The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued two joint orders related to security-based futures contracts that clarify each Commission's respective jurisdiction and allow additional products to underlie security futures.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointments of three senior officials to its Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) to help continue its increased focus on individual investors. OIEA serves the Commission as the "investors' office" and provides educational resources to help individual investors make inform […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two former Silicon Valley executives for improperly inflating the reported financial results at Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor company Tvia, Inc.
Attorney General Eric Holder, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairwoman Mary Schapiro today announced that President Barack Obama has established by Executive Order an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to strengthen efforts to combat f […]
Eight federal regulatory agencies today released a final model privacy notice form that will make it easier for consumers to understand how financial institutions collect and share information about consumers.
I bought some credits for my long distance calling service Mobivox last week. I use this service at least once a week and yet this was the 1st time I had bought credits since April 2008 (when I was working there). I have to be one of the better users on this service, yet it has only extracted $ 20 from me in a year and a 1/2. That's not the path to rich […]
Techcrunch reported about Don Dodge joining Google today. That's great news for the startup World and a great hire for Google. What was not reported on here is that this hire must mark the end of the Non-Compete as we know it.I think we can all agree that Microsoft and Google consider each other competitors. So, for Don to pick up and immediately take o […]
At last month's National Angel Summit there was a great discussion on when startups should hire CFOs. Bryan Watson from NAO sent me the video. Check in just before the 6 minute mark.Highlights:When: right before you raise your 1st capital?Don't hire a full time CFOHire someone with startup experienceRun things right from the startReally important f […]
Like all CFOs, I used to be a nightclub DJ, pumping out house tunes at some of Montreal's coolest venues. I am pleased to report that I'll be dusting off the vinyl for a special appearance along with Alistair Croll and Sean Power of Watching Website's fame on Thursday Dec. 10 for Yultide 2009: Montreal's Tech Community Holiday party.All t […]
A couple of weeks ago Silicon Alley Insider published its list of the World's most valuable Internet Startups. I thought it would be interesting to dig deeper into the numbers to see what we could learn and apply to our own startups. Together with my research department (aka - Jonathan), we crunched some numbers.Recognizing that we have imperfect data s […]
Anytime a presentation starts with “Implementing EITF 08-1 and EITF 09-3,” we know we may be in for a long meeting.  Gregory P. Randall, Partner with KPMG, made a very technical topic interesting yesterday. The topic – the changes in revenue recognition guidelines for software companies and others with multiple deliverables packaged in […]
I have had a lot of conversations recently about staffing the accounting and finance function in the company. As companies grow and shrink, their needs in this area change. We certainly do not want to be over-staffed, and we also want the most cost-effective staff doing as much of the work as possible. For example, we [...]
A respected professional @chrisknudsen said something to me a few months ago that I have reflected on several times since that occasion. We were discussing a company that has amazing, break-through technology with a wide-open market space. Their leadership just does not seem to be in a hurry to seize the opportunity. They’re growing at about [.. […]
I have heard this statement more often than I care to admit: “I cannot predict the future so a budget would be worthless for my business.” Â An article entitled How to Create a Budget in BusinessWeek prompted me to recollect some of my experiences with helping people who have the above attitude towards budgeting gain a [...]
This is a real situation experienced by a real emerging company. Names and figures have been altered to protect anonymity.  A company has a new opportunity and they create a financial model to try and forecast how their general assumptions for this opportunity will materialize. Specifically, they made significant assumptions about the direct labor co […]
Great relationships take work to build and can be destroyed very quickly. This is particularly true for CFOs who are focussed on numbers and results and are usually driven to performance. Its easy to get lost in the job and...
Napoleon Hill, in his all-time bestselling success book Think and Grow Rich, outlined 11 Major Attributes of Leadership. They are as follows: UNWAVERING COURAGE. Based on knowledge of self and of one's occupation. SELF-CONTROL. People who cannot control themselves can...
The new Financial Executives Research Foundation's Annual Financial Executive Compensation Survey shows dramatic changes in the responsibilities of CFOs, both private and public. Areas where private CFOs are spending significant more time than ever before are Planning, Legal, Purchasing, Operations,...
But if the global recession continues to spiral downward, many companies will try to slash their insurance bills by resorting to various forms of self-insurance, a new report predicts.
In our M&A Roundup for the week ended Jan. 4, a mere 16 North American transactions are arranged, with only Chesapeake Corp.'s billion-dollar bankruptcy buyout topping $150 million.
One of the three trustees who oversees U.S. taxpayers' nearly 80% stake in AIG recently said he wanted to quit his post, but was persuaded to stay on. Separately, the government is seeking possible candidates to add to the insurer's board.
Richard Anderson, chief executive at Delta Air Lines, said the SkyTeam alliance of global carriers would be willing to invest more than $1.02 billion into ailing Japan Airlines as it tries to cement a trans-Pacific partnership.
Ohio's attorney general filed suit against ratings agencies Standard Poor's, Moody's and Fitch, alleging they provided misleading ratings in exchange for money.
The European Central Bank announced its first active step to unwind the stimulus measures it has used to support the financial sector since the global crisis last year.
A compromise reached between Russia and Ukraine curbs the risk of another serious cutoff of gas to Europe this winter, but financial problems and political tensions inside Ukraine still pose a threat.
Brown has beaten the Obama administration to the punch with some stands on Afghan war policy, many of which proved to be previews of similar stances later taken by the White House.
Sarkozy received proposals from a high-profile commission to invest $52.36 billion to boost economic growth in the medium term, but the plan has been criticized for increasing the country's already spiraling debt.
One particularly vitriolic reader of my last article on The Distorted Shape of the Recovering Economy seemed to think I was predicting a doomsday scenario. I was not at all. Richard Duncan’s tentatively predicted Fall of Rome scenario is a true doomsday scenario, not mine.My focus of late has been much more on the need for transparency and can […]
Joe Eqcome submits:Having the privilege to have met Sir John Templeton, the founder of The Templeton Funds, I was stuck not only by his crushing intellect but also by his sense of optimism regarding investing. Warren Buffett, a fellow optimist, who upon acquiring Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI) for $26.3 billion said, “It was a bet on […]
Gary Weiss submits: David Brooks' New York Times op-ed column today on Tim Geithner (mentioning in the lead my Portfolio cover story) misses the point, I think.The problem with Geithner's approach is not whether or not the banks are recovering because of the TARP program, but the degree to which the profits of the biggest banks have not b […]
Vinny Catalano submits:So, here we are. More than two years into what started out as a credit crisis, one plus year after the Lehman collapse and a question that pertains to the one of the central workings of the equities market cannot be answered.At last evening's Market Technicians Association Educational Foundation seminar, the question your […]
Rolfe Winkler, CFA submits: Moody’s/REAL released September data for their commercial real estate price index. Month over month drops have been fast and furious this year. -8.6% Mar to Apr-7.6% May-1.0% June-5.1% July-3.0% Aug-3.9% Sept Since the peak in October 2007, CRE prices are down 43%.Complete Story »