Blame Disaster on Bad Inputs. Black-Scholes Works. The last few years have given us plenty of reasons to hate financial models. Models that promised to increase efficiency and manage risk became substitutes for common sense and justifications for greed. The real estate bubble was of course justified by them. Yet people at hedge funds and trading firms, using models to mint money, remain passionate believers ...

Increased Scrutiny for Private Equity Valuations The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has started an informal inquiry of private equity firms, asking for a broad range of documents on how the funds value assets and who invests in them, reports Bloomberg's BusinessWeek.   The agency’s Los Angeles office last year sent letters to several firms asking for details on fund investments and the valuation of ...

The Ten Biggest Family Businesses in the U.S. Business Insurance lists them: Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and most successful family business of all time. In 1962, founder Sam Walton took his knowledge of discount retailing and opened the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Ark. It wasn't long before Sam expanded his business and opened up hundreds, then thousands of stores worldwide. After ...

Kravis: No Better Time than Now to Be Making Investments"    Private Equity International's James Taylor reports that at an invitation-only event in Monaco, the KKR co-founder said that low interest rates and a lack of capital offer 'enormous' opportunities for private equity: Kolhberg Kravis Roberts co-founder Henry Kravis struck a bullish tone in a speech in Monaco this week, dismissing talk of a "hard la ...

Book Review:  Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business Family Business Review recently ran an interesting book review, by Jane Hilburt-Davis, of M.T. Green's book Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business: 9 Symptoms of Generational Stack-Up and How to Cure Them.  Writes Hilburt-Davis: Green introduces a new conceptual framework, the syndrome of “generational stack-up,” defining it as “the converge ...

Normalization of Income: Where Business Valuation Meets Forensic Accounting At the Legal Intelligencer blog, Terry Silver explains that since buyers and sellers often have differing ideas of a business' true fair market value, normalization is usually a required part of any M&A deal: The valuation of virtually every closely held business requires normalization adjustments. Although these adjustments may ...

Firehoses, Drinking Fountains, and Intrinsic Value CFA Magazine'sChristopher Wright recently spoke with four analysts about the challenges of identifying key share price drivers among the torrent of minutiae. The analysts cover a number of topics, and come from a variety of firms and industries.  Here’s J.B. Groh, CFA, senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson in Lake Oswego, Oregon: [It is largely] about th ...

Which States are Poised for Job Growth?  As the U.S. jobs market digs its way out of the recession, gains aren’t expected to be evenly distributed. But some of the hardest-hit regions may also see some of the best growth, according to a new analysis, writes Phil Izzo at the Wall Street Journal Real Time Economics blog. Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight looked at which states will have the strongest rates ...

FASB Proposes Changes in Investment Accounting Michael Cohen reports at Accounting Today: The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released two proposed accounting standards updates to clarify the criteria for investment company accounting and develop guidance for investment property accounting. The proposed update for investment company accounting stems from the efforts of FASB and the International Ac ...

Jack Nicholson Takes Over E.U. Finance FT's Alphaville Blog reprises an ECB press conference last week: Reporter: What is your answer to German people and economists who want the return of the DM? Trichet: You want answers? Reporter: I think the Germans are entitled. Trichet: You want answers? (SHOUTING) Reporter: Germans want the truth! (SHOUTING) Trichet: *You can’t handle the truth!*  (SHOUTING) [pauses] ...

FASB Approves Standard to Simplify Testing Goodwill for Impairment  The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) approved a revised accounting standard intended to simplify how an entity tests goodwill for impairment. Per the FASB: “The Board’s decision today comes as a direct result of what we heard from private companies, which had expressed concerns about the cost and complexity of performing the good ...

Study: A Quarter of LPs Plan to Increase Allocations  An overwhelming majority of investors who responded to a recent survey planned to maintain or increase their allocations to private equity, with high fees and a lack of transparency dissuading the remainder from committing more capital to the asset class. Clare Burrows reports at Private Equity International: Only 2 percent of the 411 investors and consu ...

In Silicon Valley, a Culture Clash Sullies a Romance Steven M. Davidoff reports on the New York Times DealBook blog:   Private equity has broken venture capital’s heart, and V.C. is not taking it well.   The romance ended when Silver Lake, the private equity firm, agreed to sell Skype to Microsoft. Silver Lake is estimated to be pocketing more than $4 billion from the sale.   This would normally be a joyous ...

CPA Exam Launched at International Test Sites Michael Cohn at Accounting Today reports: The U.S. CPA Exam was successfully administered at four international test sites: Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy and Prometric said Monday that candidates took exams at the four locations abroad on Augus ...

Wild Market Quiets the Buzz for I.P.O.’s Evelyn M. Russli and Michael J. De La Merced at New York Times' Dealbook: As stocks swing violently, a chill is beginning to settle on the initial public offering market. A small number of companies have already retreated on their offering plans. WageWorks, an employee benefits provider, pushed its offering, originally scheduled for Friday, to next week and dropped i ...

House lawmakers passed a bill today to overhaul the U.S. patent system for the first time in nearly 60 years, Nathan Koppel notes on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog: The House passed the America Invents Act on a 407 to 117 vote, WSJ reports.  The bill would change how the U.S. grants patents and award them to the party which is “first to file” an invention instead of the “first to invent” it. The change wo ...

David Wanetick, Managing Director at IncreMental Advantage, LLC, a valuation firm with expertise in valuing intangible assets and emerging technologies, based in Princeton, NJ,  opines at The Business Insider: Valuing a patent is complex and imperfect. Below we’ll go into some detail surrounding the methods used to determine a patent’s value. Each is applied under different circumstances, and impacted by ma ...

Forbes reports:  In the last (pre-drinking) session at the D: All Things Digital conference at the Terranea resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California on Wednesday, we heard from  Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and founder of Netscape and various other tech start-ups. Chatting him up: Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the session: Marc ...

More Feedback: Editor: I read the May 2011 QuickRead – “Tips for Valuators” concerning stub years. I have run into this issue several times and I have seen it misapplied many times and I am glad you wrote about the topic. I noticed two points in the article that I believe need further clarification. The first thing that I noticed in the article is that the PV factors need to be modified as well if you are d ...

LinkedIn Features Booming CVA/AVA Activity Have you visited LinkedIn lately?  The NACVA AVA/CVA Certification group as of this writing has 935 members.  Follow the link and join in the conversation! This year is NACVA's 20th Anniversary.  What milestones do you remember being a part of?   QuickRead's Conversations with the Masters staff is preparing for an interview with Shannon Pratt.  Do you have question ...