• Cadbury attacks Kraft’s strategy – “Cadbury has ratcheted up its defence against a proposed takeover by Kraft, the US foodmaker, by releasing a letter describing the US group as a ‘low-growth conglomerate.’ [FT]
• Police Eye Mysterious Death of Financier – Ponzi schemes. Murdered ex-wives. Seems like Danny Pang’s death puts a nice bow on this whole thing. [WSJ]
• Serbia ‘cuts jobs for IMF loan’ – Weren’t there loan sharks in Serbia that would have given the government a better deal? [BBC]
• BlackRock to launch trading platform – BlackRock, um may be reaching TBTF territory. [FT]
• PwC’s “Bundler” Outlives His Usefulness – P. Dubs shifting with the political winds? [RTA]
• A Clear Message to Fake Non-profits: If You’re Going to Have Drunken Sex Parties, at Least File with the IRS – Seems like good advice. [JDA]
Related Posts
Preliminary Analytics | 12.14.09
• H.R. 4173, Summary of Accounting and Audit Related Provisions – Lots to digest here but it’s all important, including a possible GASP name change for the PCAOB. [FEI Financial Reporting Blog]
• Invitation to a Conversation: If the Auditors Were Missing from the Financial Crisis — Let’s Ask Why – Jim Peterson doesn’t mince words: “The simple if depressing reason is that their core product has long since been judged irrelevant. The standard auditor’s report is an anachronism — having lost any value it may once have had, except for legally-required compliance.” [Re: Balance/Jim Peterson]
• Accenture Makes Right Decision, Drops Tiger Sponsorship – The awkward inappropriateness of the whole situation is now hitting T. Dubs in the wallet, as Accenture jumps into the “your services are no longer needed” camp. He won’t starve. [The Big Four Blog]
• Open Letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (Part 5): Issuer Retaliation Complaint Against Overstock.com – Patrick Byrne’s attempt to develop his own Richard Nixon-esque enemies list has been met with fierce resistance. [Sam Antar/White Collar Fraud]
• CPA firms face pricing pinch – “After years of gains since the government started keeping track in December 2003, overall prices for CPA firm services plummeted with the onset of recession in December 2007.” [CPA Trendlines]
• Citigroup to Repay $20 Billion of Government Bailout – $25 bil to go. Get on it. [Bloomberg]
Preliminary Analytics | 12.18.09
• Stalling on Sarbox – “The regulatory-reform bill passed by the House last week suggests that lawmakers will either exempt smaller companies from getting internal-controls audits or put off the decision for yet another year.” Hell, it’s only been seven years. What’s one more? [CFO]
• Agencies in a Brawl for Control Over Banks – “Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, has proposed revoking almost all of [FDIC Chair Sheila] Bair’s powers to supervise banks, as part of a sweeping financial-regulation bill now under consideration in the Senate.” [WSJ]
• Blue Ribbon Panel On Private Company Accounting Standards Formed – Blue Ribbon Panels always mean that something is about to get serious. Right? [FEI Financial Reporting Blog]
• Should Gay Couples Pay the Same Taxes as Straights? – Even if a state allows gay couples to marry, they aren’t recognized on the federal level and that causes problems, “[M]any businesses now provide spousal benefits to gay couples, the value of the non-employee’s benefits is taxable for unmarried couples, but tax free for those who are married.” [Tax Vox]
Preliminary Analytics | 08.28.09
• Big Ticket Seller Tried Deal With Scalpers – Ticketmaster has obviously never tried to get Phish tickets on the day of the show after dropping boomies. You can’t reason with that scum. [WSJ]
• Frank: No Consensus In Sight On Financial Reform – As opposed to thoughts on Maxine Waters’s lunacy, which we all happily agree on. [NPR]
• SEC’s Schapiro Calls Derivatives Data ‘Critical’ for Probes – And by critical, Schape means, “If you don’t give me the data, I will end you.” [Bloomberg]
• Treasury Document Called AIG Investment ‘Highly Speculative’ – No honesty in government? Bah. [Bloomberg]
• ‘Blood Oath’ Sealed Stanford Deal, Court Is Told – What the Times isn’t saying is that the whole thing went down in a treehouse and they kept emergency antiseptic and bandages nearby just in case things got out of control. [NYT]