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

Retail, Energy Lead Surge in U.S. Job Cuts

After hitting a 15-year low in December, U.S. job cuts surged last month amid heavy downsizing in the retail and energy industries, according to a new report.The global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas said employers reported 75,114 planned layoffs in January, up 218% on ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 5, 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

For Playboy, Losing Nudity Means Winning Business

About two seconds after hearing last October that Playboy Enterprises planned to stop publishing photographs of nude women in its magazine, I experienced a rare moment of pristine clarity, expressed as: This is a last, futile grasp. Can you say “Dead Magazine Walking”?I wasn’t the only one shakin...

By David McCann • Feb. 5, 2016

LinkedIn Shares Dive on Weak 2016 Guidance

While LinkedIn surpassed analysts’ expectations for 2015, the professional social networking company’s weak forecast for this year sent its stock tumbling, wiping out $11 billion in market value.LinkedIn on Thursday forecast full-year revenue of $3.60-$3.65 billion, missing the average analyst es...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 5, 2016

GM’s Record Profits Don’t Impress Wall Street

General Motors posted record profits of $6.3 billion for the fourth quarter and $9.7 billion for 2015 but its stock continued to slide amid concerns that it may be heading toward a cyclical downturn.The latest quarter included a $3.9 billion noncash gain reflecting improved results in Europe, as ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 4, 2016

Finance Roundup for Executives

The Latest Headlines from CFOAll CFOs realize the value of actively managing their organization’s investment portfolio, but those who understand the value of managing their project portfolio the same way can add insight to discussions in the boardroom about maintaining competitive advantage.Proje...

By Kerry Maruna • Feb. 4, 2016

The Sooner Finance ERP Moves to the Cloud, the Better

It started with customer data a decade ago, followed by human capital management. Now the wave of cloud adoption is lapping at the door of finance as organizations begin to move their enterprise systems out of the company premises and into the cloud. KPMG estimates that 20% of organizations’ ERP ...

By Patrick Fenton • Feb. 4, 2016

Danish Tax Dispute Weighs on Tempur Sealy

Tempur Sealy swung to a loss in the fourth quarter as a tax dispute with Denmark that may take years to resolve continued to weigh on the world’s largest mattress maker.The net loss of $11.3 million, or 18 cents a share, reflected in part a balance sheet charge related to the dispute over Tempur ...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 4, 2016

IPO Drought Ends With Two Biotech Deals

The U.S. IPO drought ended Tuesday with the offerings of two biotech firms, the Wall Street Journal reported.Editas Medicine of Cambridge, Mass., raised $94.4 million, and Beijing-based BeiGene raised about $158 million in the U.S. IPO market, sources familiar with each offering told the WSJ.The ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 3, 2016

Lowe’s to Acquire Canada’s Rona for $2.3B

Lowe’s said Wednesday it had agreed to acquire Rona Inc. for $2.3 billion, four years after the Canadian home improvement retailer rejected its advances amid a political backlash.The price represents a 104% premium over Rona’s closing common share price on Tuesday. The company operates a network ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 3, 2016

Lender AGF Accused of Lying About Audits

Business lender American Growth Funding and its owner have been charged with falsely claiming its financial statements had been audited and concealing the weakness of its financial condition from investors.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said AGF and owner Ralph Johnson told prospecti...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 3, 2016

Should Your Auditor Prepare Your Tax Return?

With corporate tax avoidance a hot issue in the United States and Europe these days, it’s no surprise that a recent $185 million settlement for taxes going back to 2005 between the British government and Google has proved highly contentious. Members of the political opposition have denounced it a...

By David McCann • Feb. 1, 2016

IMF Changes Rules to Avoid Large Bailout Loans

The International Monetary Fund has approved new lending rules to help resolve sovereign debt crises without having to resort to the large bailout loans made to Greece, Ireland, and Portugal.The reforms include the elimination of the “systemic exemption” that was introduced in 2010 to loan 30 bil...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 1, 2016

Visa Posts Earnings Beat Despite Strong Dollar

Visa posted better-than-expected profits for its first quarter despite the headwinds of a strong dollar and an uneven global economy.The credit card processing giant said adjusted earnings were 69 cents a share on revenue of $3.565 billion for the period ended Dec. 31. Analysts had expected earni...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 29, 2016

Amazon Earnings Dash Investors’ High Hopes

Amazon shares dropped more than 7% on Friday after the company, coming off a year of meteoric growth, reported  fourth-quarter earnings that were well below analysts’ expectations.Amazon’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 22%, to $35.75 billion, and net income more than doubled, to $482 million, or $1...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 29, 2016

Xerox Copies HP With Split Into Two Companies

Xerox on Friday said it would split into a document technology company and a business services company in a move to become more flexible and responsive in each of those businesses.The split continues a trend in corporate America of diversified companies breaking up into more highly specialized pi...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 29, 2016

EU Moves to Close Profit-Shifting Tax Loophole

The European Commission has proposed a package of measures to clamp down on corporate tax avoiders that would close a loophole companies have used to shift profits to low-tax countries.The EU’s executive body said the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package would open up “a new chapter in its campaign for fai...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 29, 2016

5 Key Questions for a New Accounting Standard

At long last, the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is ready to pull the trigger on its new standard for lease accounting. Under the new rule, long-term operating leases—including equipment and other assets—will appear on the balance sheet for the first time as non-debt liabilities. The e...

By David W. Owens • Jan. 29, 2016

Durable Goods Orders Plunge in December

U.S. durable goods orders fell sharply in December as the energy industry slump and drag from a strong dollar spilled over into manufacturing.The 5.1% drop reported Thursday by the Commerce Department was the largest since August 2014 and far exceeded the 1.5% expected by economists. For 2015 as ...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 28, 2016

VMware Cuts 800 Jobs As Merger Doubts Linger

With Dell’s $67 billion acquisition of EMC still short of the finish line, VMware — the EMC-controlled seller of data-center software — is laying off 800 employees.The layoffs were announced Tuesday as VMware released its fourth-quarter earnings. The company expects the cuts to cost between $55 m...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 28, 2016

Airline CFOs Moderate Profit Expectations

Airline chief financial officers and heads of cargo have lowered their profit expectations for 2016, probably reflecting concerns over weakness in global business environment and emerging market economies, according to the International Air Transport Association.“The rate of expected improvement ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 27, 2016

Apple Earnings Beat Estimates But iPhone Sales Lag

Apple’s first-quarter earnings beat Wall Street estimates, but revenue growth and iPhone sales are showing signs of slowing.The company said on Tuesday that it earned $3.28 per share on $75.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter. Analysts had expected Apple to report earnings of about $3.23 a...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 27, 2016

Public Cloud Market to Grow 16.5% in 2016

The global market for public cloud systems will grow 16.5% to $204 billion this year, with the highest growth coming from infrastructure as a service (IaaS), according to Gartner Inc.The research firm is projecting strong growth into 2017 across all public cloud segments. In 2016, IaaS is expecte...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 27, 2016

Achieving Working Capital Maturity

Great people, great ideas, great customers — most major companies have some combination of formidable advantages going for them. Like world-class athletes, where the difference between the best and the rest is measured in hundredths of a second, the companies that carry away the gold often do so ...

By Jennifer Pinney • Jan. 26, 2016

Huntington Bank to Buy FirstMerit

Huntington Bancshares on Tuesday said it has agreed to buy FirstMerit for about $3.4 billion — another match-up of small to mid-size banking companies in an era of historically tight margins and higher regulatory hurdles.The stock-and-cash deal would create a regional player with nearly $100 bill...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 26, 2016