M&A: Back-to-School Doldrums

In a run-up week to a national U.S. holiday, in which equity markets remained volatile, North American merger and acquisition activity slowed to a crawl.Twenty-seven deals were announced the week ending September 2, with a total disclosed value of $4.4 billion, according to mergermarket. That’s d...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 6, 2011

The Humbling of Brand USA

Looking at the United States as a brand, how much is that intangible asset worth? According to one educated guess, $1.2 trillion less than it was five months ago.That’s from U.K.-based Brand Finance, which claims to be the world’s largest brand-valuation service. Corporate customers use the firm ...

By David McCann • Sept. 1, 2011

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

How Not to Grow

Remember that essential business tool, the PalmPilot? In the 1990s, any businessperson who wanted to be “with it” had his or her Palm at the ready, to make appointments and look up phone numbers. As recently as five years ago Palm Inc. remained at the top of the game, a $1.6 billion company boast...

By Alix Stuart • Sept. 1, 2011

Some Help from the Big Boys

September is National Preparedness Month, and as we reach the peak of hurricane season, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking on a new role: that of corporate ombudsman. Under a relatively new program, it is working with large companies to learn how they approach business continuity, ...

By Marielle Segarra • Sept. 1, 2011

A Double Dip? CFOs Are Divided

Just when we thought the new normal might bear a passing resemblance to the old normal, along came August. The mid-month market meltdown revived talk of a double-dip recession, and left everyone looking for someone to blame.We surveyed 300 CFOs on those issues the week of August 8, smack in the m...

By Scott Leibs • Sept. 1, 2011

M&A Deals: Big Deals, Big Risks

(Data for the following was provided to CFO by mergermarket.)The yo-yo equity markets didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for big-ticket deals last week, as companies in several industries plunked down sizable amounts of cash for acquisitions. Not only were the deals large, but some were transformative ...

By Vincent Ryan • Aug. 22, 2011

Trouble Ahead for Multiple-Employer Retirement Plans?

In a surprise development, Department of Labor representatives recently noted to a group of retirement-plan practitioners that a multiple-employer plan (MEP) may not satisfy the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) if there is not a sufficient “connection” between t...

By Jeff Mamorsky • Aug. 18, 2011

How to Become a Portfolio-Company CFO

Many finance executives dream of becoming the CFO of a private-equity portfolio company. While breaking into that clubby market can be hard, “everyone has to do it for the first time,” notes Sean Carroll, an executive recruiter for private-equity and other investment firms with Polachi Inc. Landi...

By Alix Stuart • Aug. 17, 2011

40% of CFOs Didn’t Get a Raise Last Year

A recent survey of CFOs by MyCFONetwork found that 40% of finance executives at both public and private companies did not get a raise last year. Of those that did, most got no more than a 3% bump. Where does your compensation stand? Take our one-question poll to benchmark your salary increase aga...

By Alix Stuart • Aug. 16, 2011

Five Ways to Curb Fraud

This excerpt boils down the essential elements of one of CFO’s more popular articles from the past month. To read the full article, click here.CFO interviewed more than a dozen experts and examined several notable legal cases and compliance failures to determine the five most effective things fin...

By Kimberly Blanton • Aug. 11, 2011

Sending Out the Bill(ing)

Golf clubs and running shoes ship out every day from the facilities of sporting-goods maker Puma  to 11,000 retailers across the country like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker. And every time they ship, a new invoice is created. That can yield up to 2500 invoices per day, all of which Puma em...

By Alix Stuart • Aug. 9, 2011

Always Growing Means Always Recruiting

The technology-assisted rise of continuous recruiting — finding candidates for positions that aren’t even open — is a perfect fit for high-growth companies that must be vigilant about not getting caught short at a time of acute need.New software products such as CareerBuilder’s Talent Network are...

By David McCann • Aug. 8, 2011

Will M&A Bidders Hit Pause?

(Data for the following is provided to CFO by mergermarket.)As the major stock indices fell last week, target firms that previously scorned what they deemed lowball bids were trading at discounts to the prices buyers were offering. Ralcorp Holdings, Temple-Inland, M&F Worldwide, and Dollar Th...

By Vincent Ryan • Aug. 8, 2011

The Price of Being a Private-Company CFO

Being a CFO for a private company looks like a pretty good gig these days, what with the agonizing gyrations of the public markets. But those jobs seem to come at the price of lower compensation, at least in terms of cash.  According to a new survey by MyCFOnetwork, a group for finance executives...

By Alix Stuart • Aug. 8, 2011

What Do You Make of the Dow’s Drop?

Just when it seemed the Dow might crest 13,000, a series of unfortunate events in Washington, Europe, and elsewhere sent global stock markets tumbling.  That’s good news if you’re a cable news commentator, because chattering away about a tepid recovery gets old fast. It’s also good news if you’re...

By Scott Leibs • Aug. 8, 2011

Online Banking Fraud: Who Pays?

In the movie “The Town,” actor Ben Affleck dons an impressive array of disguises as he holds up banks, employing everything from goblin masks to nun habits. When it comes to draining corporate bank accounts, though, most thieves are masquerading in a more muted way: as finance executives. While i...

By Alix Stuart • Aug. 1, 2011

Have Project, Will Travel

Some finance executives fill time between jobs by signing on with agencies that provide consultants to perform temporary or interim financial services. For Tom Jones, who works for one such firm, DLC, the gig is as permanent as most others.Jones has worked for DLC under annual employment contract...

By David McCann • Aug. 1, 2011

Chipping Away at Ratings Reform

Various postmortems of the financial crisis have resulted in a consistent theory: that to some extent, regulators, investors, and companies have been overly reliant on credit-rating agencies, an industry dominated by three players (Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, and Fitch Ratin...

By Sarah Johnson • July 27, 2011

Debt Ceiling: Big Deal or Not?

With the calendar moving closer to August 2, the day the U.S. government will run out of funds to pay its obligations if Congress doesn’t raise the federal debt ceiling, finance executives may need to prepare for the worst. But the possibility of the government defaulting on its debt is keeping o...

By Alix Stuart • July 20, 2011

Debt Ceiling: Big Deal or Not?

With the calendar moving closer to August 2, the day the U.S. government will run out of funds to pay its obligations if Congress doesn’t raise the federal debt ceiling, finance executives may need to prepare for the worst. But the possibility of the government defaulting on its debt is keeping o...

By Alix Stuart • July 20, 2011

Pricing Software for All?

CFO welcomes your letters. Send them to: The Editor, CFO, 51 Sleeper St., Boston, MA 02210E-mail us at [email protected], or contact a specific author by clicking on his or her byline. You can also post a comment directly on CFO.com by clicking on the appropriate link at the end of any article.P...

By CFO Readers • July 18, 2011

Treading Water

Finance chiefs’ spirits have hit the summer doldrums. Buffeted by bad news about rising oil and commodity prices, declining home sales, bouts of severe weather at home and abroad, and ongoing global political instability, CFOs are less optimistic than they were last quarter, according to the late...

By Kate O'Sullivan • July 15, 2011

What’s in Store for Consumers?

Consumer demand, long a top concern of CFOs as measured by our quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey (see “Treading Water“), has been the focus of intense study of late. A new report from Boston Consulting Group, released in June and based on a survey of 24,000 wor...

By CFO Editorial Staff • July 15, 2011

A Feel for the Deal

With substantial stores of cash on hand, companies continue to toss more money into mergers and acquisitions. The total value of M&A has jumped by 39% this year compared with this time last year, although the number of deals is down, according to a recent tally by PricewaterhouseCoopers.But s...

By Marielle Segarra • July 15, 2011

Sources of Misery

As a compliance manager at TriQuint Semiconductor, John Sharp has spent much of the past year focused on one little-known compliance rule before it goes into effect. To satisfy it, he must query hundreds of suppliers to figure out the origin of some 450 materials used in his company’s products. I...

By Sarah Johnson • July 15, 2011