Preparing for Shareholder Activism

The question that CFOs should consider asking themselves: “How would I describe the company’s performance to shareholders if I were an activist, and what actions would I propose to potentially increase shareholder value?”  For CFOs of publicly traded companies, it’s never been more important to p...

By Lauren Muskett • July 12, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending July 9

Kevin Brackman Advent Technologies appointed Kevin Brackman as its new finance chief. Brackman most recently served as CFO of Myers Industries. Before his promotion to CFO in 2018, he was Myers’ chief accounting officer and corporate controller. Before that, he was director of financial planning ...

By Lauren Muskett • July 9, 2021

Will Public Company ESG Disclosures Come From Shareholders or Regulators?

Creighton Meland owns shares in a California-based company that markets airport security systems and metal detectors. Like all public company shareholders, Meland periodically has the opportunity to vote for or against nominees to the company’s board of directors, who will presumably steer the co...

By Lauren Muskett • July 9, 2021

How Much Industry Experience Does Your New CFO Need?

While exceptions can be made, industry experience matters more for upper-level finance hires than for other hires in an organization.Ask any group of talent acquisition professionals how essential industry experience is when hiring senior to C-level finance talent, and you get responses ranging f...

By Yasmine O’Brien • July 8, 2021

EU Fines BMW, Volkswagen $1B Over Delaying Clean Emissions Technology

The European Union has imposed approximately $1 billion in fines on BMW and Volkswagen AG for a collusion scheme designed to slow the introduction of AdBlue emissions-cleaning technology.What Happened: BMW will pay approximately $422.3 million and Volkswagen will pay about $595.3 million in their...

By Lauren Muskett • July 8, 2021

Evaluating Employer Health Plan Costs Post-Pandemic

When it comes to health plan cost calculations for firms over the next year, consider these four major coronavirus-related factors. How demographics of the specific employee pool may affect cost. Which types of treatments for elective-deferral-related illnesses employees are likely to pursue now ...

By Lauren Muskett • July 7, 2021

Metric of the Month: Personnel Cost of Finance

Costs are rising across the board as the U.S. economy continues to move forward from a short but deep recession, and labor costs are no exception to this trend. Many employees who kept their jobs in 2020 were happy to stay put, but 2021 is a new year and the labor market is much more competitive....

By Perry D. Wiggins • July 6, 2021

Nextdoor Lands SPAC Deal With Khosla

A social media platform that connects people living in the same neighborhoods announced a SPAC merger to help fund expansion plans.The SPAC Deal: Nextdoor announced a deal with Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. II that values the company at a pro forma equity value of $4.3 billion.A PIPE of $270 mi...

By Lauren Muskett • July 6, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending July 2

Ronald Kisling Fastly appointed Ronald Kisling chief financial officer. Kisling joins the cloud computing service provider from Google, where he was CFO of Fitbit. Kisling joined Fitbit in 2014 and served as chief accounting officer before taking over as finance chief. Kisling has held chief fina...

By Lauren Muskett • July 2, 2021

NYCE Breaks Crowdfunding Record, Announces IPO

NYCE formally announced Wednesday a record-breaking $1.31-million raise, as well as the signing of a deal to go public with blockchain-powered alternative trading system tZero Group, a subsidiary of Medici Ventures, the venture capital arm of Overstock.com.What Happened: In light of the pandemic,...

By Lauren Muskett • July 1, 2021

CFOs Being Cautious With Balance-Sheet Cash

The U.S. economic rebound has boosted many U.S. companies’ cash and short-term investment holdings. The Association for Financial Professionals’ survey of 327 corporate treasury and finance professionals found that 47% reported an increase in their organizations’ cash and short-term investments. ...

By Vincent Ryan • June 28, 2021

Cannabis Companies Winning Lower Priced Debt Deals

Cannabis companies are posting robust sales growth and, in doing so, winning better debt deals.Legal U.S. cannabis sales surpassed $17.5 billion in 2020, a 46% spike from 2019, according to Canaccord Genuity. Analysts at Cowen estimate annual legal sales will reach $41 billion by 2025.In Californ...

By Vincent Ryan • June 24, 2021

Working Capital Scorecard: Inventories, Receivables Need Attention

Post-COVID-19, the future of working capital management has changed. Last year, supply chain complexity, inventory buffers, and loss of negotiating power all crimped many companies’ ability to reduce their working capital effectively. The height of the pandemic in 2020 also exposed weaknesses in ...

By Ramona Dzinkowski • June 21, 2021

The Skill That Can Make or Break a CFO’s Career

Of the many vitally important roles and responsibilities of a chief financial officer, the ability to deliver compelling financial presentations would likely not make the top five. But as many CFOs would attest, these presentations can make or break careers. Deliver a compelling and persuasive pr...

By Rob Morhaim • June 21, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending June 18

Kate Jaspon Inspire Brands, the parent company of Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Dunkin’, named Kate Jaspon as its new finance chief. Jaspon was previously chief financial officer of recently acquired Dunkin’ Brands. She joined Dunkin’ Brands in 2005 as assistant controller and was later promote...

By Lauren Muskett • June 18, 2021

GM Anticipates Up to $3B Hit from Chip Shortage, Inflation

General Motors said on Wednesday the ongoing semiconductor shortage and rising commodity inflation could bring in a $2 billion to $3 billion headwind in the second half of the year.What Happened: The number one U.S. automaker expects chip shortage to continue in the second half of 2021 with the t...

By Lauren Muskett • June 17, 2021

Working Capital Scorecard: A Tumultuous Year

Shortfalls in revenues, curtailed or redirected customer demand, liquidity pressures, receivables collection headaches  — on the working capital front, 2020 put finance departments to the test.  How did the largest U.S. companies perform overall?Many, especially those with market clout, improved ...

By Vincent Ryan • June 17, 2021

Fed Maintains Interest Rates, Forecasts 2023 Rate Hike

The Federal Reserve maintained its target fed funds rate range of between zero and 0.25%. The Fed also reassured investors it will continue to support the economy via asset purchases while the U.S. recovers from the pandemic.“The Federal Reserve will continue to increase its holdings of Treasury ...

By Lauren Muskett • June 16, 2021

First American Settles SEC Charges for Cybersecurity Disclosure Failures

Real-estate title insurer First American Financial reached a $487,616 settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for not maintaining cybersecurity disclosure controls and procedures that exposed sensitive customer information.First American was notified by cybersecurity journalis...

By Lauren Muskett • June 15, 2021

Experts React to 5% CPI Inflation

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust traded higher by 0.5% on Thursday morning after the Labor Department reported a 5% increase in the consumer price index in the month of May, the fastest inflation growth since the summer of 2008.What Happened: The headline CPI index rose 5% in May, exceeding economi...

By Lauren Muskett • June 14, 2021

Four Questions CFOs Should Ask Their Supply Chain Leaders

Transportation seems to be the topic of conversation more often these days. From shortages on our grocery store shelves for everyday items we previously took for granted, to the news of a large container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, to more recent news of disruptions in fuel supply in the Southe...

By Chris Gaffney, and Mark Shaughnessy • June 14, 2021

Balancing ‘Subscribe Once’ and ‘Pay for Usage’

Software-as-a-serve (SaaS) is almost synonymous with subscription models. After all, the whole notion of subscribing to something is not that you’re simply buying a product but that you’re committing to a long-term relationship with a service provider. Subscriptions are ideal for SaaS. They allow...

By Todd McElhatton • June 12, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending June 11

Anan Kashyap Anan Kashyap is stepping down as CFO at Poshmark after five years. Kashyap will leave the clothing reseller in August after completing its second-quarter 10-Q filing and will remain with the company as an adviser until the end of the year. Kashyap played a key role in Poshmark’s Janu...

By Lauren Muskett • June 11, 2021

GameStop Stock Falls On Q1 Results; Hires New CEO, CFO

GameStop reported first-quarter financial results after the close Wednesday and announced the appointment of two new top executives.What Happened: Sales in the first quarter rose 25% year-over-year for GameStop.The company’s $1.28 billion in sales came in ahead of Wall Street’s consensus estimate...

By Lauren Muskett • June 10, 2021

IAC Finance Chief to Leave Job

Glenn Schiffman Glenn Schiffman, IAC executive vice president and chief financial officer, is leaving the media conglomerate to pursue a new opportunity.IAC, which owns home project marketplace Angi, childcare platform Care.com, and other businesses, said Schiffman will stay at the company for a ...

By Lauren Muskett • June 9, 2021