Small Business, Big Problems

Steven Preston is not one to refuse a thankless task. While transitioning out of the CFO role at $3.6 billion ServiceMaster, he agreed to stay on after the implosion of the firm’s auditor, Arthur Andersen, and then through what he calls the Sarbanes-Oxley “implementation war.”But then came an opp...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 1, 2008

Foreign Intelligence

Overseas markets seem to grow by the minute, luring ever smaller and younger U.S. companies with the promise of booming economies and lower costs. But for these relatively inexperienced firms, the dream of international expansion soon collides with reality: many companies find themselves unprepar...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Jan. 1, 2008

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

A Hedge-Fund Mystery

Last August was a bad month for the hedge-fund industry. According to fund tracker Barclay Hedge Ltd., about 75 percent of the 2,600 or so hedge funds that reported results for the month showed a loss, of about 1.4 percent on average. The week of August 6 was particularly cruel to quantitative eq...

By Edward Teach • Jan. 1, 2008

View from China: Growing out of Control

There’s a strong sense among foreign multinational executives that the door of opportunity is wide open in China, even as fears of recession have clouded growth prospects in the United States and Europe. This optimism is increasingly at odds with the view of China’s CFOs, many of whom are worried...

By Wu Chen • Jan. 1, 2008

Christmas Trees Are Rotten in Denmark

The Danish Christmas Tree Growers’ Association got something even worse than coal in its stocking this year: an indictment for serious economic crimes.The organization was charged with rigging prices for the trees — no small matter given that Denmark is the number-one exporter of Christmas trees ...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 21, 2007

Europe Woes Mount for Presstek

Presstek Inc. said it has widened an internal review of inventory issues and other business practices. The printing company already was looking into excess and obsolete inventory, receivables from distributors in Europe, and European revenue recognition practices. This caused the company to dela...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 20, 2007

Best of 2007: Smaller Businesses

Take a quick glance of our 2007 coverage of the issues facing smaller businesses lately.At first, it seems as though regulators and lawmakers are finally giving the small-cap companies a break. After all, 2007 saw the creation of a new auditing standard that took scalability for smaller businesse...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 20, 2007

Ex-School CFO May Get Lesson in Justice

A former CFO at a New York City parochial school has been charged with stealing nearly $120,000. Keith Martin, who worked at Monsignor Scanlon High School, was accused of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, the Bronx district attorney announced. He faces up to 15 years in p...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 18, 2007

What the 404 Delay Means for Small Companies

Shannon Greene, CFO of Tandy Leather Factory, doesn’t want to be a Section 404 guinea pig. As a $40 million market cap company, Tandy Leather is considered a non-accelerated filer by the Securities and Exchange Commission and thus hasn’t yet had to comply with the internal-control provision of th...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 12, 2007

One-year Delay on 404 in the Works

After a year of listening to lawmakers hound him for another delay of the date when small companies must comply with the internal-control provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox says he plans to supply such a reprieve. He intends to ask his...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 12, 2007

The SEC Wraps a Small-Biz Gift

Smaller public companies now have another avenue for raising capital following a rule change by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The four SEC commissioners have voted to amend the eligibility requirements for two securities registration forms, allowing smaller businesses to make shelf regi...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 11, 2007

Business Outlook Survey

As in Shakespeare’s “Richard the Third,” CFOs have entered a winter of discontent. The economic pessimism of finance chiefs in Europe and the US is plunging to new depths, according to our latest global survey of more than 1,200 senior finance executives conducted in conjunction with Tilburg Univ...

By Jason Karaian • Dec. 10, 2007

Meet the Family

Not long ago, the CFO of an Asian public company arrived at work to hear some startling news: the firm had just made a major acquisition. The deal hadn’t been arranged by the finance executive or his staff — they learned about it only that morning. It was not an impulsive purchase by the CEO. Nor...

By Don Durfee • Dec. 10, 2007

Employees Raiding 401(k)s, CFOs Say

The weakening American economy is beginning to take its toll on corporate employees where it hurts the most: their salaries and savings.The latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, which polls 573 finance chiefs in the U.S. and 1,275 globally, finds that year-end employ...

By Alan Rappeport • Dec. 5, 2007

CFOs’ Optimism Slumps to Record Low

The credit crisis and the falling dollar have sullied the moods of finance chiefs over the past few months, with their optimism about the U.S. economy falling to a record low in the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Business Outlook Survey. Many are calling for the Federal Reserve to cut intere...

By Alan Rappeport • Dec. 5, 2007

France Shares its Power Company with the Public

In its latest brush with capitalism, the French government has begun selling shares of state-owned power company Electricite de France. Proceeds, which the government hopes will be at least $7.38 billion, will be used to fund the country’s struggling universities, the Associated Press reported. D...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 3, 2007

Look Who’s Not Talking

Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal knows what happens when a CEO’s priorities differ from those of the company’s board of directors. Subprime losses notwithstanding, O’Neal got the ax in October after the board learned he had launched merger discussions with another bank before asking for the bo...

By Lori Calabro • Dec. 1, 2007

Budgeting: Bring It On

It’s no secret that budgeting is the bane of the CFO’s existence — an annual battle to wring information and concessions out of operating units while generating 45,000 spreadsheets that, in the end, provide a best-guess at the upcoming year’s results. But time-consuming as it is, the budgeting-an...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Dec. 1, 2007

View from Europe: From Russia, No Love

There were several ways to interpret recent remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who used a speech to his country’s parliament to take a swipe at the growing number of domestic companies hiring foreign executives to fill their management ranks. It could have simply been an effort to stir ...

By Janet Kersnar • Dec. 1, 2007

Acquiring Minds Want to Know

Whenever managers at private-equity firm The Watermill Group identify a likely takeover candidate, they look at the standard benchmarks. Those include a target’s earnings power and debt level, as well as intangibles like the competence of upper-level management. But in weighing a possible bid, th...

By John Edwards • Dec. 1, 2007

Big Spender

Inside the ornately vaulted church beside Manila Bay, thechildren could be forgiven their fidgeting. Sunday mass was endingand they were already thinking of the food and fun to come.At last, the mass came to an end, and the 200 or so worshippersdutifully filed out of the Shrine of Jesus, the Way,...

By Cesar Bacani • Dec. 1, 2007

CFO Exits, Stock Price Soars

A company announces that its CFO, another key finance official, and a third executive are departing — and Wall Street appears unconcerned? Yes, and in fact, “overjoyed” might be a better word. After Solarfun Power Holdings announced the skake-up Thursday morning, its shares shot up more than 25 ...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 29, 2007

Forex Fears

Asia’s CFOs may have dodged a bullet last summer when the worst of thecredit crisis passed them by. But many have taken a direct hit fromanother side — the continuedfall of the U.S. dollar and the sharp rise of local currencies. Since thestart of the year,the Thai baht is up 12 percent against th...

By Don Durfee • Nov. 28, 2007

Is Your Overseas Subsidiary a Cash Cow?

When executives at U.S.-based, middle-market companies decide to expand into international markets, management’s aim is usually to set up manufacturing and distribution facilities closer to burgeoning economies. What many managers may not realize, however, is that they also may be constructing a ...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 26, 2007

Topps Hits Bottom, Plans to Liquidate

The company at the center of the nation’s second-largest beef recall is on the verge of extinction.The Topps Meat Co., a leading maker of frozen hamburgers, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, meaning it plans to liquidate, the Associated Press reported. The company has up to 10,000 creditors and...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 26, 2007