Salesforce to Buy Field Service Software Firm

In its second major acquisition in two months, Salesforce has agreed to buy Israel’s ClickSoftware for $1.35 billion to beef up its offerings for mobile workforces.Privately-held ClickSoftware is a leading provider of field service solutions that help companies keep track of employees performing ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 8, 2019

Lower-Than-Expected Loss Cheers Lyft Investors

Lyft shares jumped in after-hours trading on Wednesday as investors apparently shared management’s optimism over its financial outlook despite another quarter of heavy losses.For the second quarter, the ride-hailing company lost $644.2 million versus a net loss of $178.9 million in the same perio...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 8, 2019

Nike Buys Predictive Demand Company Celect

Nike acquired Boston-based retail predictive analytics and demand sensing firm Celect to help the retailer predict consumer needs.“As demand for our product grows, we must be insight-driven, data-optimized, and hyper-focused on consumer behavior. This is how we serve consumers more personally at ...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 7, 2019

Disney Profit Falls on Weak Results From Fox

Walt Disney Co. posted record quarterly revenue but its profit fell 51% amid rising streaming-service costs and the disappointing performance of its 21st Century Fox assets.The third-quarter report was the first full quarter since Disney closed the $71.3 billion purchase of most of Rupert Murdoch...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 7, 2019

iPic Entertainment Files for Bankruptcy; Pursues Sale

iPic Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, and hopes to restructure its debt and strengthen its balance sheet and will pursue a sale.In its bankruptcy filing, the luxury theater chain said the plan is to either sell itself or reorganize to come out with a healthy balance sheet ...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 5, 2019

Exxon Mobil Profits Dip on Natural-Gas Glut

Exxon Mobil reported a 21% decline in quarterly profit on Friday as its natural-gas operations were hit by lower prices due to global oversupply.Second-quarter earnings fell by $820 million to $3.13 billion, or 73 cents per share. Analysts had expected earnings of 66 cents per share but Exxon wou...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 2, 2019

Former Brixmor Property CFO and CEO Charged with Accounting Fraud

Brixmor Property Group has agreed pay a $7 million penalty to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges against the company and four former senior executives connected to a scheme to operating metrics used by analysts and investors to evaluate financial performance, the SEC said.In a comp...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 2, 2019

GM’s Pickups, Cost-Cutting Drive Profit Increase

General Motors reported a slight dip in quarterly revenue but strong sales of its high-margin pickup trucks, SUVs and crossovers, complemented by cost discipline, pushed it to an earnings beat.For the second quarter, GM said its overall sales fell 1.9% to $36.1 billion but it posted net income of...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 1, 2019

GE Reports ‘Steady Progress,’ CFO Departure

General Electric said Wednesday it was making “steady progress” in its restructuring efforts as it raised its guidance for a key cash flow metric and announced the departure of CFO Jamie Miller.For the second quarter, GE’s adjusted earnings fell 6% to 17 cents a share but beat analysts’ estimates...

By Matthew Heller • July 31, 2019

Apple’s Revenue Is Up, but EPS Is Down

Apple reported positive third-quarter financial results, citing great improvement in iPhone sales in China. Quarterly revenue reached $53.8 billion, an increase of 1% from the year-ago quarter, but quarterly earnings per diluted share were down 7%, at $2.18.The electronics giant attributed 59% of...

By David McCann • July 31, 2019

What Canada Teaches Us About Internal Controls

Responding to the bankruptcies of Enron and WorldCom, Congress passed a spate of accounting reforms in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Most controversially, the reforms imposed two new requirements.First, senior management of most public companies must issue an annual assessment of their internal...

By Robert C. Pozen • July 31, 2019

Beyond Meat Reports Larger-Than-Expected Loss

Beyond Meat’s shares fell sharply after the meat-alternative producer delivered a mixed quarterly earnings report and announced a secondary stock offering.The stock had soared since Beyond Meat went public three months ago, reaching nine times the IPO price of $25 a share. In trading Tuesday, it ...

By Matthew Heller • July 30, 2019

Facebook Says Libra Digital Currency May Never Launch

Facebook said pushback from U.S. and international legislators and regulators could delay the launch of the digital currency Libra or prevent it altogether.In its second-quarter earnings filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the laws around digital currency were “un...

By Lauren Muskett • July 30, 2019

Companies Build Up Cash Holdings — Again

For the 34rd quarter in the past 35, in the second quarter more companies increased than decreased their cash and short-term investment holdings, according to the Association for Finance Professionals.In the latest quarterly AFP Corporate Cash Indicators Survey, which polled 168 senior treasury a...

By David McCann • July 30, 2019

Alphabet’s Q2 Results Ease Growth Concerns

Alphabet shares rose sharply for a second straight day on Friday after Google’s parent posted better-than-expected quarterly results, easing investor concerns about advertising sales growth.For the second quarter, Alphabet, which generates about 85% of its revenue from sales of ad space and ad te...

By Matthew Heller • July 26, 2019

Tesla Stock Dives on ‘Demoralizing’ Q2 Results

Tesla shares plunged on Thursday after the automaker reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss despite record deliveries and an improved cash position.CEO Elon Musk gave investors further cause for concern by announcing during an earnings call that Chief Technology Officer and co-founder JB ...

By Matthew Heller • July 25, 2019

Airlines Continue to Struggle with Boeing 737 Max Groundings

Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are warning of the increased financial toll of the extended Boeing 737 MAX groundings as they try to operate with smaller fleets.Southwest said operating income was $175 million lower in the second quarter due to the grounding, while American Airlines Grou...

By Lauren Muskett • July 25, 2019

Snap Stock Rally Continues on Strong Q2 Results

Snap shares jumped for a second straight day on Wednesday as investors welcomed quarterly results — including a big increase in daily active users — that indicated its turnaround effort is picking up steam.The parent of the Snapchat app reported a smaller-than-expected loss for the second quarter...

By Matthew Heller • July 24, 2019

Tax Reform Spurs Major Unintended Consequence

If there’s one thing generally agreed about the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, it’s that the legislation engendered great expectations.The TCJA sharply reduced the U.S. corporate tax rate, sped depreciation deductions, and greatly lowered the cost of repatriating vast undistributed earnings of foreign sub...

By David McCann • July 24, 2019

Hasbro Shares Leap on Big Sales, Earnings Beats

Hasbro shares jumped to an all-time high on Tuesday after the toy maker easily beat sales and earnings estimates amid strong sales of its Avengers toys and Magic: The Gathering game.For the second quarter, Hasbro’s revenue rose 9% to $984.5 million, well above analysts’ estimate of $956.7 million...

By Matthew Heller • July 24, 2019

PetMed Earnings Dip as Online Competition Bites

PetMed Express badly missed quarterly earnings estimates as online competition and pricing pressures hurt the pet pharmacy’s sales and profits.For the first quarter, PetMed said Monday it earned $5.3 million, or $0.26 per share — down from $12.6 million, or $0.62 per share. a year ago — as sales ...

By Matthew Heller • July 23, 2019

CFOs and the Digital Labor Revolution

As multinational companies strive to compete in an ever-changing environment, chief financial officers (CFOs) are playing an increasingly important role. They are expected to reduce costs, provide more insights to the business, and drive profitable growth.But many CFOs have maxed out their saving...

By Gerry Marletta • July 23, 2019

Think Like a Venture Capitalist

As disruptive technologies upend operating models, displace existing products and services and unlock new opportunities, a company’s growth and earnings have never been more uncertain. Business leaders are now under pressure to make bigger bets on innovation and execute against them.However, whil...

By Gerry Marletta • July 23, 2019

Advanced Analytics and the CFO

How should the finance function engage with new technologies and work with business partners to revolutionize enterprise performance management?A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services whitepaper sponsored by KPMG LLPToday, a renewed wave of digital transformation, including advanced analytics...

By Gerry Marletta • July 23, 2019

The 12 Key Principles of Financial Planning and Analysis

Few processes within a CFO’s purview have as much potential to create or destroy value as financial planning and analysis, stresses a new report from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).Even if a company has the right strategy, if the budget does not reflect those priorities and properl...

By David McCann • July 22, 2019