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

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

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

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

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