Sycamore Suit Cites CFO Backdating Role

A former Sycamore Networks human resources executive asserted in a lawsuit that the company often backdated stock-option grants and that the company fired him because he wouldn’t comply with the backdating.In a wrongful-termination suit against Sycamore, former HR director Stephen Landry claims t...

By Helen Shaw • July 12, 2006

EU: More Companies Should Pay for IASB

European Union finance ministers are expected to formally declare support Tuesday for changes to the International Accounting Standards Board’s funding, the Financial Times reports.Currently, the IASB receives about 35 percent of its funding from the Big Four accounting firms, with the remainder ...

By Tim Reason • July 11, 2006

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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

SEC’s Cox, FASB Differ on ‘Transparency’

A new document outlining where the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board plan to take accounting parts ways with at least one of SEC Chairman Christopher Cox’s priorities. The document, posted on the FASB’s website last Thursday, outlines “prelimina...

By Ronald Fink • July 10, 2006

CNet to Restate Financials, Delay 10-Q

Online media company CNet announced that it expects to restate its financial statements to correct errors related to accounting for stock-based compensation from at least 2003.The announcement arrives amid the technology publisher’s internal review by independent directors of its past stock optio...

By Helen Shaw • July 10, 2006

Will Congress Sink LIFO?

Looking for ways to garner more tax revenue and bridge an apparent gap between financial and tax accounting, the Senate Finance Committee has its sights set on the corporate tax benefits enjoyed by many users of the last-in, first-out method of accounting for inventory costs. To judge by the fir...

By Helen Shaw • July 7, 2006

Atkins Warns of Overreaction in Options Furor

A Securities and Exchange Commission overreaction to the ongoing stock-option backdating scandal could threaten legitimate compensation practices, commissioner Paul Atkins warned in a speech on Thursday.Atkins’s speech, given at a conference of the International Corporate Governance Network, come...

By Helen Shaw • July 7, 2006

Another Gemstar CFO Settles Charges

Another finance executive of Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. has settled charges with federal regulators.Craig M. Waggy, former chief financial officer of TV Guide, the largest subsidiary of Gemstar, agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a fine of $25,000 for violating the reporting and reco...

By Stephen Taub • July 7, 2006

Backdaters Get Clocked

Charges of backdating stock options have swelled, with more than three dozen companies reporting investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission for suspicious options-grant dates. At press time, the Department of Justice had served at least 10 issuers with subpoenas related to backdatin...

By Alix Stuart • July 7, 2006

Par’s New Finance Team Spots Errors

Talk about making a good first impression. During an internal review, the new finance team at Par Pharmaceutical uncovered accounting errors that will force the drug maker to restate financial results for fiscal years 2004, 2005, and the first quarter of 2006. The restatements, which will also de...

By Stephen Taub • July 6, 2006

CFO of Merge Technologies Resigns After Probe

The chief financial officer and two other top executives of a medical-related software company resigned after the company completed a previously announced independent probe of its accounting and financial practices.Merge Technologies Inc., which does business as Merge Healthcare, announced the re...

By Stephen Taub • July 5, 2006

Thinking Inside the Boxes

As the North American international trade director for German auto-parts maker Robert Bosch, Karl J. Riedl has worked for more than 35 years on import/export issues. During that time he has seen the logistics world evolve in any number of ways, but little prepared him for the present situation. “...

By John Edwards • July 1, 2006

Split-offs Get a Bright-line Test

The new tax law signed by President Bush on May 17 received a lot of press attention, mostly because it provided a $70-billion tax cut. But the law also set limits for the first time on the amount of cash a company can pile on a subsidiary and still split it off tax-free. That change is likely to...

By Marie Leone • June 30, 2006

CA May Restate Results Again

CA has disclosed further accounting problems.The software giant — still struggling to put behind it a major accounting scandal, when the company was known as Computer Associates — failed to meet its extended, June 29 deadline for filing its 2005 annual report after discovering two new issues that...

By Stephen Taub • June 30, 2006

Securitization: Cash Flow on Tap

Securitization of customer receivables — a popular source of cash financing for many companies — often causes dramatic swings in a company’s operating cash flow, and may be being used by some to manage cash-flow volatility, a new report says.Securitization has occasionally come under fire because...

By Tim Reason • June 30, 2006

CA Seeks Return of Executive Pay

In an about-face, CA is trying to get at least seven former executives to return ill-gotten gains following the guilty pleas of two former top executives last April, according to Newsday.The company, formerly known as Computer Associates, had been trying to thwart efforts by shareholder attorneys...

By Stephen Taub • June 28, 2006

FASB, Employers Clash on Pension Metric

Financial Accounting Standards Board members and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s top accountant sparred with employers and actuaries on Wednesday about whether estimated future pension obligations should be reflected on the balance sheet.In two roundtable discussions on FASB’s plan to re...

By David Katz • June 28, 2006

Privilege under Pressure

Attorney-client privilege, the focus of an American Bar Association task force, has become yet another area experiencing fallout from Sarbanes-Oxley.Stan Keller, a member of the ABA task force on attorney-client privilege and a partner at law firm Edwards Angels Palmer & Dodge, says the privi...

By Helen Shaw • June 28, 2006

Raytheon Settles With SEC for $13 Million

Raytheon agreed Wednesday to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $13 million in penalties and disgorgement to settle charges of improper disclosure and accounting practices.Chairman and CEO Daniel P. Burnham and Aldo R. Servello, the former Deputy CFO and controller of Raytheon Aircraft Co...

By Stephen Taub • June 28, 2006

Continuous Auditing Not Yet Automatic

Half of U.S. companies now use “continuous auditing” techniques, according to a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and 31 percent of the rest have already made plans to do likewise.“This may be the beginning of a significant change in the way internal auditing has traditionally been done,” sai...

By Stephen Taub • June 26, 2006

Sunterra Puts CEO on Leave; CFO Leaves

Sunterra Corp. has ordered Nicholas Benson, its president and chief executive officer, to take a paid administrative leave pending an internal probe into a former employee’s charges of accounting misdeeds at the company’s operations in Spain.In addition, in the press release announcing Benson’s l...

By Stephen Taub • June 23, 2006

FASB’s New Seventh Man

Derivatives accounting and risk management expert Thomas Linsmeier joins the Financial Accounting Standards Board on July 1, replacing outgoing member Katherine Schipper. Linsmeier, chairman of the accounting department at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, previously...

By Ronald Fink and Marie Leone • June 23, 2006

Audit Execs Cite Staff Shortages

In a new survey of internal auditors, 70 percent said difficulty hiring competent staff was their biggest business challenge. Another 60 percent cited complex IT infrastructures.The survey of 858 senior audit professionals was conducted by ACL Services Ltd. and the Institute of Internal Auditors....

By Stephen Taub • June 23, 2006

Altera to Restate 10 Years of Financials

Altera disclosed that it will restate its financials for the past 10 years to correct errors related to accounting for stock-based compensation expense. It is the tenth company to restate results because of option-dating practices, according to Bloomberg.The maker of programmable microchips expla...

By Stephen Taub • June 22, 2006

Nortel Closer to Resolving Litigation

Nortel Networks has taken another giant step toward putting its massive accounting scandal behind it.In February, the Canadian telecom giant agreed to pay nearly $2.5 billion in cash and stock to settle two class-action lawsuits in the United States. At the time, the company stated that the propo...

By Stephen Taub • June 21, 2006

Fed Governor Appointed PCAOB Chair

Federal Reserve Board Governor Mark W. Olson has been appointed chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, according to an announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission.He will succeed Acting Chairman Bill Gradison, who will remain a member of the PCAOB. Olson will lead t...

By Stephen Taub • June 19, 2006