Verizon Selling Tumblr to WordPress Owner

Verizon is selling blogging website Tumblr to the web service company Automatic, the owner of blogging platform WordPress.com.The sale price was not disclosed, but reports estimate it was under $10 million, a far cry from the $1.1 billion Yahoo paid for Tumblr in 2013. Verizon acquired Tumbler as...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 13, 2019

Libor’s Phase-Out: 3 Ways to Prepare

The London Interbank Offered Rate, commonly known as Libor, declined in favorability over the past decade as regulators discovered that major financial institutions were manipulating the 30-year-old benchmark for profit. In April 2018, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) selected the...

By Vincent Ryan • Aug. 12, 2019

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

Trinity Merger and Broadmark to Merge

Trinity Merger will merge with real estate lender Broadmark to create a commercial mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT) with an expected equity value of $1.5 billion.Under the terms of the merger, Trinity, a special purpose acquisition company, and Broadmark will combine to form Broadmark...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 12, 2019

Fresh Evidence of Auditor Bias Emerges

“Don’t Make Me Look Bad: How the Audit Market Penalizes Auditors for Doing Their Job.”That’s the title of a study being presented at this week’s annual meeting of the American Accounting Association. While it may not portray companies in the most favorable light, at the same time it’s merely the ...

By David McCann • Aug. 12, 2019

Are CFOs Naive on Cyber Insurance Value?

Most senior finance executives at large companies believe that cyber insurance would cover most or all of the losses their company would incur in a cyberattack, a new study says. But they are wrong, according to commercial property insurer FM Global.In a study of 105 CFOs and other senior financi...

By David McCann • Aug. 12, 2019

KPMG Withdraws Two Audits for CannTrust

KPMG is withdrawing its report on the consolidated financial statements of CannTrust Holdings, a licensed producer of cannabis in Canada, saying its reports for 2018 and for the March 2019 quarter should no longer be relied on.The announcement comes after Canadian regulators found the company was...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 9, 2019

SEC Aims to Ease Disclosure Rules

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday proposed revisions to disclosure rules that would ease the compliance burden for publicly held companies.The amendments would relax the prescriptive nature of Regulation S-K items 101 (description of the business) and 105 (risk factors). The chan...

By David McCann • Aug. 9, 2019

Uber Posts Record Loss, Sales Growth Slows

Uber’s revenue growth slowed in the second quarter and its losses widened as it continued to spend heavily on discounting and new businesses.For the second quarter, Uber reported a record net loss of $5.23 billion, which included $3.9 billion of stock-based compensation costs related to its initi...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 9, 2019

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

How a Tax Strategy Is Key to Divestment Success

The ebbs and flows of the global economic climate mean that pressure from shareholders has created a new normal of frequent and disciplined portfolio reviews. As a result, companies are actively identifying assets for disposal. Divestment can be an important business strategy, but increasingly, s...

By Vincent Ryan • 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

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

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

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

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