CFO Cat Calls

Cat CallsDig this. Douglas R. Oberhelman was promoted from CFO to VP of engine products at Caterpillar Inc. F. Lynn McPheeters, who was previously treasurer at the Peoria heavy- equipment manufacturer, takes over as CFO. Oberhelman succeeds Gerald L. Shaheen, who was promoted to group president i...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 1, 1998

Ford’s Drive for Credibility

When Ford Motor Co. announced a major executive reorganization this past October, which included the early retirement of seven vice presidents, few were surprised that CFO John Devine was retained by incoming CEO Jac Nasser, or that his role was expanded. Devine, after all, is widely credited wit...

By Russ Banham • Dec. 1, 1998

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

Bell Atlantic Calling the Right Exchange

Companies looking to jettison noncore assets on a tax-free basis without riling the regulators might ring up Bell Atlantic Corp. for its answer: exchangeable notes. Nearly $6 billion worth of them this year, to be exact. Its $3.2 billion August offering of notes tied to the company’s holding in L...

By S.L. Mintz • Nov. 1, 1998

Joint Ventures Between The Globe and a Hard Place

Even as the global financial crisis deepens, many U.S. companies see the current malaise as a fine opportunity to step up their investments in foreign markets. “The time to pick up assets is when there is blood in the streets,” says Raymond Niles, a senior analyst at the New York office of London...

By Michelle Celarier • Nov. 1, 1998

Web Sites Du Jour

Bookmark BonanzaFinancial Web users, get out your mice and surf these sites.Like the universe, the Internet continues to expand, and finance managers can expect to find ever more Web sites of interest. That’s the rub, of course. The Internet may be becoming an indispensable business medium, but a...

By Joseph McCafferty and John Xenakis • Nov. 1, 1998

Software Straight from the Screen

Holger Huels, CFO of pharmaceuticals giant Boehringer Ingelheim, has a dream of freedom– from paper. “I really don’t want to see paper anymore in this company,” he insists in his rich German accent. Each year, Boehringer Ingelheim spends some $230 million on nonproduction materials and services, ...

By Bronwyn Fryer • Nov. 1, 1998

Health Benefits: Protect the Spillover Effect

At this time of year, many employers reassess their current employee health benefits, and actively explore alternatives that promise greater affordability, flexibility, and quality. That annual enrollment process is of enormous importance to how health care in the United States is purchased and d...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 1998

Thirsting for Credit

When Keith McBride and his treasury team at The Mead Corp. sat down last year to renew the Dayton-based company’s $500 million revolving line of credit, they had fewer lenders than hoped for. Two of the 12 banks supporting the revolver had announced they were dropping out– 1 just five days before...

By Jeannie Mandelker • Nov. 1, 1998

Inflating Golden Parachutes

Pulling the ripcord on golden parachutes can be an expensive decision for some executives whose weighty contracts trigger hefty excise taxes. But a recent survey by New York­ based human-resources consultancy William M. Mercer Inc. finds that, as competition for top talent intensifies, more compa...

By Maura McEnaney and Joseph McCafferty • Nov. 1, 1998

GE Superfund Struggles

With $8 billion in net income last year, General Electric was the nation’s most profitable corporation. And it is considered one of the best managed as well. Under CEO Jack Welch, GE has cultivated the kind of tough-minded bottom-line shareholder culture that has taken Corporate America by storm ...

By Michelle Celarier • Nov. 1, 1998

As Good As It Gets

In terms of compensation, these are the good old days. A 10 percent spurt in short-term incentive payouts gave a solid boost to compensation packages for finance executives in 1997. The average CFO took home $362,100 in total cash compensation, 6 percent more than in calendar 1995, according to d...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 1998

CFOs Checking Out

Checking OutMichael A. Stein cut short his stay at Marriott International Inc. The former EVP and CFO left the hotel chain unexpectedly to take the CFO post at Seattle department-store chain Nordstrom Inc. He was succeeded at Marriott by Arne Sorenson, who was previously SVP of business developme...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 1998

Unloading Credit Risk

Confident about your company’s ability to weather a downturn, but not so sure how your customers or suppliers would fare?You could reduce the risk they pose to your business, or even hedge your exposure to an entire market, if a new type of financial derivative gains wider acceptance. The instrum...

By Christopher Watts and Simon Boughey • Nov. 1, 1998

USG Remodels Its Balance Sheet

Ranging on the wall of Rick Fleming’s office at USG Corp. headquarters in Chicago is a mock cover of this year’s annual report. The bold display type features three large B’s and proudly boasts, “Triple B: Big, Bad, and Back.” Although the $2.9 billion building- materials giant ultimately chose a...

By Stephen Barr • Nov. 1, 1998

Online Lifeline?

Something interesting has been happening to Dell Computer Corp.’s 401(k) plan of late. Participation this year soared to 83 percent, compared with 52 percent in 1996. New employees enroll at the rate of 91 percent. With so many more employees participating, Dell is passing its deferral and contri...

By Jeannie Mandelker • Oct. 1, 1998

Who Needs Eurocapital?

The use of a single currency in Europe is widely expected to turn the continent into a huge new source of corporate capital. But you would never guess that from the reaction of U.S. borrowers.Starting next January 1, when 11 European currencies will be folded into the euro, new bond issues will n...

By Simon Boughey • Oct. 1, 1998

Automating the Tax Department

Corporate Tax SoftwareAutomating the Tax DepartmentThree high-end systems make compliance a lot less taxing.Just as accounting software frees controllers from spending all their time keeping the books, the latest corporate tax software packages are helping tax managers spend more time on tax plan...

By John Xenakis • Oct. 1, 1998

Japanese Jitters

As the three lead bankers for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. worked in January to line up multiple banks and $5.6 billion cash for Starwood’s $14.6 billion acquisition of ITT Corp., they felt a chilly wind from across the Pacific. Although Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan, and Lehman ...

By Dun Gifford Jr. • Oct. 1, 1998

Dan Lee: Behind the Mirage

Rising beyond a manmade lake that erupts with more than a thousand computerized fountains, Bellagio is Mirage Resorts Inc.’s $1.6 billion bid to create the most fabulous fantasy yet along the glittering Las Vegas Strip. When the hotel opens on October 15, its 3,000 rooms will go for a nightly ave...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 1, 1998

Passing Go, Vegas-Style

If all the hotel building by corporate players along the Las Vegas Strip seems vaguely familiar, it may be because you’ve done it yourself — on a Monopoly board. Even the finance chiefs of Las Vegas’s hotel-casino concerns see the game reflected in their real- estate activities. On a recent road ...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 1, 1998

Forum: Strengthen the Audit Committee

Lately, we’ve seen a number of high-profile cases in which publicly traded companies announce “accounting irregularities” (or some euphemism) that require the restatement of financial results. Sharply lower earnings forecasts, high-profile terminations of senior finance and nonfinance executives,...

By Richard Swanson • Oct. 1, 1998

Internal Expertise Will Do for Sara Lee

When the Hygrade division of Sara Lee Corp. launched a new meat product last July, the effort had a champion in the finance department. Divisional CFO Mark Johnson played a key role in securing the $10 million investment needed to bring Ballpark Singles hot dogs to market, after recognizing that ...

By Kris Frieswick • Oct. 1, 1998

Peritus is Turning Inside Out

When Peritus Software Services started up seven years ago, its founders figured the only way to make money was to build an intranet as the backbone of the Billerica, Massachusetts- based enterprise.Peritus maintains applications software, system software, and system utilities for corporate custom...

By Kris Frieswick • Oct. 1, 1998

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Corporate venture capital funds are all the rage. Lucent Technologies Inc. recently set aside $100 million to sprinkle around; so did Texas Instruments Inc. In February, America Online created a new business unit called AOL Investments and put former CFO Lennert Leader in charge of a $200 million...

By Stephen Barr • Oct. 1, 1998

Viva Zapata

Last May, in the middle of the night, officials at Excite Inc., the world’s second- largest Internet search and directory company, received a peculiar fax at its Redwood City, California, headquarters. The fax contained a $1.7 billion takeover bid from–of all things– a small fish-oil and fish-mea...

By Joseph McCafferty • Oct. 1, 1998