Expedia Follows Exec Shakeup With Job Cuts

Expedia is planning to lay off 12% of its global workforce, citing its disappointing 2019 business performance and an “unhealthy and undisciplined” growth strategy.The announcement of the layoffs on Monday came less than three months after a management shakeup at the online travel giant in which ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 25, 2020

Trump Administration Asks Congress for $2.5B to Fight Coronavirus

President Donald Trump’s administration has requested Congress release $2.5 billion in funding to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States, the Associated Press reported Monday.The White House said late Monday that the funding would be used for research efforts to develop a...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 25, 2020

CFOs See Tech Grabbing Larger Share of a Shrinking Budget

Is this the year the straw breaks the camel’s back?Each year, it seems as if finance is asked to do more with less. This year will be no different, according to the 2020 Finance Key Issues research from The Hackett Group. Most finance executives expect to see a 3.4% decline, on average, in financ...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 24, 2020

Zillow Beats Estimates on Strong Homes Growth

Zillow reported better-than-expected quarterly results, crediting in part the rapid growth of its new home-selling business.The company’s “Homes” segment, which includes the Zillow Offers program it launched in 2018, generated $603.2 million in revenue, up 57% from the third quarter, as it sold 1...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 21, 2020

U.K. Audit Regulator to Review How Companies Report Climate Change Risk

The U.K. Financial Reporting Council (RFC) said it is reviewing the way companies and auditors report on the effects of climate change.The review will result in more stringent disclosure rules for companies listed in the United Kingdom and tougher oversight for accounting firms.The FRC said it wo...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 21, 2020

Dropbox Shares Surge on Q4 Earnings Beat

Dropbox shares jumped in extended trading Thursday after the cloud storage company beat quarterly earnings estimates, fueled by continued subscriber growth.For the fourth quarter, Dropbox earned an adjusted $0.16 per share as revenue rose 19% to $446 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 14 ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 21, 2020

Diageo Fined for ‘Overshipping’ to Meet Targets

Global liquor company Diageo has agreed to pay $5 million to settle allegations that it pressured distributors to buy excess inventory to meet sales targets in a declining market.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision alleged employees at Diageo North America (DNA), the company’s largest and ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 19, 2020

Ally Financial to Buy CardWorks

Auto lender Ally Financial has agreed to buy consumer finance lender CardWorks for $2.65 billion.The deal includes $1.35 billion in cash and $1.30 billion in Ally common stock. CardWorks has $4.7 billion in assets and $2.9 billion in deposits.In a statement, Ally said the deal would provide “inst...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 19, 2020

Walmart Earnings Miss as Online Growth Slows

Walmart reported lower-than-expected earnings on Tuesday, reflecting soft holiday-season sales and slowing e-commerce growth.Comparable sales at Walmart’s U.S. stores open at least a year rose just 1.9% in the last quarter, falling short of analysts’ estimates of 2.35% as well as the 4.1% increas...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 18, 2020

GM to Shutter Holden Division in Australia

General Motors will wind down sales, design, and engineering operations in Australia and New Zealand and retire its Holden brand by 2021. The Holden brand had been in operation for more than 160 years.The largest U.S. automaker will also withdraw the Chevrolet brand from Thailand and sell its Ray...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 17, 2020

FASB Turns Up the Heat on Goodwill Impairment Testing

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has recently elevated goodwill accounting to the top of its agenda, after political pressure stemming from high-profile company failures in the U.K., notably Carillion’s, pushed the International Accounting Standards Board to address the topic.In the Unite...

By David McCann • Feb. 12, 2020

Trump Proposes $4.8T Budget

The Trump administration is proposing a $4.8 trillion budget for the federal government for the 2021 fiscal year, an increase of $700 billion over 2018, though it includes cuts to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicare.The budget would cut funding for the Environmental Pr...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 10, 2020

Tilray, Aurora Cannabis Layoffs May Signal Industrywide Problem

The trend of layoffs in the cannabis industry, which started in 2019, has done nothing but accelerate in 2020 with:Medmen Enterprises cutting more than 40% of its workforce;Pasha Brands reducing its team by 24%;Zenabis Global terminating 40 people (about 10% of its staff);GenCanna giving the boot...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 7, 2020

More Companies Are Opting for Hedge Accounting

Early adopters of the new hedge accounting standard that took effect for public companies’ 2019 fiscal years drove an uptick in the use of hedge accounting in 2018, new research shows.Chatham Financial’s analysis of corporate hedging in 2018, the latest year for which hedging data can be compiled...

By David McCann • Feb. 6, 2020

Ford Touts ‘Strategic Progress’ But Stock Falls 9%

Ford CEO James Hackett (right) and a team member with the company’s first mass-market electric car the Mustang Mach-E. Ford Motor shares fell sharply in extended trading Tuesday as the automaker’s financial performance continued to disappoint investors eager to see returns from its $11 billion gl...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 5, 2020

Alphabet Discloses $15B in 2019 YouTube Ad Revenue

Alphabet delivered another mixed bag of quarterly results as Google’s parent broke out numbers for YouTube and its cloud services business for the first time in a move toward greater transparency.The new data showed, among other things, that YouTube is generating advertising revenue at a pace of ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 4, 2020

KKR Earnings Fall 18% in Q4 But Beat Estimates

KKR reported better-than-expected earnings as an increase in management fees helped offset a sharp drop in performance fees.For the fourth quarter, the private equity firm’s after-tax distributable earnings — the cash available for paying dividends to shareholders — fell to $375.1 million compare...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 3, 2020

Altria Takes $4.1B Writedown on Juul Investment

Altria has taken a $4.1 billion writedown on its investment in Juul Labs following increased regulatory scrutiny and a backlash against vaping. Altria, the maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, and Parliament cigarettes, said the impairment was due to the increasing number of legal cases against Juu...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 30, 2020

Facebook Shares Drop 7% Despite Earnings Beat

Facebook beat quarterly estimates on both the top and bottom lines but slowing revenue growth and rising expenses appeared to weigh on investors.For the fourth quarter, the company earned $2.56 per share as revenue rose nearly 24.7% to $21.08 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $2.53 per s...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 30, 2020

GE Shares Surge 10% on Strong Q4 Cash Flow

General Electric shares jumped on Wednesday after it beat its own forecast for a key cash flow metric, boosting investor confidence in CEO Larry Culp’s turnaround plan.GE’s outlook for earnings in 2020 was below Wall Street estimates but fourth-quarter industrial free cash flow came in at $3.9 bi...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 29, 2020

3M Stock Falls on Earnings Miss, New Layoffs

3M shares dipped on Tuesday after the company reported lower-than-expected earnings and more layoffs, reflecting declines in its industrial businesses amid slowing growth in China.As The Wall Street Journal reports, 3M is “the latest manufacturer to exhibit signs of strain at a time of weakness f...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 28, 2020

Employees Criticize Amazon on Climate Policies Despite Risk to Jobs

Hundreds of Amazon employees have signed a Medium post criticizing the company’s external communications policy and its stances on social issues, including climate change, labor rights, and privacy.The post, which included statements from 357 Amazon employees, was published by the group Amazon Em...

By Lauren Muskett • Jan. 27, 2020

Sprint Loses More Postpaid Phone Customers

Sprint delivered generally better-than-expected quarterly results on Monday but its shares fell amid a continued decline in postpaid phone subscribers and uncertainty over its proposed merger with T-Mobile.For the third quarter, the company lost 3 cents per share as group revenues slipped 6% to $...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 27, 2020

American Express Shares Jump on Revenue Gain

American Express shares rose to a record high on Friday after the company posted better-than-expected earnings and issued optimistic guidance for 2020.For the fourth quarter, American Express earned $2.03 per share as revenue increased 9% to $11.365 million. Analysts had expected earnings of $2.0...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 24, 2020

P&G Sales Rise 4.6%, Price Hikes Boost Profit

Procter & Gamble missed revenue estimates for the first time in five quarters amid weak sales of baby and feminine care products but management remained confident in their turnaround efforts.For the second quarter, P&G’s net sales rose 4.6% to $18.24 billion, missing the average analyst e...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 23, 2020