Finance Roundup for Executives

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia…The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia triggered more than the brouhaha over who should appoint his successor, a story that’s been vying with the presidential primaries for headlines since his Feb. 13 passing.There are also implications for a number...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 24, 2016

Fitbit Cuts Its Earnings Forecast

Even with the rollout of two new wearable fitness trackers, including Blaze, a smart watch that features on-screen workouts and a connected GPS, Fitbit on Monday forecasted lower-than-expected revenue and profit.Sales in the first quarter of 2016 will be in the range of $420 million to $440 milli...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 23, 2016

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

Finance Roundup for Executives

CFOs of retail companies have fairly tepid views on business prospects for 2016, following a poor year that was capped by disappointing holiday-season sales.Among 100 retailer finance chiefs polled by BDO, three quarters said they expect sales to increase this year, but on average they pegged the...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 23, 2016

Retail CFOs on 2016: Down, but Not Out

CFOs of retail companies have fairly tepid views on business prospects for 2016, following a poor year that was capped by disappointing holiday-season sales.Among 100 retailer finance chiefs polled by BDO, three quarters said they expect sales to increase this year, but on average they pegged the...

By David McCann • Feb. 22, 2016

A Match Made in Human Capital

Maybe the finance department should take over the human resources department, and maybe it shouldn’t. CFO offers several articles exploring comparisons between them, and how operations will be affected, for better or worse, if a change is made.—Magic, Science and Art: Should Finance Take Over HR?...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 22, 2016

Finance roundup for Executives

The business environment, infused with uncertainty, has muted the growth of business confidence, according to the results of the Duke University/CFO Magazine GlobalBusiness Outlook survey for the fourth quarter of 2015.“Economic uncertainty” was the top business concern cited by executives around...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 22, 2016

Manufacturing: A Hard Pounding

Caterpillar is one of the most renowned industrial brands. It makes the kind of heavy machinery — loaders, excavators and off-road trucks — that is used in the construction, mining and transport industries when things need to get dug out or shifted somewhere. But the firm’s latest results, releas...

By Economist Staff • Feb. 22, 2016

IRS Warns Taxpayers of Jump in Email Scams

With tax season in full swing, the Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers to beware of phishing emails disguised as official communications from the IRS and others in the tax industry.In a consumer alert issued Thursday, the IRS said it had received reports of 1,026 incidents of phishing a...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 19, 2016

What You Need to Know about Inversions

After nearly going extinct, corporate inversions have come back strongly in the last few years. In response to the practice, which generally reduces a company’s tax bill, the U.S. Treasury Department issued several pronouncements in 2014 designed to limit the government’s loss of revenue. The mea...

By Jerome Schwartzman and Steven Tishman • Feb. 19, 2016

In Search of Certainty

The business environment, infused with uncertainty, has muted the growth of business confidence, according to the results of the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey for the fourth quarter of 2015.“Economic uncertainty” was the top business concern cited by executives aroun...

By David W. Owens • Feb. 19, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

Our Latest HeadlinesThe increasingly aggressive and rising level of investor activism leveled against corporations has been both a cause of concern to managements and boards and a sign of greater corporate responsiveness to investor stakeholders.Among the major companies recently targeted are Amg...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 18, 2016

The Rise of Marketplace Lenders (Podcast)

CFO Editor-in-Chief Edward Teach interviews Vincent Ryan of CFO.com about his February 2016 cover story, “Fast Money.” Ryan discusses how bloated cost structures, deteriorating credit portfolios, and new regulatory burdens for banks in the wake of the financial crisis opened the door for online, ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Feb. 18, 2016

American Express to Slash $1B in Expenses

American Express on Wednesday said that it has set a target of reducing costs by $1 billion over the next two years as part of a re-adjustment of its expense base “to get ahead of the changes that are altering the dynamics of the payments business.”The New York payments company said it approach f...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 18, 2016

SunEdison Cutting Jobs, Closing Plants

SunEdison on Thursday announced moves to “re-engineer” its business, after its shares crashed in the pre-market and its attempts to de-leverage hit a snag.The Maryland Heights, Mo.-based clean energy developer announced plans to sell its Kuching, Malaysia silicon wafer production facility to Chin...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 18, 2016

CFOs Losing Confidence in Value of Reporting

Amid an increasingly demanding corporate reporting environment, CFOs are losing confidence in the effectiveness of reporting, with many complaining of reporting overload, according to a new EY survey.The survey of 1,000 CFOs across 25 countries in organizations with revenue greater than $500 mill...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 18, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

Our Latest HeadlinesCFO openings are taking longer to fill these days, as noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article. While the article didn’t get very deeply into the question of why this is happening, it suggested that both companies and candidates are getting pickier.That’s true, so let’s e...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 17, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

Our Latest HeadlinesIt’s not hard to validate the oft-expressed observation that sales is typically the sole responsibility of autonomous agents. Companies advise their salespeople that they will be held accountable for outcomes, not activities. They are paid commissions — and sometimes only comm...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 16, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

Our Latest HeadlinesHow would you like to get a loan with an interest rate 1% to 2% lower than you’d likely be able to get otherwise, with a seven-year term during which you don’t have to repay any principal — and even then you’ll have to pay back only 80% of what you borrowed?You may be skeptica...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 12, 2016

Mylan to Pay 92% Premium for Sweden’s Meda

Mylan NV has agreed to acquire Meda for about $7.2 billion, representing a hefty premium for the Swedish drug maker, which it began pursuing in 2014.Mylan will pay 165 Swedish kronor ($19.62) per share, a 92% premium over Meda’s closing price of 86.05 kronor on Wednesday and more than Meda’s all-...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 11, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

Our Latest HeadlinesWhether a company prepares full-blown forecasts of operating performance every month or every quarter, speed matters.Informed predictions about trends in revenue, cost, and operating profit provide the basis for decisions about staying on course or shifting focus. They are esp...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 11, 2016

Metric of the Month: Financial Forecasting Speed

Whether a company prepares full-blown forecasts of operating performance every month or every quarter, speed matters.Informed predictions about trends in revenue, cost, and operating profit provide the basis for decisions about staying on course or shifting focus. They are especially critical in ...

By Mary C. Driscoll • Feb. 10, 2016

Monsanto Settles Accounting Violations for $80M

Monsanto has agreed to pay $80 million to settle charges that it delayed recording costs associated with rebate programs for its flagship Roundup product, resulting in material misstatements of its earnings during a three-year period.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the agribusine...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 10, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

The Latest Headlines from CFOLike it or not, we live in a world that’s increasingly drowning in data. Getting the right data to the right person at the right time — and in a form they can easily and rapidly absorb — is often a requirement for productive performance in a wide range of business cri...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 10, 2016

Rob Frolik Steps Down as CFO of Yelp

Consumer review website operator Yelp said Monday that CFO Rob Krolik was stepping down after nearly five years on the job.Krolik’s resignation was announced as Yelp reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Net revenue rose 40% to $153.7 million, above Wall Street estimates of around...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 8, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

The Latest Headlines from CFOIn today’s acutely dynamic world, there’s an unfortunate tendency to fixate on tracking the instant increments of change, and the reasons therefor, with less consideration for long-evolving trends that may shed light on the present.At the end of 2014 there were 62 wom...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 8, 2016