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

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

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

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

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

Gloom over Economy Reaches Corporate CPAs

Recent problems in the subprime-mortgage and credit markets have left certified public accountants serving as senior executives feeling gloomy about the economy, according to a new survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.Fourth-quarter results fell to their lowest levels ...

By Alan Rappeport • Nov. 16, 2007

New SEC Rules Offer a Small-Biz Boost

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved new rules Thursday to make it easier for small businesses to raise capital through private offerings, issue stock options, and make regulatory filings.Most notably, the holding period for restricted securities was shortened from a year to six months...

By Alan Rappeport • Nov. 16, 2007

The Rich List

In the fast-consolidating steel sector, with multi-billion euro megadeals now commonplace, Salzgitter has kept a low profile. In March, when news broke that the German steel group was sizing up Algoma, a Canadian rival, expectations of a bidding war among cash-rich trade and financial buyers push...

By Randy Myers and Jason Karaian • Nov. 5, 2007

Food Fighters

Lounging at a linen-covered table, watching the crowd reflected in the engraved mirrors at Paris’ exquisite art deco brasserie Le Boeuf sur le Toit, one could hardly feel further removed from the hectic Big Mac queues amid the formed plastic tables of “McDo’s” around the corner at 140 Champs Elys...

By Laura Cameron and Tony McAuley • Nov. 5, 2007

Group Therapy

A plane crashes in the desert and six survivors are left to choose what items to salvage. Should they take a gun? Salt tablets? Heavy overcoats? How about a cosmetics mirror? With 15 possibilities and limited time to make their choices, the group must quickly prioritize.You might think that a hig...

By Alix Stuart • Nov. 1, 2007

China’s Next Miracle?

Barred from U.S. shores for 15 years, China’s banks may soon reestablish a beachhead here. As summer ended, the Federal Reserve was evaluating applications from China Merchants Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to open full-fledged branches in New York. The New York State Ba...

By Vincent Ryan • Nov. 1, 2007

The Host with the Most

At the September unveiling of SAP’s latest product offering — a hosted application aimed at midsize businesses — company officials extolled the virtues of rented software. “Globalization and digitalization are creating a new world of business,” noted CEO Henning Kagermann. “[This] fundamental shi...

By John Edwards • Nov. 1, 2007

Can This Retirement Be Saved?

Whether you are contemplating retirement in the near term or further down the road, you’ve no doubt run plenty of numbers, from asset-allocation percentages to investment returns to vesting schedules. Maybe you’ve even taken a guess at your estimated lifespan.But you may not have calculated the p...

By Clint Willis • Nov. 1, 2007

Ingersoll-Rand Settles Iraq Kickback Charges

Ingersoll-Rand Co. has agreed to pay $6.7 million to settle charges that subsidiaries paid illegal kickbacks to the Iraq government relating to sales of humanitarian goods under the United Nations’ Oil for Food Program. The company agreed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to the entry ...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 31, 2007

CFO’s Lie Costs Indonesia Company $500K

Indonesia’s state oil company was fined $500,000 by a New York court for the “intentional” false deposition of its former chief financial officer, according to the Financial Times. Judge Thomas Griesa determined that Ainin Na’im, former finance chief at Pertamina, lied in a dispute with Karaha B...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 30, 2007

T&E Budgeter’s Lament: Spending Shocks Ahead

Travel and entertainment spending is due for another jolt next year — with a 6-percent rise in the average U.S.-based trip that involves air fare, rental car, and hotel — according to this year’s American Express Global Business Travel Forecast, out just in time for the corporate budgeting cycle....

By Roy Harris • Oct. 23, 2007

Small-Town Treasurers Gone Wild

A pair of Andy Fastow-wannabes who were treasurers for small villages are in big trouble for embezzling funds in separate cases. In Wisconsin, Kim Simmelink, former clerk and treasurer of the Village of Oostburg, was charged with 10 felonies for allegedly embezzling more than $56,000 from the vi...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 23, 2007

Six Accused in PIPE Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two short sellers and four corporate insiders with running an illegal scheme using PIPEs, or private investments in public equity. The short sellers, Zev Saltsman and Menachem Eitan, were accused along with Edward Newman and Steven Newman, fo...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 23, 2007

Survey: CFO Optimism at Three-Year Low

For at least the second time this quarter, CFOs have registered a glum outlook the economy and their companies’ business prospects. Financial Executives International and Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business reported that its CFO Optimism Index for the U.S. economy fell 4.5 percentage poin...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 17, 2007

IPOs: The Formula for Success

Why are some initial public offerings more successful than others? According to a new study by Ernst & Young, common factors among those that have worked out well include the age of the company and its CEO, whether the company has a global operation, and the breadth of investor support. But s...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 17, 2007