What's New News Scan: How the prosecution of SAC was different from Arthur Andersen's News From the Fierce Network:
Today's Top NewsCFOs saw 6.9% increase in median compensation in 2012
More pressure on GE to break up
News Scan>> Compliance: How the prosecution of SAC was different from Arthur Andersen's In a nutshell, Steven Cohen is SAC. The hedge fund kingpin owns 100 percent of the firm, so the $2.2 billion that SAC owes the government is coming out of his own pocket. In contrast, Arthur Andersen's demise as a result of the DOJ's prosecution over its role in the Enron debacle caused the loss of thousands of livelihoods. And as James B. Stewart notes at DealBook, the traders still at SAC will probably easily find high-paying positions elsewhere. As for Cohen himself, he isn't out of the woods yet, as the criminal case has no bearing on the existing civil case that the SEC has going against him. At the end of the day, all Cohen may be able to still do for however long he's banned from the industry is run his own money. Yes, that still equals almost $7 billion. But that's not counting what the SEC could nick him for. Maybe The New Yorker's John Cassidy's right, and he got off easy. But the Feds may simply not have had enough evidence to pursue him personally. On that point, no one but Preet Bharara and his team may know the real score. And they're not talking. Read more here and here. >> Liquidity: Samsung yields to pressure from investors The cash-rich Korean tech company has boosted its dividend after only its second-ever "analyst day," but investors want more from the company. Samsung will pay out 1 percent of the average share price for the year, up from .06 percent. But Samsung's cash is set to double this year to $13.8 billion, acorrding to one analysis, even as another forecasts smartphone margins to shrink. The shares fell 2.3 percent on the news. Read more here. >> Accounting and Tax: The New York Times was a tax dummy when it bought The Boston Globe The paper of record made a bad decision about the tax structure it used when acquiring The Boston Globe and The Worchester Telegram & Gazette 20 years ago, a decision that cost it $60 million when it sold the papers in October, according to Fortune's Allen Sloan. The Times failed to use what is known as a "horizontal double dummy" to increase the cost basis of the cash portion of its purchase in 1993, evidently because it did not envision ever selling the papers. But tax guru Robert Willens says the horizontal double dummy is standard M&A procedure for cash-and-stock deals. The Times wouldn't elaborate on its decision. (One question the story doesn't address is whether a horizontal double dummy can be used for all-cash deals and if not, why not. I'll check with Willens and get back to you on that.) Read more >> Management: Elite B-school grads choose tech over finance Not sure this is a bad thing for CFOs, as it may help keep competition down and salaries up. Less selfishly, it may signal a shift from financial engineering to the real kind, which is a good thing for an economy overly dependent on finance for profits, though not so great for confirmed finance geeks. Heck, it may even force finance executives to learn more about the real economy and less about, well, things like horizontal double dummies. It's not unheard of for CFOs to get experience running businesses, after all. Goodyear's move was only the most recent example. Read more >> Management: QE and you, cont'd BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told a conference in Chicago the other day that it was "imperative" that the Federal Reserve start to taper its asset purchases because he said they were creating bubbles in the financial markets. But what effect would that have on the real economy? Financial bloggers like Yves Smith think it would have none whatsoever because the Fed is pushing on a string. But the dollar's fall in value can only help U.S. exports. After all, the Fed's Japanese counterpart has taken an even more aggressive tack, and it just showed up big time in Toyota's financial results, according to Pimco chief executive Mohamed El-Erian. Read more >> Capital: "You either believe in Twitter or you don't" Speaking of bubbles, the microblogging site has no profits and at its most recent expected IPO price would trade at almost 12 times its estimated revenues for next year. That's several points higher than Facebook's market multiple. This prompts one analyst to make the above observation about a Twitter investment effectively being faith-based. Maybe we're old school, but is faith supposed to be based on nothing? Yes, the idea is that Twitter will eventually get into the black. But how so, when its margin is actually narrowing, as we pointed out a few days ago? Yes, analysts are predicting the company will turn profitable in 2015, but how? Read more Briefly noted: > Ford plant closing in Belgium shows just how inflexible European labor markets still are. Article > Microsoft eyeing Ford's Mulally to replace Ballmer. Article > Apple re-shoring in Arizona. Article > Fifth Third appoints a new CFO as part of the bank's tentative agreement with SEC on its accounting. Article > Confirmation that Moody's and Standard & Poor's have put the financial crisis well behind them. Article > CFOs who fail to review their financial processes and systems risk SEC scrutiny. ?Article > Concerns about the Chinese financial system weigh on two new bank stocks. Article > A deeper dive into such concerns (in which China hand Michael Pettis explains how the financial is political). Article > Electronic transfers of cash to move money faster? Not given the U.S. banking system. Article > CFTC member who pushed for stricter derivatives rules stepping down. Article And finally … A better alternative to Daylight Savings Time?
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Wednesday, November 6, 2013
| 11.06.13 | CFOs saw 6.9% increase in median compensation in 2012
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