWAYS

Mention the risk of violence in the workplace, and most people probably imagine mayhem inside post offices, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants. Their first thought certainly isn’t of a corporate setting.But if you assume you’re automatically safe within an office, consider this: 14 wor...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Jan. 1, 1998

On the Stand

Most chief financial officers don’t expect a day’s work to involve being a key actor in a courtroom drama. But with a rise in claims against corporations and renewed litigation accompanying today’s surging mergers activity, they’d better get prepared.At least that’s the view of such attorneys as ...

By Michelle Celarier • Jan. 1, 1998

Hell in Your Hallways

Mention the risk of violence in the workplace, and most people probably imagine mayhem inside post offices, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants. Their first thought certainly isn’t of a corporate setting.But if you assume you’re automatically safe within an office, consider this: 14 wor...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Jan. 1, 1998

Pepsi’s Next Generation of Purchasing

Category WinnerVendor ProcessingWhen Pepsi-Cola North America started to re- design vendor processing five years ago, controller and vice president Peter Bridgman figured the toughest part would be designing and implementing the new system. Sure enough, Richard Maddi, group manager, supplier serv...

By Ian Springsteel • Dec. 1, 1997

Where Credit Is Due

What’s wrong with this picture? Six years into the current economic expansion, both stock prices and personal bankruptcies are at record levels. A case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Maybe, maybe not. This much is clear: Companies that depend on consumer credit for much o...

By Robert Stowe England • Nov. 1, 1997