Petco Promotes Finance Exec to CFO

Petco Health and Wellness Company promoted its senior vice president of finance, Brian LaRose, to finance chief. In his new role, LaRose, who joined the pet health and wellness retailer in September 2020, will oversee Petco’s corporate strategy, financial strategy, performance, reporting, and lon...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 19, 2021

Bill Ackman’s SPAC Hit With Lawsuit

An investor in activist Bill Ackman’s giant SPAC has accused it of illegally operating as an investment company so he can extract “astronomical” compensation from it. SPACs invest in securities but have been able to avoid being regulated as an investment company as long as their primary purpose i...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 18, 2021

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

COVID Delays Apple’s Production Shift Away from China

Apple is slowing plans to shift production from China to Vietnam as governments tighten border controls to contain outbreaks of new variants of the coronavirus, Nikkei Asia reported on Tuesday, citing sources. What Happened: The Cupertino, California-based tech giant plans to start mass productio...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 18, 2021

Spirit Slashes Guidance After Flight Disruptions

Spirit Airlines has lowered its guidance for the third quarter, citing the negative impact of its massive flight disruptions in recent weeks.The discount carrier said Monday the disruptions cost it about $50 million and that it was continuing to experience “some amount of short-term brand impact ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 17, 2021

Pearson to Pay $1M Fine for Misleading Investors About Cyber Breach

London-based education publisher Pearson agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it misled investors about a 2018 cyber intrusion involving the theft of millions of student records, including birth dates and email addresses. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the da...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 16, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending August 13

Sharon McCollam Sharon McCollam will join Albertsons Companies on September 7 as the grocery store chain’s new president and CFO. McCollam retired from Best Buy in 2016, where she was executive vice president, chief administrative officer, and chief financial officer. She is recognized as the co-...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 13, 2021

Zeta CFO Attributes Revenue Growth to COVID-Era Refocusing

Zeta, the cloud-based marketing technology company, reported a 39% year-over-year increase in its second-quarter revenue.What Happened: The New York City-based company reported $106.8 million in revenue in its newly published second-quarter earnings report, up from $77 million one year earlier.Th...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 11, 2021

DeFi Platform Fined $13M Over Crypto Offerings

In the first enforcement action against a “decentralized finance” platform, the founders of DeFi Money Market have agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle charges that they illegally sold more than $30 million in securities.According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, DMM’s sal...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 9, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending August 6

Edward Liu Healthcare marketplace Zocdoc appointed Edward Liu as chief financial officer. Liu has spent more than two decades at Morgan Stanley, where he was formerly head of Americas technology banking. At Morgan Stanley, he provided counsel to C-Suite executives and board members on strategic a...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 6, 2021

Lockheed Hunts for CFO After Ken Possenriede’s Sudden Exit

Pentagon’s largest defense contractor Lockheed Martin said on Tuesday chief financial officer Ken Possenriede is retiring immediately “due to personal reasons” and named a company veteran as an interim replacement.Ken Possenriede What Happened: The maker of F-35 fighter jets named John Mollard, t...

By Lauren Muskett • Aug. 4, 2021

EY, Partners Charged With Auditor Independence Violations

In trying to become the auditor of publicly held Sealed Air, maker of Bubble Wrap, Ernst & Young LLP and three of its partners went too far. Way too far, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. And they were assisted by  Sealed Air’s chief accounting officer at the time, William ...

By Vincent Ryan • Aug. 2, 2021

10 CFO Tips for the SPAC Transition

“The one regret I have is not investing more in the development of our finance function early on.”So said a chief financial officer who, after completing a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, realized that his company was not as prepared for the rigors and stresses of life as a pub...

By Shauna Watson and Barclay Stanton • Aug. 2, 2021

SEC to Tighten Disclosure Rules for Chinese Firms

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is beefing up disclosure requirements for Chinese issuers, reflecting concerns over Beijing’s crackdown on technology firms.SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced Friday a wide range of directives to staff that cover both Chinese companies that seek to reg...

By Matthew Heller • July 30, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending July 30

Jayant Mittal Jayant Mittal joined online pizza ordering platform Slice as finance chief. Mittal most recently spent four years as director of worldwide corporate development at Amazon. In that role, he led corporate development activities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa into advanced tech...

By Lauren Muskett • July 30, 2021

Nikola Founder Charged With Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trevor Milton, the founder and former CEO of electric truck maker Nikola, with fraud. The agency said Milton repeatedly provided false and misleading information to investors, which was often communicated to them through social media. Trevor Mil...

By Lauren Muskett • July 29, 2021

Data Breaches Cost Companies $4.24M Per Incident On Average

Companies hit by data breaches are impacted by $4.24 million per incident on average, according to the annual Cost of a Data Breach Report conducted by Ponemon Institute and published by IBM Security. That cost is up 10% from one year ago and is the highest cost in the 17-year history of the repo...

By Vincent Ryan • July 28, 2021

Microsoft Earnings: Highest Q4 Growth in 6 Years

Strong cloud growth and the surprising strength of the Office 365 segment of Microsoft were big topics covered by analysts in updated notes after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings.The Microsoft Analysts: Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss had an overweight rating on Microsoft and raise...

By Lauren Muskett • July 28, 2021

M&A Integrations: Leadership, Plans, and Incentives

Mergers and acquisitions offer one of the best ways for a proactive company to create value. However, during my nearly 20 years in private equity, I learned too often that one plus one is not always greater than two. When companies combine their operations and cultures, there are bound to be misa...

By Lauren Muskett • July 27, 2021

Tesla Beats $1B, Posts Record Profit in Q2

Tesla reported a record quarterly profit as volume growth and cost reduction offset higher supply chain costs and lower regulatory credit revenue.For the second quarter, the automaker’s (GAAP) net income was $1.14 billion, the first time it has surpassed $1 billion. Overall automotive revenue cam...

By Matthew Heller • July 27, 2021

Aon and Willis Towers Watson Cancel $30B Merger

Insurance brokers Aon and Willis Towers Watson have scrapped their proposed $30 billion merger following a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice agreement to block the transaction.What Happened: In a press statement, Aon CEO Greg Case pointed out that the two London-headquartered companies re...

By Lauren Muskett • July 26, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending July 23

Mark Bendza Telos appointed Mark Bendza as the cybersecurity company’s new chief financial officer. Bendza was previously vice president in charge of investor relations at Honeywell International. He has over 20 years of experience working with global companies in investor relations, business dev...

By Lauren Muskett • July 23, 2021

Out-of-Court Restructuring as a Viable Alternative to Chapter 11

To file or not to file for bankruptcy? It’s a question that no business leader wants to consider, but sometimes it’s necessary. Indeed, given the challenges and uncertainties of the last 16 months, it has been a top-of-mind issue for many companies across different economic sectors.In 2020, accor...

By David G. Dragich • July 22, 2021

The Strategic Role of the CFO in M&A

Whenever a market enters a frenzied buying period, good deals get harder to find and mistakes more likely. That’s what we see right now in M&A as the flood of easy money and fears of tax hikes under the Biden administration combine to fuel a record-breaking acquisition spree.  G...

By Lou Longo • July 20, 2021

Bond Market Pricing in at Least One Interest Rate Hike in 2022

One of the biggest fears among investors so far in 2021 has been that higher-than-expected inflation could prompt the Federal Reserve to act sooner and more aggressively with tightening measures, including potential interest rate hikes.In the past month, bond market investors have grown less cert...

By Lauren Muskett • July 20, 2021

Square Building Fintech Company With ‘Primary Focus on Bitcoin’

Jack Dorsey has announced Square is working on a new open developer fintech platform.Its main goal, according to Dorsey, is the facilitation of the creation of “non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services.”The business is being built in collaboration with Tidal, CashApp, a...

By Lauren Muskett • July 16, 2021