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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All-Day Breakfast Boosts McDonald’s Sales

McDonald’s move to an all-day breakfast and the addition of healthier menu choices is reaping rewards as the company posted its best U.S. quarterly sales in four years.U.S. comparable store sales rose 5.7% in the fourth quarter and global comparable sales were up 5%, McDonald’s said Monday. Earni...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 25, 2016

Google Settles U.K. Tax Probe for $185 Million

Google has agreed to pay the U.K. government $185 million in back taxes and bear a heavier tax burden in the future, the latest move by a U.S. tech firm to settle claims that it does not pay its fair share of taxes in Europe.The agreement covers taxes from 2005 to 2015 and Google will change how ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 25, 2016

Firms Slow to Implement New Revenue Standard

Companies still have some time before they must begin applying the new standard for revenue recognition but many seem to be making slow progress in preparing for the change.According to a KPMG survey, less than 29% of corporate financial preparers say their companies have a clear plan to implemen...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 25, 2016

Q4 Profit Falls in Most of GE’s Core Businesses

Plummeting oil prices drove down General Electric’s fourth-quarter profits in most of its core industrial businesses.Five of GE’s eight industrial business units experienced declines, including a 10% fall in the power turbine business and an 8% decline in the health-care unit, which makes imaging...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 22, 2016

Ocwen Fined $2M for Misstating Results

In the latest fallout from regulatory investigations of Ocwen Financial and affiliated companies, Ocwen has agreed to pay $2 million to settle charges over its valuation of billions of dollars in mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) and its relationship with former Chairman William Erbey.Ocwen sold t...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 21, 2016

KPMG Withdraws Audit Opinions on Regulator

KPMG has withdrawn nearly a decade of audit opinions about the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s accounts, citing an error in the agency’s accounting for lease payments for its offices.According to a KPMG opinion included in the CFTC’s 2015 financial report, the commission understated i...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 21, 2016

CBO Increases 2016 Deficit Forecast to $544B

The Congressional Budget Office has raised its projected U.S. budget deficit estimate for 2016 to $544 billion, reflecting in large part the fiscal impact of extended tax breaks.The deficit that the CBO is currently projecting is $130 billion higher than the one that the agency projected in Augus...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 19, 2016

New Iran Supplies Will Add to Oil Price Pressures

Now that sanctions in Iran are lifted and the country can start selling its oil internationally again, the market stands to be greatly exacerbated by the new supplies, the International Energy Agency warned Monday.The IEA said Iran could add around 300,000 barrels a day of additional crude by the...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 19, 2016