GE may now be wishing it could take back a string of stock buybacks.
One of the charges leveled by accounting sleuth Harry Markopolos in his explosive report, "General Electric: A Bigger Fraud Than Enron," is that GE was buying back tons of stock with cash desperately needed to sustain its failing long-term care business...
Lazy corporate managements will love the Business Roundtable’s new statement on the purpose of a corporation, which says that multiple stakeholders should be served. But multiple accountabilities mean no accountability. Shareholders will dump the stock of companies taking this approach...
(Reuters) - Marty Lipton’s inchoate feud with the Council of Institutional Investors may be the juiciest early story to emerge from the Business Roundtable’s announcement this week of a new corporate paradigm. But it’s not the only legal story prompted by the bombshell BRT announcement, in which business leaders pledged to consider the interests of an array of stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers and community members – in addition to shareholders’ interest in maximizing profits...
The Third Circuit recently issued an important decision for private fund advisors who serve on corporate boards. In a precedential decision on a matter of first impression, the Third Circuit distinguished the role of nonvoting board observers from the function of formal corporate directors. And while the decision was issued in the context of liability for alleged violations of the securities laws, the Third Circuit suggested the analysis may apply more broadly to other situations involving board observers...
The setting is ironic for a late-afternoon cocktail with Anand Giridharadas, the self-appointed scourge of well-meaning plutocrats everywhere. The author of the biting 2018 book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World has suggested the bar at the Big 4 Restaurant in San Francisco's Huntington Hotel, where he is staying. And so we sip drinks amid the dark wood paneling and white tablecloths of a redoubt that quietly screams plutocracy...
“One-share, one-vote is a bedrock tenet of good corporate governance as far as most long-term shareholders are concerned.” Twenty votes per share, ...
Marijuana companies have a diversity problem. Despite selling marijuana and CBD products that are used by and appeal to a diverse set of customers from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, the makeup of leadership at the world’s largest cannabis companies is still mostly white men. In fact, compared to the boards of Fortune 100 companies, which are already white-male dominated, the boards of the 10 largest publicly traded cannabis companies are strikingly even less diverse...
Beginning in 2001, major corporate accounting scandals at Enron, ... corporate governance , internal control assessment and enhanced financial ...
The agendas of company boards are so packed that it’s hard to get to every question and concern during regular meetings. So between meetings, directors do what members of a team always do in this situation: They start having conversations on the side. Conducted properly, side discussions allow directors to work together efficiently—to trade opinions, share information, and exert influence...
Fiscal performance shapes executive compensation trends Ron Ruggless | Aug 19, 2019 CEO compensation at the largest public restaurant companies varied widely last year, ranging from around $300,000 to more than $33 million, according to NRN research...
Milton Friedman will be spinning in his grave at the heresy perpetrated by the US Business Roundtable. For the thick end of five decades US capitalism has been run along Friedmanite lines – namely that businesses are there to make money for their shareholders. No charitable giving, no diversity awareness. No green audits. Just making money. Period. Now some of the highest paid on the planet have appeared to ditch the idea of shareholder primacy...
For Milton Friedman, it was simple. “There is one and only one social responsibility of business,” the Nobel economist wrote in 1970: to “engage in activities designed to increase its profits.” Companies must obey the law. But beyond that, their job is to make money for shareholders...
Another day, another data breach. This time at Capital One, the fifth largest credit card issuer in the United States...
Who's right, the sleuth who exposed Bernie Madoff's gigantic Ponzi scheme, or GE's prestigious board and highly-regarded CEO, a team lauded on Wall Street for making great progress in rescuing and reforming the battered conglomerate?
In his flame-throwing report released on August 16, titled "General Electric, A Bigger Fraud Than Enron," Harry Markopolos––the forensic accountant who nailed Madoff––accuses GE of engaging in $38 billion in accounting fraud...
As reported by the WSJ, a new milestone has finally been reached for board gender diversity: there are no longer any companies in the S&P 500 with all-male boards! Reaching just that one milestone has not exactly been expeditious...
At long last, WeWork parent We Company has filed its S-1 Registration Statement with the SEC, a major step toward entering the public markets...
There’s a lot of discussion going on these days about board service and why there aren’t more women on boards. Over the next few weeks we’ll discuss that and look at some strategies that might help you if you aspire to board service. A seat at the corporate board table is an aspiration for many leaders and for good reason...
One of the big corporate governance related stories last month was the settlement agreement between the Securities and Exchange Commission ...
Food delivery firm Grubhub, industrial heavyweight 3M and consumer products giant Colgate-Palmolive are all vulnerable targets for activist investors, according to exclusive data. The trio along with software company Autodesk ADSK, +1.97% and dental equipment manufacturer Dentsply Sirona XRAY, +2.08% have been identified as possible activism targets in a report for MarketWatch by research firm Activist Insight...
Here are five steps your organization can take to truly bring the best candidates forward and set them up for success...
When deciding to do business with a company, all generations agree that social ... followed by corporate governance issues and environmental topics...
The final link in the chain of improving corporate accountability for sustainability is to tie improvements to pay. In a November 2018 article, we explained that companies should use incentives to motivate executives to tap big strategic opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals...
As you know, topics related to corporate social responsibility have ... on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, a coalition of investors, ...