
Tesla’s Chief Accounting Officer Nopes on Up Outta There After Just a Month on the Job
Tesla is having a tough time hanging onto a chief accounting officer, you guys. Dave Morton joined the company in early August after a stint as CFO of Seagate Technology. The day after Morton joined Tesla, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he was thinking about taking the company private and buying out investors at $420 […]
This 8-K From Valeant Is Something to Behold
This morning, troubled drug company Valeant announced a restatement and that its CEO Michael Pearson would be stepping down. This all started, you may remember, last fall when reports from the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation and Citron Research published reports questioning Valeant's relationships with pharmacies, accounting, etc. etc. and it culminates with this. Oh, who […]
Crackin’ Under Pressure: Making Mistakes During Busy Season
As you may know or be experiencing right this very second, it’s a stressful time of year for accountants and the people around them. Whether you’re working on tax returns or year-end audits or any other professional number crunching activity, that stress can cause people to make mistakes.
Company Loses Bad Auditor; Disaster Ensues
When a company changes their auditors, it can be a bit of a headache. As inconvenient as it can be, I've never heard a company express despair over it until I read this 8-K from Nano Labs Corp. Their auditor was none other than Terry Johnson, the Florida CPA who didn't audit much for his […]
Audit Firm Overbills Client, Client Fires Audit Firm
Audit firms and their clients squabble over fees. It is known. But why does this happen? Simply, you can chalk it up to a difference of opinion — the audit firm believes it is providing a valuable service. The client disagrees. Most audit firms are sensitive to this so they try to offer a reasonable […]
Dot VN, Inc. and PLS CPA: A Love Story in One 8-K
Like that miserable couple you know that have been together far too long, here's a, seemingly, dramatic auditor/client interlude, starting with an auditor walking out after years of neglect: On October 13, 2014, the Company was notified by PLS CPA, a Professional Corp. (“PLS”) that the firm resigned as the Company’s independent registered public accounting […]
10 Gifs That CFOs Should Use in Their SEC Filings
And now, for a little bit of stupid fun. Compliance Week has a post on the SEC's clarification of what constitutes proper multimedia and graphics in company filings. In this Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation from the Division of Corporation Finance, no joke, the following exchange is presented: Question: May a Commission filing contain graphics (such […]
Fall Asleep at a Board Meeting and You Might End Up in an SEC Filing
SEC filings don't often get better than this. In this case, we have a hopeful bank coup in progress: Dear Fellow Shareholder, Below is a picture taken at last year’s annual shareholder meeting of our Bank’s Chairman. None of the other board members bothered to wake him up. Photo taken at annual meeting […]
Public Companies Filing Restatements Totally Aware That Many People Blow Friday Off
Audit Analytics has a great post today about Friday filing dumps, something that Footnoted has been calling attention to for years. Any time a company has to disclose bad news, the theory goes, they will most likely file it late in the day on Friday to soften the effect of an auditor resignation/restatement/announcement of massive […]
Grant Thornton Audit Partners Might Want to Read Those Opinions Just a Bit Closer
Call this is a GT service announcement (or something). A tipster informed us a little while ago that there were a couple of Purple Rose of Chicago audit opinions floating around that have an unfortunate typo. Titan International and Gentherm, Inc. filed 10-Ks in 2013 with Grant Thornton's name spelled wrong on the opinion – spelling it […]
PwC Not Sticking Around to See If Stein Mart Can Fix the Rest of Its Lousy Internal Controls
Here's the opening paragraph from a press release released by Stein Mart today: Stein Mart, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMRT) today announced that in connection with a review of the Company's auditor relationship, on June 6, 2013, a request for proposal was sent to several national accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). On June 11, 2013, PwC informed […]
Chimera Seems to Have Enjoyed Firing Deloitte a Little More the Second Time Around
If you've read anything recent about Chimera Investment Corp., you're no doubt glad that you don't have any part in it. Tony Catanatch's post from last week has more than enough to most auditors want to grit their teeth into dust: Here is a company that has neither filed a quarterly report since November 18, 2011 […]
“Emerging Growth Company” Manchester United Ltd. Not Quite Ready to Take Advantage of All the Reporting Exemptions Under the JOBS Act
As you know, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act was made law earlier this year, in part, to exempt "emerging growth companies" (or "EGC" for you acronym junkies) from certain reporting and disclosure requirements. "Emerging growth companies" being those with less than $1 billion in revenues in a fiscal year and the best known exemption allowed […]
“Emerging Growth Company” Still Working on the “Emerging Growth” Part
Yesterday we discussed Ignite Restaurant Group, an emerging growth company ("EGC") under the JOBS Act, and their battles with financial reporting. Today we were introduced to another EGC, this time the company is WeRvaluecoupons.com who filed its Form S-1 with the SEC earlier this month. WeRvalue isn't quite as far along in the "emerging" process […]
“Emerging Growth Company” Still Trying to Get Its Accounting Figured Out
Earlier today, a little bird pointed us to an 8-K filed by Ignite Restaurant Group ("IRG") on July 18, 2012. In this filing we learn that IRG shared the always-riveting Item, "Non-Reliance on Previously Issued Financial Statements or a Related Audit Report or Completed Interim Review." Observe: On July 18, 2012, the Board of Directors of […]
It’s Not Every Day That 50 Cent Gets Mentioned in an SEC Filing
Curtis Jackson III gets a shout-out in this As Seen on TV, Inc. 8-K under "Other Events": On April 30, 2012, TV Goods Inc. (“TVG”), wholly-owned subsidiary of As Seen On TV, Inc. (the “Company”), announced that it entered into a Distribution and Marketing Agreement dated March 15, 2012 (“Distribution and Marketing Agreement”) with SMS […]
Is Groupon Getting Cold Feet?
Maybe! The Wall St. Journal reports that the “site isn’t cancelling its initial public offering […] but is reassessing the timing for an IPO on a week by week basis,” because some people have gotten spooked by this big, scary economy. Okay, things are actually pretty frightening out there but Bloomberg’s sources say that the company also “needs time to address regulators’ questions, including possible revisions to a controversial accounting method used in its filing.” But all this – or insolvency, for that matter – isn’t any cause for concern since this just like a couple postponing a wedding. They just need more time. [WSJ, Bloomberg]
Today in Spineless Audit Committees: Morris Publishing
As we’re all aware, the Audit Committee is supposed to be one of the key tools in corporate governance. If management is messing around with financial reporting, disclosures or there’s trouble with the auditors, the audit committee should be all over it like stink on a monkey. The audit committee also is in charge of appointing/firing the auditors to prevent management from throwing out auditors who tell them things that they don’t like.
Apparently this is not the case with Atlanta-based Morris Publishing. In a recent 8-K, the company explained that they fired Deloitte and more or less admitted that their audit comm orthless:
Dismissal of Auditor.
On August 17, 2011, Morris Publishing Group, LLC (“Morris Publishing”, “we”, “our”, “us”) dismissed Deloitte & Touche LLP (“D&T”) as its independent registered public accounting firm.
The decision to allow our management, at its discretion, to change auditors had been unanimously approved by our Board of Directors and its Audit Committee on July 18, 2011. [this is my emphasis]
The audit reports of D&T on our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009, did not contain any adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, nor were they qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principles, except:
(A) The audit report as of and for the year ended December 31, 2009 included the statements, “As discussed in Note 6 to the consolidated financial statements, on January 19, 2010 the Company filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. On February 17, 2010 the Bankruptcy Court entered an order confirming the plan of reorganization which became effective after the close of business on March 1, 2010.”
(B) The audit report as of and for the year ended December 31, 2010 included the statement, “As discussed in Note 10 to the financial statements, the accompanying 2009 financial statements have been restated to correct a misstatement.”
During the two fiscal years ended December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009, and during the subsequent interim periods through June 30, 2011, there were no (1) disagreements with D&T on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedures, which disagreements if not resolved to the satisfaction of D&T would have caused D&T to make reference in connection with their report to the subject matter of the disagreement, or (2) “reportable events” as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K; except as follows:
(A) We reported in April 2011 that management discovered errors in the accounting treatment for debt extinquishment such that our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2009, and the interim periods ended March 31, 2010, June 30, 2010 and September 30, 2010, should no longer be relied upon, and that the correction of these errors will be reflected within our Form 10-K for 2010 and subsequently filed interim reports; and
(B) as reported in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting with respect to the operational effectiveness of controls in the area of accounting for complex non-recurring transactions. As a result of this material weakness, we concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2010.
We provided D&T with a copy of this Current Report on Form 8-K, and requested that D&T furnish us with a letter addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether D&T agrees with our statements made in response to the disclosures required by Item 304(a)(3) of Regulation S-K. We subsequently received the requested letter, and a copy of such letter is filed as Exhibit16.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K.
So it appears that Morris Publishing is definitely one of those clients. The kind that makes you wish that you had chosen a career that’s less likely to make you want to jump out of a window. Anyway, the aforementioned letter from Deloitte states the following:
We have read Item 4 of Morris Publishing Group LLC’s Form 8-K dated August 16, 2011, and we have the following comments:
1. We agree with the statements made in paragraphs 1 and 3 through 12.
2. We have no basis on which to agree or disagree with the statement made in paragraph 2.
In other words, Deloitte is saying, “Yes, we agree that your financial reporting is a mess and that your internal controls are awful. And if you want to admit that your audit committee is a bunch of lackeys for management, we’re not going to stop you.”
8-K [SEC]
Deloitte Letter [SEC]
Today’s Groupon: Sorta Insolvent
Technically, we should say as of June 30, 2011, as the company had $376 million in current assets and $680 million in current liabilities for a negative working capital of $304 million. In accounting terms that’s known as notveryfuckinggood. Henry Blodget doesn’t want to freak anyone out but if things continue as they have been, this could end up being a helluva problem:
Companies can operate with a working capital deficit as long as they have another source of cash to cover the bills as they come due. Right now, Groupon has this source of cash: rapidly growing Groupon sales. As long as Groupon sells enough new Groupons in one quarter to pay all the bills it racked up in the prior quarter, it will not need additional cash. But if the company’s growth stumbles, or if competitive pressure leads to Groupon’s gross profit margin getting squeezed, look out. Under those scenarios, the company may not be able to sell enough new Groupons to pay off its old bills, and then it will face a serious cash crunch.
S-1 [SEC]
Don’t Mean To Be Alarmist, But Groupon Is Running Low On Cash [BI via Gawker]
Harbin Electric’s Ability to Timely File Financial Statements with the SEC Falls on One Lonely CPA
Today in odd things found in SEC filings, we were pointed to this 10-Q from Harbin Electric, Inc., “a Nevada Corporation, incorporated on July 9, 2003.” However, this gives you a little better idea about what Harbin’s business is:
Through its subsidiaries, the Company designs, develops, engineers, manufactures, sells and services a wide array of electric motors including linear motors, specialty micro-motors, and industrial rotary motors, with focus on innovation, creativity, and value-added products. Products are sold in China and to certain international markets.
There it is! Another reverse merger company operation. Of course, this could be a completely legitimate business that is making money hand over fist but if Roddy Boyd is writing about you, that could be a bad sign. But that’s neither here nor there. One interesting thing we found in the company’s Q is just how much the company depends on their SEC Reporting Manager (I’ve added some italics for emphasis):
We rely on the services of our SEC reporting manager to assist us in researching and resolving certain US GAAP accounting issues and preparing our consolidated financial statements.
We employ an SEC Reporting Manager who is a Certified Public Accountant in the United States to assist our internal accounting and finance personnel in resolving complex US GAAP accounting issues. From time to time we rely on her to conduct research on complex accounting issues relating to US GAAP and to provide advice to the Company as to how to comply with US GAAP. Although our SEC Reporting Manager is not involved in our day to day operations or the management of our accounting functions, she also assists us in our consolidation process and in preparing our consolidated financial statements and footnotes. If we were to lose the services of our SEC Reporting Manager, we would attempt to hire another similarly qualified person to replace her. The loss of the services of our SEC Reporting Manager, in the absence of a qualified replacement, could adversely impact our ability to accurately prepare our consolidated financial statements on a timely basis.
There’s really no way to know who this poor, lonely SEC Reporting Manager is but based on the disclosure, it seems pretty clear that if she were to meet with an unfortunate accident, Harbin would be up shit creek without a paddle (and there’s probably a hole in the boat).
Why, exactly, isn’t there an intern, temp, custodian, someone, ANYONE that serves as the backup QB? This is not immediately known. Perhaps the company broke the piggy bank paying for the reverse merger but it seems prudent that they at least throw in Ms. SEC Reporting Manager’s best girlfriend from high school or something.
Of course if you’re job hunting and have a decent résumé, you could always ring them up.
Groupon Will File a New S-1 to Pretend Like ACSOI Never Existed
All Things D has reported that Groupon will amend its S-1 public offering filing to remove references to its controversial ACSOI accounting treatment, which we discussed previously here.
In a June 2, 2011 SEC filing, Groupon admitted the metric was creative to say the least. “Our use of Adjusted CSOI has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider this measure in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP,” they said. Some of the die-hard tin foil hat anti-IFRS brigade (I count myself as one of them) might feel the same way about other “alternative,” non-GAAP accounting methods but I digress.
ACSOI did wonders for Groupon’s numbers. It turned a 2010 operating loss of $420,344,000 into a positive $60,553,000, turning Groupon’s luck in its favor to the tune of $481 million. All well and good if investors can actually rely on those statements but didn’t the very idea of ACSOI self-proclaim that it was not to be relied upon? So how the hell did it end up in Groupon’s S-1?
All Things D elaborates on Groupon’s trouble since introducing the idea of ACSOI:
Hence, a furious debate — along with much internal tension — within Groupon about what to do. At first, in another S-1 amendment, the company backed away from using ACSOI as a “valuation metric.”
But that was apparently not enough for the SEC or anyone else, so Groupon’s top managers finally thought it best to rid itself of the term entirely. That will happen next week, sources said.
And, in coming weeks, sources added, the company will be filing additional financial information about both its growth and costs, which will undoubtedly also be put under a microscope by the media, investors and regulators.
Probably good for everyone involved. Things are complicated enough using metrics we all pretty much agree upon, no reason to start pulling accounting tricks out of our hats.
The Company That Brought You Farmville Is Going Public
In addition to the Nets’ financials, you’ve got plenty of reading to do over this long weekend.
Some highlights from Zynga’s S-1 courtesy of Zero Hedge:
• Q1 2011 revenue: $235.4MM, up from $100.9MM YoY, LTM revenue $731.9 MM
• Q1 Net Income: $11.8MM up from $6.4MM YoY, LTM Net Income: $96.2MM
• Q1 Adjusted EBITDA: $112.2MM, up from $93.5MM, LTM EBITDA: $411.4MM
• Adjusted EBITDA definition also excludes stock based comp and change in deferred revenue
• Cash: $995.6MM, almost the same size as the entire proposed IPO
• Working Capital: $603.4MM
Some other fun things of note:
&bull Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks is on the Board of Directors and serves on the compensation committee.
• CFO David Wehner is formerly of Allen & Company, an investment bank that specializes in media and technology. He has an M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford and a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown. His total compensation for 2010 was $17,996,057, $16,087,500 of which was stock awards.
• The audit committee consists of Brad Feld, Reid Hoffman and Stanley Meresman. Feld is a MD at the VC firm Foundry Group, Hoffman is the former CEO of LinkedIn and Meresman, the chair of the committee, selected for “his background as chair of the audit committee of other public companies and his financial and accounting expertise from his prior extensive experience as chief financial officer of two publicly traded corporations.”
• Mark Vranesh is the Chief Accounting Officer and had total compensation for 2010 of $1,544,940, $1,287,000 was stock awards.
There’s plenty more to pour through, so have it. And yes, Ernst & Young says everything is kosher, so who wants a piece of this?
Zynga S-1 [SEC]
One Might Get the Idea That Glen Rose Petroleum Corp. Fired Its Auditor in Favor of a Firm That’s Less Likely to Issue a Going Concern Opinion
It’s not entirely clear why Jonathon P. Reuben’s services are no longer needed but you could easily conclude that the GCO wasn’t appreciated.
On June 20, 2011, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Glen Rose Petroleum Corporation (the “Company”) approved the termination of services of Jonathon P. Reuben CPA, An Accountancy Corporation (“JPR”), effective immediately.
JPR was the independent registered public accounting firm for the Company for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2010 and 2009. The reports of JPR on the Company’s financial statements for the years ended March 31, 2010 and 2009 did not contain an adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, and such reports were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principle, except that the reports of JPR on the Company’s consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended March 31, 2010 and 2009 contained an explanatory paragraph which noted that there was substantial doubt as to the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern due to a deficit in working capital and incurring significant losses.
BDO will take it from here. Perhaps a nice welcome to the partnership gift for one of the newbies?
8-K [SEC via Citybizlist]
There’s Some Fuss About Groupon’s Revenue…or Profits…or Something
You may have heard that the company that encourages people to go broke by saving money, Groupon, filed a S-1 with the SEC last week to go public. It’s been a matter of hot debate as to whether this company is the real deal or simply another house of coupons. One matter that has several people sc is how the company accounts for its revenue. A reader dropped us this note yesterday:
Caleb
I am not one to bring up accounting questions on your blog as its not your web site’s background [Ed. note: Uh, you mean, accounting?]. I was wondering if you could post one question and make an exception as it relates to Groupon. How on earth did Groupon get away with Gross Revenue treatment and not net revenue? All my accounting friends from the Big 4 and even people who do not work on the Groupon audit at E&Y are stumped. All the literature points to net revenue which means they would not report gross revenue of 900 million but rather 200 million or so which represents their cut. Given how companies are valued on multiple of revenue this seems like a big issue. Any help would be appreciated by your readers.
Now it’s not exactly clear what our reader is referring to (feel free to comment below if you understand) but here’s a clip from the S-1:
Sorry for the squishiness. As you can see, Groupon is reporting revenue for 2010 of over $700 million (not sure about $900 million). They have a cost of revenue (aka cost of goods sold) of over $400 million with a “gross profit” of $279 million. Now, if you’re thinking “gross profit” should be “net revenue” you’re not alone.
From CNBC, there appears to be a debate over semantics:
Groupon accounts for its revenue differently than say eBay, and in a way that some say is misleading to potential investors. The company defines revenue as “the purchase price paid by customers.” Then there’s the issue of “the cost of revenue,” leaving the company with what it calls “gross profit,” which is “the amount of revenue we retain after paying an agreed upon percentage of the purchase price to the featured merchant.”
Here’s the thing: Many companies like eBay […], which also take a fee for transactions, would consider that “gross profit” number a “net revenue number.” UCLA Anderson School’s accounting lecturer Gordon Klein says the S-1 uses terms in a way he’s never used them before, and this unusual accounting tells him that investors should “run from the stock.” Others say this is a non-issue: Wedbush securities analyst Lou Kerner says that the company has done a totally adequate job outlining its accounting approach. Kerner says whether the company reports its revenue before or after direct costs should have zero impact on investors evaluation of the company.
And co-founder Andrew Mason admits that Groupon does things a little differently. Under a section entitled “We don’t measure ourselves in conventional ways” he writes, “we track gross profit [as a metric], which we believe is the best proxy for the value we’re creating.” But that’s all the explanation he gives. Later the filing states, “We believe gross profit is an important indicator for our business because it is a reflection of the value of our service to our merchants.” And under “How we measure our business” things are equally vague:
Gross profit. Our gross profit is the amount that we retain after paying our merchants an agreed upon percentage of the purchase price to the featured merchant. We believe gross profit is an important indicator for our business because it is a reflection of the value of our service to our merchants. Gross profit is influenced by the mix of deals we offer. For example, gross profit can vary depending on the category of product or service offered in a particular deal. Likewise, gross profit can be adversely impacted by offers that we make for the principal purpose of acquiring new subscribers or establishing our brand and building scale in a new market.
Throughout the S-1, the term “gross profit” is used 52 times. If you’re used to reading SEC Filings, the term may throw you off but ultimately the numbers are what theyare and the terms used seem secondary. If you believe “gross profit” is a bullshit metric for this business, fine that’s one thing but if they choose to use slightly unorthodox terminology, does that mean investors should ‘run from the stock’? Personally, I don’t happen to be customer of any of the banks underwriting this thing, so this of little consequence but accountants like to sweat the details, so feel free to make a case either way in the comments.
First Marblehead Taking a Mulligan on Financial Statements
More importantly, how are the KPMG auditors celebrating (because we want to know)?
From the 8-K, filed this morning:
On May 10, 2011, The First Marblehead Corporation (the “Corporation”) announced that its board of directors (the “Board of Directors”), in consultation with management, the audit committee of the Board of Directors (the “Audit Committee”) and KPMG LLP, the Corporation’s independent registered public accounting firm, concluded that certain unaudited financial statements previously issued by the Corporation should no longer be relied upon.
In order to correct errors in the recording of certain non-cash items, as described below, the Corporation will restate the unaudited financial statements contained in the Corporation’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2010 (the “Q1 Form 10-Q”) and the Corporation’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2010 (the “Q2 Form 10-Q”). The Corporation expects to file the restated Q1 Form 10-Q and the restated Q2 Form 10-Q, as well as the Corporation’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2011 (the “Q3 Form 10-Q”), no later than May 16, 2011.
If you really want to get into the gory details, First Marblehead is bringing 14 securitization trusts onto the balance sheet that were previously accounted for off-balance sheet and its deferred tax assets in Q1 and Q2 are jumping over to the liability side (and the corresponding benefits are becoming expenses). The company says this is NBD as CFO Ken Klipper said, “These restatements … do not affect our cash position and are expected to have no impact on our ongoing business operations.” But the next six days may be a little uncomfortable for the accounting department and the KPMG audit team.
China MediaExpress CFO Keeps Things Vague in Resignation Letter
Jacky Lam’s resignation was effective on Sunday but his letter to the CCME Board was dated Tuesday, making us wonder if he slept on it for 48 hours just be sure he was doing the right thing.
March 15, 2011
The Board of Directors
China MediaExpress Holdings, Inc.
22/F Wuyi Building
33 Dongjie Street
Fuzhou, ChinaDear Sirs,
As I informed the Board on Sunday, I have resigned as a Director and as the Chief Financial Officer of China MediaExpress Holding, Inc. (the “Company”), effective as of March 13, 2011. I have resigned because of information that I have learned in the past few days, and because the Chairman and CEO did not respond to these matters in a manner that I believed to be appropriate.
Thank you for your kind attention and I wish the Company success in the future.
Yours sincerely,
Jacky Lam
Of course the “information that I have learned” could have been Roddy Boyd’s post from last Friday or the video of the sleeping staff posted Sunday or something else entirely. As far as the CEO’s inaction – should he have filled one of the broom closets with Red Bull? Maybe kept more of something else that apparently keeps people awake but otherwise uninterested in other humans? We’re not exactly sure on either of these questions but we’d love to hear theories.
As for the “Best. Period. End of Statement.” – they did their part too.
American Apparel Takes Issue with Deloitte’s Notion That Management Withheld Some Fairly Important Financial Statements
Remember the hipster drama Deloitte caused this past summer when they resigned as the auditor of American Apparel? It was quite the r s the stock took a beating (it has recovered in the meantime) and questions were raised about the company’s ability to continue as a [g]oing [c]oncern.
Some recent developments in this particular story have come to light as Dov & Co. have been providing a whole mess of information to Deloitte, as is SOP in these matters. For starters, Deloitte notified the APP audit committee that the 2009 financial statements are not kosher and anyone using them for any other purpose than lining a bird cage is nuts.
From the 8-K:
On December 15, 2010, the Audit Committee of the Company received notice from Deloitte stating that Deloitte had concluded that Deloitte’s report on the Company’s previously issued consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2009 (the “2009 financials”), including Deloitte’s report on internal control over financial reporting at December 31, 2009, included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 (such reports, collectively, the “Deloitte Reports”) should not be relied upon or associated with the 2009 financials.
Deloitte explained that its conclusion was based on the significance of the declines in operations and gross margin in the Company’s February 2010 monthly financial statement, combined with the January 2010 monthly financial statements, the Company’s issuance of revised projections in early May 2010 which reflected a significant decrease in the Company’s 2010 projections, and Deloitte’s disagreement with the Company’s conclusion that the results shown in the February 2010 monthly financial statements would not have required a revision to the Company’s projections as of the date of the 10-K filing and the issuance of Deloitte’s reports. Deloitte further indicated that their decision considered their inability to perform additional audit procedures, their resignation as registered public accountants and their professional judgment that they are no longer willing to rely on management’s representations due to Deloitte’s belief that management withheld from Deloitte the February 2010 monthly financial statements until after the filing of the 2009 10-K and made related misrepresentations.
So if you can get past how poorly written these paragraphs are, you can boil down Deloitte’s concerns about the 2009 10-K to a few things: 1) business was not looking good; 2) they didn’t buy APP’s notion that financial projections for February ’10 were hunky dory (which weren’t made available until after the 10-K was filed); 3) APP management was more or less full of shit. You can also read their official letter to the company, if you are so inclined.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Dov & Co. have a difference of opinion here:
The Audit Committee of the Company has commenced an investigation into the assertions that management withheld the February 2010 monthly financial statements and related misrepresentations. Management disagrees with Deloitte’s assertions and does not believe that the February 2010 monthly financial statements were withheld. The Company does not currently believe, including after discussions with Marcum, that the reaudit will result in any changes to the 2009 financials, though no assurance can be given in this regard.
So, somewhere, there are February 2010 financial statements stuffed in a drawer (but whose drawer?) that basically caused this whole fiasco. This seems like a completely plausible scenario.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters: Gosh, We Ended Up Having Way More Accounting Errors Than We Thought
Back in September, Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters put the world on notice that the SEC was asking some questions about their revenue recognitions policies. Despite the SEC Q&A, analysts we’re cool with the company and the GAAP the crunchy accounting group was putting out.
Also at that time, the company disclosed that there were some immaterial accounting errors that were NBD. That was until they dropped a little 8-K on everyone last Friday!