Today In Finance

Revenue Recognition: Will a Single Model Fly?

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Elements unique to long-term contracts pose a challenge for FASB and IASB in their bid to create one standard covering all customer relationships. Can U.S. and international accounting standard-setters realize their dream of fashioning a single revenue...(read more)

Twice the Effort for a Revolver: A Good Deal

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:00:00 GMT

It took some doing, but Ducommun is among the few companies able to recently acquire a five-year line of credit with decent terms. Joseph Bellino, CFO of Ducommun Inc., has a new, rare prize he can use to show customers and suppliers that aerospace-parts...(read more)

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending July 3

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Facebook, eGistics, Spansion, Charles & Colvard, NeuStar, Cumulus Media, QL2 Software, Century Payments, SeaBright Insurance Holdings, Aspen Technology, Akebia Therapeutics. David Ebersman is the new head of finance at social-networking site Facebook...(read more)

Treasurers Cling to Safety

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

When it comes to short-term investments during the downturn, treasury departments see protecting their principal, rather than making money, as a top priority. Burned by the credit crisis, finance executives are in cash-hoarding mode. Liquidity is...(read more)

Will Whopping Goodwill Hits Hurt Deals?

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:00:00 GMT

The big question for many investors is whether the backlash from past mergers will cool deal valuations going forward. The hits just kept coming last winter, as company after company reported huge goodwill impairment charges along with their 2008 earnings...(read more)

Banks Take Aim at Revolvers

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:00:00 GMT

With lenders shrinking the length and size of their commitments to companies and charging more, liquidity risk is rising. Companies are finding themselves in a liquidity squeeze. At a time when financial markets and counterparties are companies'...(read more)

Leadership in Finance: ICE Energy's David Schwarzbach

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

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)

Disciplinarians' Dilemma

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

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)

Green Counters

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT

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)

Citigroup Ready to Swallow a "Tax Poison Pill"

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:00 GMT

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)

GE,GE Capital: Parting Company?

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

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)

Speed Bumps for Early XBRL Filers, Users

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

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)

Leadership in Finance: CDW's Ann Ziegler

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

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)

The Recession and Pay: the Quiet Americans

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

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)

AIG Sells Shares to Fed: Papa's Little Dividend?

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:00:00 GMT

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)

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending June 26

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:00:00 GMT

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)

The Fair-Value Deadbeat Debate Returns

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:00:00 GMT

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)

Changes on the Way for Target Date Funds?

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:00:00 GMT

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)

International Standard Setters Have Their Say on MD&A

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:00:00 GMT

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)

Study: Free-Cash Rise May Signal Start of Economic Turn

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

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)

Another Fair Value Rule Tweak Is in the Works

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT

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)

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending June 19

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:00:01 GMT

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)

KPMG Should Be Tougher on Testing, PCAOB Finds

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT

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)

Credit-default Swaps and Bankruptcy: No Empty Threat

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT

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)

Financial Reform: New Foundation, Walls Intact

CFO.com: Today in Finance — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT

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)