Faced with an improved economy and increasingly vocal constituents, corporate boards are taking on more responsibility and devoting greater focus to management-specific issues...
ISS gave its blessing to two of Dan Loeb's three board nominees, leading to a stock surge as investors followed the Third Point founder into the stock. Yet, the implicit power granted to ISS may be unwarranted, academic research shows...
It is taking far too long for the argument that gender diversity is a business issue to capture the imagination of boardrooms. But at least in Europe recognition is growing that this is an issue that is not going away until it is addressed. The UK in particular is leading...
By Melissa Llarena Being on a company’s board of directors has many benefits for your career and overall professional growth. As a board member, you get to serve in a position of leadership by providing strategic direction and advice to ensure the company stays true to its mission. It also broadens [...]
Putting together a board of directors or advisors is an opportunity. It shouldn’t be considered a hassle. It’s a rare chance to build a qualified pool of loyal mentors and colleagues who care that you succeed, in part because they will benefit from your success—either financially or in pride from [...]
As one-time corporate superpowers Enron and WorldCom collapsed like dominoes, James Kaplan grew tired of the routine spin on financial wrongdoing. Kaplan, director of proprietary ratings provider and investment adviser GMI Ratings, wanted to find a way to identify nefarious corporate behaviors and, at the same time, spotlight companies who abstained...
This morning Jody Greene moderated a panel with three bay area powerhouse women, Trish Costello, Theresia Gouw and Fran Maier. Each having been previous entrepreneurs, now investors and board members of public companies. The conversation was multi-faceted on the topic from the viewpoint of board members and entrepreneurs.
In our work with shareholders and boards of directors, one question that has come up more than once in the last few months is “Should the chairman/CEO roles be split?” The common wisdom is that separating the roles serves up a better governance structure for shareholders because it provides a better balance of power...
The responsibilities facing boards of directors today are very different from what they were years ago, and rightly so. Mostly gone, but not entirely, are the "old boy" networks of good friends of the company chairman. The short meeting and long lunch brigade where business was concluded on a nod and a wink, and where the meeting minutes were passed around for approval immediately after the ...
Merger arbitrageurs used to have an easy calculus. When a big-time corporate takeover was announced they would go long the target, short the acquirer and pick up a few pennies on the dollar for their trouble. These days the trade is going the other way, with corporate buyers being rewarded by Wall Street for having the gumption to use their cash for something beyond dividends and share repurchases. Take the example Wednesdaymorning, when Signet Jewelers raced higher after agreeing to pony up $1.4 billion for diamond-dealing rival Zale Corporation.
Facebook announced on Wednesday afternoon that it had reached an agreement to buy popular mobile messaging company WhatsApp for a total of $16 billion, include $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion in Facebook shares.
Earlier today I reported the news that Victor Dzau, the chancellor for health affairs at Duke University and the CEO of the Duke University Health System, would become the next president of the Institute of Medicine. But I failed to remember that I had written about Dzau several years ago. I think it will be of interest to many observers that Dzau currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pepsico. I've asked the IOM for a comment about this.
Public companies face heightened corporate governance standards and increased liability exposure. If an IPO is in your company’s future, you will need to prepare for a corporate governance environment that is far more complicated and stringent than you likely have today...
For more than four years, billionaire investor Carl Icahn made a huge bet on Forest Laboratories, agitating for change at the drug maker. With more than an 11% stake in the company, Forest Labs was Icahn’s biggest trading position going into 2013 and his second biggest trading position going into 2014—trailing only his bet on Apple. He is the company’s second-biggest shareholder...
The battle over the fate of CommonWealth REIT is slowly grinding its way toward resolution, and the investors challenging the company's leadership are bringing out the big guns as decision time nears...
"Management accounting is a critical aspect of the finance function because it informs the board, investors and management why the numbers are what they are, not just what the numbers are" says Douglas Flint, Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings. He was speaking about the launch of a comprehensive framework to bring consistency to global management accounting practices around the world.
Early today I wrote about the billion-dollar convertible bond Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) announced this morning. This bond is the latest salvo in the fight between activist investor Bill Ackman, who thinks Herbalife is a pyramid scheme and has wagered accordingly, and the company. Herbalife is planning to use a large portion of the new bond’s proceeds to buy back its stock, trying to offset Ackman’s recent upper hand...
The hedge fund billionaire William Ackman, who has said he will go to the end of the Earth to destroy Herbalife, saw some success in January as shares of the diet shake seller fell to start the year on news that a U.S. senator together with regulators from Canada to China have taken an interest in the company's business practices. But to kick off February, has launched a widely anticipated counter-offensive to protect its stock...
Recent reports indicate that at Hewlett Packard annual meeting, in March, the company will renominate its entire board of directors. Although it is certainly not unusual for a publicly traded company to want its board of directors to remain intact, in the case of HP it is a bit of a surprise...
“There is a rare type of organism that eats itself alive,” writes Dennis Berman in the Wall Street Journal. The short-tailed cricket, for instance, eats its own wings. The sea squirt digests its own brain after attaching itself to a rock. And the North American rat snake has been known to consume two-thirds of its entire body.
In an interview with Michael J. Kowalski, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Tiffany & Co., we discussed corporate social responsibility, ethical sourcing and responsible mining, lessons in leadership, and much more...
One of the most important powers you have when creating a trust is choosing who will step in as successor trustee in the event the initial trustee is no longer able or willing to manage the trust. That decision has become even more significant as a result of a recent ruling by the Supreme Court.
In a continuing series,MBA's were asked for their opinions on topics related to "Ethics". This entry, by Katherine Brown, gives her views on what steps companies can take to reduce unethical behavior...
