What's New Also Noted: News scan: FX scandal; spinoffs; and much, much more and much more... News From the Fierce Network:
Today's Top NewsCash, healthcare keep CFOs awake at night, survey finds
Cost of capital: close, but no cigar
Also Noted<< Risk: Deutsche, UBS confirm that their FX trading operations are under investigation It's official: The banks are suspected of manipulating the currency markets. "We have taken and will take appropriate action with respect to certain personnel as a result of our review, which is ongoing," UBS said. But meanwhile, as we reported last week, treasurers are advised to break up their foreign exchange transactions into small batches to minimize the potential impact of banks' alleged efforts. The latest report adds another bank to the list of those under investigation and says the suspected activity, in which banks reportedly colluded to fix the markets, was "widespread." As if the challenges their customers face in hedging their exposures weren't formidable enough. Read more here. << Management: More spinoffs in the offing Is it just us, or does it strike others as well that spinoffs come in waves? A few days after DuPont announced it was spinning off its chemicals business, Sears Holdings and Occidental Petroleum are doing something similar. Sears is considering spinning off its Lands' End and spinning off or selling its Sears Auto Center businesses, while Oxy is expected to spin off its California oil and gas holdings as part of a major reorganization plan. As for the potentially cyclical nature of the trend, there does seem to be a pendulum-like pattern in which companies seek synergy and economies of scale through acquisitions (case in point, PwC's purchase of Booz, announced today) and then follow those with spin-offs or, if taxes aren't an issue, simple divestitures when those synergies or economies fail to materialize. But companies seem to make such moves all at once or close to it, and then reverse course also en masse, as if following financial fashion. Plus ça change. More on this here, here and here. << Capital: Twitter gets more visual ahead of IPO The micro-blogging site added photo and video functionality to boost usage, whose growth is slowing at an unfortunate juncture, given its prospective IPO. In the third quarter, Twitter had 232 million users who checked the service at least once a month, up just 6.4 percent from the previous quarter. Facebook was showing double-digit quarterly increases as its initial public offering approached. The change could also help Twitter sell ads, which is its primary source of revenue. Read more here. << Capital: Why Facebook's stock looks overvalued While Facebook's usage was growing smartly ahead of its IPO, as per the above, the IPO was a bit of a bust, at least as far as initial expectations were concerned. On the other hand, the stock has done very well since, rising to $50 ahead of today's earnings report, up sharply from the IPO price of $38. On the other other hand, projections are for revenue growth to slow for the next two and a half years. The company is obviously in need of some fresh income streams. Can video supply it? Or will cellphones help? Read more here. << Capital: LinkedIn's stock takes a hit It looks as if Internet mishaps occur in threes. Investors reacted negatively after LinkedIn, the big professional-networking site, issued a sales forecast that lagged analysts' estimates. The culprit: slowing growth in the subscription and advertising businesses. Read more here. << Human capital: Infosys hit with record immigration fine The Indian outsourcing firm is expected to pay $35 million to the federal government for placing long-term foreign workers on short-term visitor visas instead of work visas. The easier to obtain B-1 visas, which are meant to cover short-term business visits, were allegedly used to bring into the country an unknown number of long-term workers. Infosys was the second-largest user of the more difficult-to-obtain H1-B visas last year, with 9,640. But that was almost 6,000 fewer than 15,479 that Cognizant obtained. Read more here. << Technology: Big Data, small CFO buy-in The CIO Journal reports that a survey shows that most companies are realizing little value from the use of Big Data. The survey by Bain & Co. found that only 4 percent of CIOs and line of business leaders at 400 large organizations said the use of Big Data analytics resulted in better decision-making and financial performance. But maybe the problem is a lack of leadership. CIO Journal's sister site, CFO Journal, reported that a survey of 900 executives found that CFOs were driving Big Data initiatives at only 8 percent of their companies. Read more here. << Technology: eBAM arrives After a long wait, the first corporation has gone live with electronic bank account management (eBAM). That means that rather than using paper documents to open and close bank accounts or change signers on accounts, the company, USI Insurance, can make such changes by sending XML messages to its bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and other banks via SWIFT. B of A's announcement notes that USI "went through significant back office process changes" to adopt eBAM. Read more here. Briefly noted: > European commercial banks are getting stingier, the European Central Bank reports. Article > The private sector added 130,000 jobs last month, falling short of expectations. Article > Enron redux? PwC to buy consulting firm. Article > JPM's proposed settlement with the DoJ may fall apart over whether the bank can get the FDIC to pick up the part of the tab that relates to WaMu. Article > Rabobank CEO resigns over Libor scandal. Article > More evidence the stock market is no longer an economic barometer: Thomson-Reuters cuts 3,000 jobs; stock rises. Article > SAC to plead guilty to securities fraud. Article > Another day, another market glitch. Article > Why a slowdown in China is welcome. Article > An interesting back-and-forth over Apple's cash, though as we pointed out the other day, most of it is in long-term investments. Article > A post-mortem on the government's response to the financial crisis, or an exercise in self-justification? Article And Finally... Dell delists
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013
| 10.30.13 | Cash, healthcare keep CFOs awake at night
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