CFOs On the Move: Week Ending January 29

Thad Trent will take over as CFO at ON Semiconductor on February 16. Trent has held several leadership roles throughout his nearly 30-year finance career, most recently as finance chief at Cypress Semiconductor. Under his leadership, revenue at Cypress increased from $723 million to $2.5 billion,...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 29, 2021

Visa Beats Estimates on Online Shopping Surge

Visa reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings as a surge in online shopping over the holidays helped make up for the continuing slump in international travel.For the first quarter, Visa’s profit fell to $3.13 billion, or $1.42 a share, from $3.27 billion, or $1.46 a share, a year earlier....

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 29, 2021

Cryptocurrency Crime Fell Last Year

Thefts of cryptocurrencies, hacks, and fraud totaled $1.9 billion in 2020, a 57% drop year-over-year, according to a report from the crypto-intelligence firm CipherTrace. However, crimes in the decentralized finance (DeFi) category continued to grow.In 2019, in contrast, losses were a record $4.5...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 28, 2021

Apple Tops Q1 Earnings Expectations

Apple reported fiscal-year 2021 first-quarter results that came in well ahead of estimates, with iPhone, wearables, and services all ringing in record revenues. Geographically, Greater China region stood out, with 57% year-over-year increase in revenues.Apple’s Key Numbers: First-quarter net inco...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 28, 2021

AT&T Takes $15B Writedown on Ailing DirecTV

AT&T said Wednesday it had taken a $15.5 billion writedown on its ailing DirectTV business, overshadowing growth in its HBO Max streaming and core wireless services.The disclosure of the writedown came as AT&T reported that it lost another 617,000 premium TV subscribers in the fourth quar...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 27, 2021

IMF More Optimistic on Global Growth

The International Monetary Fund has revised its global growth forecast for 2021 but warned that new COVID variants could derail the economic recovery.In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it expects the global economy to grow at 5.5% this year, up three-tenths of a percentage point f...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 27, 2021

Starbucks’ U.S. Sales Fall Amid COVID-19 Surge

Starbucks’ quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates but same-store sales in the U.S. dropped, reflecting reduced customer traffic and store closures due to the surge in new COVID-19 infections.For the first quarter, Starbucks reported adjusted earnings of 61 cents per share as total net sale...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 27, 2021

Strong Cash Flow Boosts GE Turnaround Hopes

General Electric reported lower-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday but its shares rose as investors focused on the strong cash flow that finished the year.For the fourth quarter, GE earned 8 cents per share on an adjusted basis, missing analysts’ estimates of 9 cents per share. But the c...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 26, 2021

CFOs Faced Late Activism Surge, ESG Demands in 2020

Through the first three quarters of 2020, all was relatively quiet on the global shareholder activism front. Then, in the fourth quarter, activists broke loose. Fifty-seven new campaigns launched, including broadsides against Intel, Public Storage, ExxonMobil, and The Walt Disney Company. (See ch...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 22, 2021

Instacart Fires Workers Who Formed Union

The online grocery shopping app Instacart is firing workers who voted to form a union last year as part of a wider round of layoffs that will affect more than 1,800 in-store shoppers.The news comes as Instacart is eyeing a possible initial public offering. Last fall, the company reportedly tapped...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 22, 2021

IBM Shares Dive As Revenue Woes Continue

IBM’s quarterly revenue fell for a fourth consecutive quarter, driving its shares down even though it is anticipating growth this year as sales recover from the coronavirus pandemic.IBM reported Thursday that revenue declined 6% to $20.37 billion, the sharpest dip in five years. Sales fell across...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 22, 2021

Trump Pardons Ex-Google Engineer

U.S. President Donald Trump issued 73 full pardons Tuesday, including one to former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski, who led efforts to create autonomous vehicles and was a founding member of Google’s self-driving automobile project, Project Chauffeur.Levandowski left Google in 2016 to found ...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 20, 2021

Is Financial Tracking Part of Your Company’s Transformation?

Business change is inevitable, but sometimes something larger than change is needed. A change is when a company decides to alter or modify the way it does business. This is typically triggered by a perceived discontent about the way things are.A business transformation is different than making a ...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 20, 2021

Biden to Issue Executive Orders on Day One

President-elect Joe Biden’s aides say the president will sign more executive orders on day-one than any of his predecessors, followed by additional regulatory and policy changes over the coming weeks, Bloomberg reports.Senior members of the Biden’s policy team said in a press briefing Tuesday tha...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 20, 2021

Netflix Tops 200M Subs, Sees Positive Cash Flow

Netflix shares jumped in extended trading Tuesday after the streaming giant reported better-than-expected quarterly subscriber growth and said it was “very close” to being sustainably cash-flow positive.Netflix has not reported full-year positive cash flow since 2011, when it had just 26 million ...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 20, 2021

Microsoft, GM Strike Autonomous Vehicle Partnership

One of the world’s largest technology companies is teaming up with one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers.What Happened: General Motors and Microsoft are partnering on self-driving vehicles.The companies will partner to bring together software and hardware engineering excellence, clo...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 19, 2021

Office Depot Rejects Takeover Bid While MGM Won’t Up Entain Offer

Office Depot has rejected a takeover offer from Staples citing regulatory concerns, but the company signaled it was open to moving forward with a separate, streamlined transaction or joint venture with its rival.In a letter, Joseph Vassalluzzo, the chairman of Office Depot’s parent, ODP, said the...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 19, 2021

Wells Fargo Shares Dip 7% on Q4 Revenue Miss

Wells Fargo shares fell on Friday after the beleaguered bank reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue, reflecting the continuing impact of near-zero interest rates.For the fourth quarter, Wells Fargo made a profit of $2.99 billion, or 64 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 60 ce...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 18, 2021

U.S. Retail Sales Fall for Third Consecutive Month

U.S. retail sales fell 0.7% in December from the previous month, according to the latest report from the Department of Commerce. It was the third consecutive month in which there was no growth.Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected sales to be unchanged.“The December retail results were an a...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 15, 2021

U.S. Government Blacklists Xiaomi and Cnooc

The outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration continues to add pressure on China even as its term nears an end. In the latest move, U.S. has added China’s leading smartphone maker Xiaomi and its third-biggest driller Cnooc to blacklisted firms — banning them from American investment due to...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 15, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending January 15

Deidra Merriwether Grainger promoted Deidra Merriwether to finance chief. Merriwether joined the industrial supply company in 2013 as head of North America finance and was most recently senior vice president and president of North American sales and services. Before that, she worked in various ro...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 15, 2021

Delta Posts Record Loss, Cuts Cash Burn

Delta Air Lines posted a record annual loss for 2020 on Thursday but its shares rose as executives forecast a recovery this year and a reduced cash burn.The second-largest U.S. airline by passenger traffic said it lost $12.4 billion last year – its first loss since 2009 – and $755 million in the ...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 14, 2021

Unemployment Claims Jump

The number of people filing first-time unemployment claims reached 965,000 last week, the highest level since August, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor.The consensus estimate among economists was for 789,000 new claims, according to Bloomberg.Continuing claims were...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 14, 2021

LoanDepot Seeks NYSE Listing Amid Mortgage Boom

In its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, mortgage lending company LoanDepot disclosed its plans to go public with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LDI.What Happened: The recently filed preliminary prospectus does not mention details abou...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 12, 2021

The Complexities of a COVID-19 Year-End

Two-thousand twenty was a year of countless challenges and setbacks. But it’s also witnessed impressive innovation, improvisation, and modification. As companies addressed the challenges spawned by COVID-19  — from supply chain disruptions to government-ordered shutdowns and from virtual workforc...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 12, 2021