Microsoft Accuses SolarWinds Hackers of USAID Cyberattack

Microsoft has blamed the Russian SolarWinds hackers, Nobelium, for compromising the United States Agency For International Development’s (USAID) mass email system to violate the accounts of over 150 global government agencies, human rights groups, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Fi...

By Vincent Ryan • June 1, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending May 28

Heather Dixon Health care provider Everside Health hired Heather Dixon as its new chief financial officer. Dixon previously served as senior vice president, global controller, and chief accounting officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Before that, she was vice president, controller, and chief acco...

By Lauren Muskett • May 28, 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

Is Bitcoin a Buy?

Having covered cash management and treasury in-depth at CFO for years, I’ve been astounded by the statements of companies investing slices of their cash reserves in Bitcoin. Some business media outlets, too, suggest it makes perfect sense for a VP of treasury to take short-term cash residing in m...

By Vincent Ryan • May 27, 2021

Time for CFOs to Influence the SEC’s Climate Effort

Corporate sustainability is an increasingly big tent containing a broad spectrum of views and practices. In recent years, talk of “corporate purpose” and “stakeholder capitalism” has grown in importance and garnered the most attention.Ironically, however, behind the headlines, the most meaningful...

By Lauren Muskett • May 25, 2021

AMC’s CEO Uses Social Media to Connect With Retail Investors

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron is planning to increasingly engage with the movie theater chain’s new-found backers, the retail investors, through Twitter.What Happened: Aron took to Twitter earlier this month to say that he has started following “Apes” — a nickname for retail investors who are p...

By Lauren Muskett • May 25, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending May 21

Dan Janki Dan Janki is the new finance chief at Delta, effective July 12. Janki joins the airline from General Electric, where he is currently senior vice president and CEO of GE power portfolio. He has more than 25 years of experience at GE in a variety of senior roles, including CFO for GE cons...

By Lauren Muskett • May 21, 2021

PCAOB Critics Call On Gensler to Clean House

A group of 11 investors has asked new Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler to perform a major housecleaning at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.The investors, former members of the PCAOB’s Investor Advisory Group (IAG), accuse the PCAOB of “drifting away” from its “c...

By Vincent Ryan • May 20, 2021

Small-Biz Owners Used Forbearance, HELOCs to Survive

How did so many small businesses survive the worst of the pandemic? The Paycheck Protection Program helped. But it took more than that to keep many small businesses financially afloat.On Wednesday, an analysis by the New York Fed provided some clues. By drawing on data from its Consumer Credit Pa...

By Vincent Ryan • May 20, 2021

Senators Introduce Bipartisan Postal Reform Bill

In the latest effort to restore the U.S. Postal Service to financial health, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced legislation that would save it $46 billion over the next 10 years.The Postal Service Reform Act of 2021 would eliminate the requirement under a 2006 law that USPS pre-fu...

By Matthew Heller • May 20, 2021

China Cryptocurrency Warning Leads to Crypto Selloff

The People’s Bank of China issued a statement on Tuesday cautioning against the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.What Happened: Despite the fact that Chinese officials were merely reiterating their previous stance on trading virtual currencies, the news seemed to deepen the existing ...

By Lauren Muskett • May 19, 2021

EV Startup Faces SEC Investigation

Electric vehicle startup Canoo is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the electric vehicle startup’s CEO told analysts in a post-earnings call.What Happened: The Los Angeles, California-based company, which went public through a reverse merger with special purpose a...

By Lauren Muskett • May 18, 2021

Improving ROIC: Reevaluate How Capital Is Invested

CFOs often look at return on invested capital (ROIC) to enhance the capital required to grow their businesses, particularly with the need for fast-paced transformation. But the denominator of the ROIC equation, “invested capital,” often takes a back seat; this can hamper long-term value creation ...

By Lauren Muskett • May 18, 2021

JPMorgan Chase Names Jeremy Barnum CFO

With Jennifer Piepszak being named co-head of JPMorgan Chase’s consumer and community banking (CCB) business, the banking giant this morning named Jeremy Barnum its new finance chief.Barnum was head of global research for JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank (CIB), a post he was named to in F...

By Vincent Ryan • May 18, 2021

PCAOB Proposes Rule for Foreign Audit Inspections

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has proposed a framework for implementing a new law that could result in the delisting of Chinese companies.Under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), which was passed in December, companies that fail to comply with American auditing...

By Matthew Heller • May 14, 2021

AMC’s Raises Equity to Boost Cash Position

AMC Entertainment Holdings said Thursday it had completed a previously announced “at-the-market” equity sale for 43 million shares.What Happened: The movie theater chain raised nearly $428 million in fresh equity capital before taking into account commissions and fees at an average price of $9.94...

By Lauren Muskett • May 14, 2021

Big Tech Join Intel to Seek Chip Production Funding

Chip buyers, including Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet’s Google, have joined chip-makers like Intel to create a new lobbying group seeking $50 billion in Congressional funding for a domestic semiconductor production boost under the CHIPS for America Act, Bloomberg reports.The newly created Semicon...

By Lauren Muskett • May 11, 2021

Corporate Cash Holdings Metric Offers Mixed Signals

Many companies beefed up their cash and short-term investment balances in 2021’s opening quarter, but not all of them.In fact, 34% of organizations cut their cash holdings, compared with the 40% who increased them. The +6 percentage point difference is what the Association for Financial Professio...

By Vincent Ryan • May 11, 2021

A Dedicated M&A Team May Be Worth It

Not many CFOs have specialized corporate development teams to turn to when hunting takeover and merger targets. Indeed, a little more than one-third (37%) of publicly held U.S. companies had specialized M&A staffs between 2000 and 2017.If your company can afford it and has designs on building...

By Vincent Ryan • May 11, 2021

Bridgewater CFO Joins Bitcoin Firm NYDIG

New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) appointed John Dalby as the Bitcoin financial services firm’s chief financial officer.Dalby, who was most recently CFO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, brings more than 20 years of experience in capital markets, asset management,...

By Lauren Muskett • May 10, 2021

CFOs Ponder Remote Work Possibilities

When we talked to CFOs about their plans for a post-pandemic workplace for our October 2020 story, “Is Remote Work Working?” two messages came through loud and clear.First, CFOs told us that telework would permanently expand to more positions than before March 2020, when companies abruptly sent e...

By Sandra Beckwith • May 7, 2021

U.S. Economy Adds Only 266,000 Jobs in April

U.S. employers added far fewer jobs in April than expected, signaling that the labor market is still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic though not dimming economists’ hopes for a strong recovery.The Labor Department reported Friday that the economy added 266,000 new jobs last month, far short ...

By Matthew Heller • May 7, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending May 7

Sherry House Lucid Motors appointed Sherry House as chief financial officer, where she will focus on the electric vehicle automaker’s transition to a publicly traded company. House joins the company from Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo, where she was treasurer and head of investor relations fo...

By Lauren Muskett • May 7, 2021

Crypto Exchange Kraken Ordered to Provide User Records to IRS

The U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken will now be obliged to provide the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with details about its users engaged in cryptocurrency transactions equivalent to $20,000.What Happened: A court order ruled that the IRS was authorized to serve a John Doe Summons on Kraken, s...

By Lauren Muskett • May 6, 2021

S&P Launches Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto Mega Cap Indexes

S&P Dow Jones Indices launched its first three crypto indexes on Monday, according to a report from CoinDesk.What Happened: The three indexes will measure the performance of digital assets listed on registered open exchanges.The S&P Bitcoin Index tracks the performance of the leading digi...

By Lauren Muskett • May 4, 2021

Time for CFOs to Spark Up Relationships in China

If anyone hoped for a quick thaw in China relations under President Joe Biden, they’ve already been disappointed. The early rhetoric on China coming from the White House has remained tough. The Biden administration is in no hurry to ease the Trump tariffs and investment restrictions that...

By Lou Longo • May 4, 2021