Today In Finance

June 2009 - Posts

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  Leadership in Finance: ICE Energy's David Schwarzbach The unlikely CFO moved from agriculture to activist to financial anchor for a burgeoning technology company. It's not every corporate finance chief who authors an article in Scientific American opining on Iran's nuclear weapons program. But... Read More... Published: Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 10:00 AM

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  Disciplinarians' Dilemma Derided as enemies of innovation, CFOs can, in fact, be its valuable friends. In a 2000 interview with CFO, business guru Gary Hamel claimed that finance executives are the enemy of innovation. And that was when times were good. Today nearly all CFOs... Read More... Published: Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 07:00 AM

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  Green Counters Sophisticated tools for carbon-emissions accounting are coming to market. But are U.S. companies ready for them? As a company that sells playground equipment to publicly funded parks and schools, Playworld Systems risks any number of nasty falls. It has... Read More... Published: Monday, June 29, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  Citigroup Ready to Swallow a "Tax Poison Pill" In its recently announced stock swap deal with the government, Citi is looking to keep a poison pill handy to prevent a technical change of ownership. Citigroup announced the finalization of a definitive agreement with the U.S. government on June 10,... Read More... Published: Monday, June 29, 2009, 02:00 AM

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  GE,GE Capital: Parting Company? Will the Obama administration's reforms of the financial system hurt retailers and manufacturers with lending arms? The talk had become so fevered that on June 22nd Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric's embattled boss, sent out a memo to all staff... Read More... Published: Friday, June 26, 2009, 07:00 AM

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  Speed Bumps for Early XBRL Filers, Users FASB is trying to overcome a mismatch between its new codification of accounting standards and data-tagged financials. That could present communications problems for CFOs. A solution is said to be coming soon to a thorny technical issue that had threatened... Read More... Published: Friday, June 26, 2009, 06:00 AM

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  Leadership in Finance: CDW's Ann Ziegler The CFO tries to help her staff manage in uncertain times by explaining the logic behind the numbers. Major changes began at CDW well before the market meltdown of last fall. Formerly listed on the Nasdaq, the seller of computer hardware, software, and... Read More... Published: Friday, June 26, 2009, 06:00 AM

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  The Recession and Pay: the Quiet Americans Employees are proving stoical in the face of pay cuts and compulsory unpaid leave. Back when times were better and the newspaper industry wasn't fighting for dear life, reporters at the Cleveland Plain Dealer would regularly grumble at the measly... Read More... Published: Friday, June 26, 2009, 06:00 AM

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  AIG Sells Shares to Fed: Papa's Little Dividend? The New York Fed has agreed to get involved in the life insurance business by investing $25 billion in two special-purpose vehicles. In a move aimed at cutting American International Group's $40 billion debt to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York... Read More... Published: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 11:00 AM

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  CFOs on the Move: Week Ending June 26 CBS, Wyndham Worldwide, Comverge, F.N.B., Noble Energy, Unum Group, Workshare, Exar, Signet Solar. CBS Corp. has announced the promotion of Joseph Ianniello to CFO, effective July 20. He has been deputy CFO since November 2008. He takes over from Fred... Read More... Published: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 10:00 AM

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  The Fair-Value Deadbeat Debate Returns On hiatus while other fair-value questions were debated, the hotly-contested issue of why companies can book a gain when their credit rating sinks has returned to center stage. A new discussion paper released last week by the staff of the International... Read More... Published: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 09:00 AM

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  Changes on the Way for Target Date Funds? Regulators are eyeing the popular retirement plan options, which recorded surprisingly poor results last year. For a while now, target date funds have seemed like a good option for retirement plan investors, many of whom don't want to sort... Read More... Published: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 05:00 AM

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  International Standard Setters Have Their Say on MD&A Although the IASB's first proposed guidance on management commentary purports to set up best practices, some board members think it's superfluous. The promulgator of International Financial Reporting Standards today weighed in with its first proposal... Read More... Published: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 09:00 AM

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  Study: Free-Cash Rise May Signal Start of Economic Turn But without revenue strength, cost cutting and tough debt collection can only go so far. The first year-long improvement in free-cash margin since December 2007 suggests that non-financial public companies "are in the process of turning the corner... Read More... Published: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 06:00 AM

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  Another Fair Value Rule Tweak Is in the Works This time, FASB is hoping to clarify the rules on valuing "alternative" investment vehicles. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is proposing another in what has become a regular series of amendments and clarifications to its... Read More... Published: Monday, June 22, 2009, 03:00 AM

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  CFOs on the Move: Week Ending June 19 Yahoo, RecycleBank, Duke Energy, Merisel, Host Analytics, XOJET, Entech Solar, LifeVantage, Pepco Holdings. Tim Morse has been appointed to the top finance spot at Yahoo. Previously, he was CFO at semiconductor company Altera Corp., and he worked at General... Read More... Published: Friday, June 19, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  KPMG Should Be Tougher on Testing, PCAOB Finds The Big Four audit firm was cited for not ramping up its tests of some clients' assumptions and internal controls. KPMG did not show enough skepticism toward clients last year, according to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which cited... Read More... Published: Friday, June 19, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  Credit-default Swaps and Bankruptcy: No Empty Threat CDSs are pitting firms against their own creditors. Six Flags, a theme-park operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 13th, bringing its long ride to reduce debt obligations to an abrupt halt. The surprise was that bondholders, not... Read More... Published: Friday, June 19, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  Financial Reform: New Foundation, Walls Intact The president's financial overhaul is a curious mix of audacity and timidity. Even Merton Miller, a Nobel prize-winning economist with a passion for financial arcana, found it "deadly dull." But if ever there was a week when financial regulation... Read More... Published: Friday, June 19, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  Consumers, CFOs Stuck in Wait-and-see Mode Consumers hope things are getting better, but they aren't ready to start spending. Consumers and finance executives are stuck at the same crossroads when they think about the economy: they're hoping for the best, but aren't quite sure... Read More... Published: Friday, June 19, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  For Good Cash Forecasts, Use the 80/20 Rule When it comes to forecasting, striving for perfection can be a fool's errand. At this gut-check moment for corporate decision-makers, one tactic to boost their confidence is to demand better cash forecasts from their treasury departments... Read More... Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 06:00 AM

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  A Fortress Balance Sheet Two seasoned treasurers say what's on their minds — and making balance sheets shock-proof is just one notion. Build a "fortress balance sheet." Maintain good credit ratings. "Actively monitor your counterparty risk." And... Read More... Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 03:00 AM

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  Sara Lee Shells Out Sales to Save Suppliers The food maker may give sow and turkey farmers up to two years' worth of business to encourage their lenders to loosen credit. The credit crisis has put pressure on companies to prop up critical business partners whose ability to get financing has... Read More... Published: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 08:00 AM

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  Want to Cut Costs? Knock Down Your Credit Facility MGIC, which writes mortgage insurance for lenders, decides to stop borrowing. Faced with a big need to raise capital in order to keep its business going, MGIC Investment Corp., perhaps the nation's biggest private mortgage insurer, took an unusual... Read More... Published: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 06:00 AM

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  Will the New FASB Code Change Accounting? Less than three weeks away from the July 1 launch of the codification system, there are still many unknowns. Get ready to say good-bye to the alphabet soup that currently comprises Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.  As of July 1, standards... Read More... Published: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 04:00 AM