The International Accounting Standards Board plans to establish a formal network to give standard-setting bodies a voice when their countries switch to International Financial Reporting Standards. There is conflict, however, over how the network will operate and whether it would dilute IFRS as a single set of reporting standards. Advocates of such a network say the U.S. will not commit to IFRS without it. In an article called “Long Push for Accounting Standards” sub-titled “The United States is Seen to Be Dragging its Feet in Choosing to Come on Board,” Star Publications (Malaysia)/Reuters reports: SHAREHOLDERS and regulators have long wanted the…
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This piece really has no new information in it, so if you’re looking for that, you can stop reading here. Instead, it’s for Anglophiles. Observers of British culture. The BBC recently posted rather prominently a piece pondering the tragedy of the human condition wistfully, as it so often does. Well, that’s not quite what the article was about. Actually, it’s rather hard to tell what the article is about! BBC begins by saying that those guys on Wall Street use algorithms and financial models—and one model in particular, it tells us in the first paragraph—”helped to blow up…
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The Wall Street Journal’s Small Business Blog featured recently a guest column by Antone Johnson on the use, misuse, and misvaluation of intellectual property. It’s probably of interest to valuators and financial consultants who are working with small business owners to value and growth their businesses. Venture capitalists, angel investors and start-up lawyers these days tend to be obsessed with “intellectual property,” or IP. And for good reason: In the information economy, the core assets of a new venture are likely to be talented people, the IP they create, and little else. To maximize future value, founders should…
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You’ve probably already read this story—Facebook Co-Founder Renounces U.S. Citizenship in Advance of IPO, Saving Millions in U.S. Taxes —heard about it on the radio, or seen it on TV. But Paul L. Caron of The TaxProf Blog has done a remarkable job of aggregating all the media responses to the story from about 20+ outlets, and linking to previous posts this week on the developing story. On Thursday: Bloomberg: Schumer Proposes Tax on People Like Facebook’s Saverin: U.S. Senator Charles Schumer proposed legislation that would impose a 30% capital gains tax on people like Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin unless…
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Bullseye Blog, A Legal Blog on Expert Topics, reports that The Supreme Court has issued a new patent law opinion that could signal a greater need for expert testimony in patent-related civil actions in federal district courts. Bullseye’s Robert Ambrogi cuts to the chase: “The bottom line of Kappos v. Hyatt is that the court has lifted any limits on the use of new evidence in a §145 trial. That is sure to mean greater use of expert testimony in these cases going forward.” More: In the April 18 opinion, Kappos v. Hyatt, the Supreme Court resolved a question that had divided…
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If you’re been hoping to find a comprehensive source for private equity transactions and fund information, you may see a version of it as early as this fall. Fund managers have joined limited partners and other industry players in supporting a global private equity database being developed by Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner. Graham Winfrey at Private Equity Manager reports: A group of private equity firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, The Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management have agreed to contribute transaction and fund information to a database being developed by the Private Capital Research Institution (PCRI). The…
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Becker’s ASC Review, a site that provides Practical Business, Legal, and Clinical Guidance for Ambulatory Surgery Centers, recently published an article on benchmarks that ASC administrators often neglect. These are important benchmarks not just for ASCs, but for any physician executives, healthcare practice managers, and the valuators and consultants they work and plan with. An excerpt: Chance Sherer, manager with VMG Health, discusses several benchmarks that ASC administrators often forget to include in their data collection efforts. Q: Could you discuss several benchmarks that surgery center leaders overlook or under-use in their benchmarking efforts? Chance Sherer: All ASCs are different. They…
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In an article titled “Regulation ‘Pushing Up Financial Firms’ Costs” The Financial Times‘ chief regulation correspondent Brooke Masters reports that extraterritorial regulations, rules that affect businesses outside the country that enacts them, are pushing up costs and driving banks, insurers and asset managers away from particular markets, a survey of global financial firms has found. More than half the groups that participated in a survey that the Protiviti regulatory consultancy will unveil on Monday said they had decided not to enter – or had exited – specific countries because of concerns about their laws and regulations. Nearly that many,…
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You can’t avoid paying taxes on assets you sell after a bankruptcy. At least if you’re a farmer. Sally P. Schrieber at the Journal of Accountancy reports The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that farmers who sold farm assets during a bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Code were liable for the full amount of the capital gains tax that resulted from the sale (Hall, Sup. Ct. Dkt. No. 10-875 (U.S. 5/14/12), aff’g 617 F.3d 1161 (9th Cir. 2010)). In an opinion that affirmed a Ninth Circuit decision and resolved a split in the circuits, a divided Supreme Court (in an…
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If you’re interested in keeping up on regulatory news in a day-to-day fashion, Financial Executives International (FEI) publishes a great news page on its own site and offers content for the FEI Financial Reporting Blog at AccountingWeb. Both sites offer multiple monthly highlights from SEC, PCAOB, FASB, IASB, and other regulatory news, including reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley Sect 404. The FEI Financial Reporting Blog is written by Edith Orenstein, Director of Technical Policy Analysis at FEI. Here are some headlines from happenings the past few weeks, with links to fuller articles: FASB Defines Nonpublic Entity (Private Company) During its past two board meetings, the FASB has reached tentative…
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The most highly anticipated IPO in history didn’t put on much of a show. Facebook closed today within decimal points of its opening price of $38. Even so, the company’s market cap is higher than McDonald’s or Pepsico. Espen Robak is the president of Pluris Valuation Advisors, where he studies and values private companies trading on the secondary market. Derek Thompson at The Atlantic talked to him this morning right as Facebook trading began. One of Robak’s first points was “The people who bought in the secondary market came in right around $44. Those shares are locked for 180…
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A relatively unexplored area of family business research is the role that an active, independent board of directors can play in perpetuating the family business from one generation to the next. David Thayne Liebell reports at Trusts & Estates that a recently published book, Building A Successful Family Business Board, seeks to close that research gap. In fact, according to the book’s authors, an active, independent board can serve as an objective steward, overseeing the creation and execution of a leadership succession plan that works for both the business and the family. Even in the healthiest of families, the leadership succession…
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Psychology Of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad Things NPR’s Chana Joffe-Walt and Alix Spiegel have put together a fascinating podcast that examines the psychology of fraud. It often isn’t as easily explained as bad people doing bad things. Ethicists and psychologists have documented an unusually high number of people who start out, in their minds, doing the right thing. The story follows the case of Toby Groves. He was a man who almost everyone who knew admired for his integrity. In fact, his company’s culture was defined, according to many former employees, by its high integrity. But It began…
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Thursday, May 23, 2013Business Valuation Webinar Week: Valuation Issues of Renewable Energy InterestsTime: 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. Mountain / 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Central / 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. EasternCPE: 1 hourPrice: $145.00 Purchase Webinar Thursday, May 23, 2013Valuation Databases to Improve Efficiency—Using Duff & Phelps Risk Premium Report and Risk Premium CalculatorTime: 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Mountain / 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Central / 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. EasternCPE: 0 hourPrice: $0.00 Purchase Webinar Thursday, May 23, 2013Valuation Databases to Improve Efficiency—Using Duff & Phelps Risk Premium Report and Risk Premium CalculatorTime: 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Pacific /…
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GigaOm M&A Advisor: “Sales Don’t Create Value. What You Do Creates Value.” GigaOm M&A Advisor Marty Wolf explains how, especially in the tech field, five great ways to destroy your company include: 1. Opportunistic acquisitions 2. Growth for the sake of growth 3. Weak balance sheet 4. Convoluted ownership structures 5. Missing the window on a liquidity event How does this play out in the real world? Just look at Cisco, writes Wolf. Over the span of 10 years, Cisco’s sales rose nearly 94 percent while its enterprise value actually declined 29 percent. Read the whole thing.
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Good Grasp on Value Enables Better Tax & Retirement Planning, Reduces Conflicts The Washington Post’s On Small Business blog cites data from a variety of sources that indicate most small business owners don’t have a good grasp on the value of their business. Written by Gerald Radican, the piece on the Post blog cites these findings from Spardata, a Maryland-based valuation firm: A typical business owner misjudges the value of his or her company by 59 percent. That’s because business owners often choose to estimate the value based on what other businesses in the same industry are valued. Such rationale assumes…
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In United States v. David A. Taylor IRS Lays Down the Law The Wills, Trusts, and Estates Prof blog reports on a recent case demonstrating that if a fiduciary has a duty to pay a claim of the government before paying a debt—or they may be personally liable for the unpaid claims of the government! Here are some of the case details: David J. Tyler and Paula I. Tyler were a married couple who held real property on Cricket Lane in Pennsylvania as tenants by the entirety. The IRS issued deficiencies for their income taxes from 1992-1998. On August 20,…
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Weeding out Junk Science? Or Scaring Off Competent Experts? Are Daubert challenges really weeding out “junk science” and “pseudoscience” in the courtroom, or could it be that they are actually scaring off good, competent experts? Given the numbers alone, one can’t help but wonder. Bullseye, a Legal Blog on Expert Topics, reports on a new study that examines the question. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, which established that the criteria set forth in Daubert applied to other types of expert testimony – not just that of a scientific nature – the number of Daubert challenges has risen sharply. While…
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New Medical Billing-Code Provides Precision; Nine Codes for Macaw Mishaps Today, hospitals and doctors use a system of about 18,000 codes to describe medical services in bills they send to insurers, Anna Wilde Matthews reported in the Wall Street Journal not too long ago. Apparently, that doesn’t allow for quite enough nuance.: A new federally mandated version will expand the number to around 140,000—adding codes that describe precisely what bone was broken, or which artery is receiving a stent. It will also have a code for recording that a patient’s injury occurred in a chicken coop. (See code.) Indeed, health plans…
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There’s No Accounting for the Subscription Economy It’s taken over 10 years to get the idea of the subscription economy into our noggins, but we’ve barely started internalizing what it takes to support it and report on it as a business, reports Dennis Pombriant at CRM Buyer. Add “Accounting” for 32 Points and a Triple Score “Wall Street types are very accustomed to companies selling products rather than subscriptions,” he reports. But “subscriptions have a mixed bag of revenue recognition ideas that challenge the status quo”: . . . Subscriptions as a way of doing business are just about everywhere;…