Comments on PCAOB reproposal of expanded auditor’s report reflect predictable split
by Cydney Posner As discussed in this PubCo post, in May of this year, after five years of outreach, the PCAOB once again attempted to make the auditor’s report more relevant and informative to investors by reproposing the auditor reporting standard, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When […]
Individual shareholder proposals—why do they do it?
by Cydney Posner This recent paper from the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, “Gadflies at the Gate: Why Do Individual Investors Sponsor Shareholder Resolutions?” attempts to answer a question I’ve been wondering about for quite a while: why do individual investors invest their time and energy pursuing […]
Some successful approaches to increasing board gender diversity
by Cydney Posner A lot has been written about the benefits of gender diversity on boards. As discussed in Bloomberg, while “[e]quality is a worthy goal on its own terms, of course….for the corporate world, the better rationale for gender diversity is financial…. Companies with at least one female director had […]
SEC Whistleblower Office charges that prospective waiver of whistleblower award in severance agreements violated securities laws
by Cydney Posner In a new whistleblower protection case, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower settled charges against BlueLinx Holdings, Inc. that the company’s severance agreements violated the securities laws. The agreements included confidentiality restrictions without exclusions for whistleblower reporting and required terminating employees to waive possible whistleblower awards or […]
Consultants report on conflict minerals due diligence and disclosure for 2015. But has it made a difference for the DRC?
by Cydney Posner Two consulting firms, Assent Compliance and Source Intelligence, have published their studies on conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) reporting for 2015, the third year of required SEC reporting. For 2015, there were slightly over 1,200 filers, representing a decrease of about 50 filers from the […]
Study shows more restatements and internal control weaknesses among “heavy users” of non-GAAP measures
by Cydney Posner The non-GAAP financial measures pile-on continues. Certainly, the SEC has recently been making the public-speaking rounds and issuing CDIs warning companies of its concern about abuses of non-GAAP metrics, such as substituting individually tailored revenue recognition and measurement methods for those of GAAP or using a non-GAAP measure […]
Corp Fin issues revised CDI regarding disclosure about selling shareholder entities
by Cydney Posner Last week, Corp Fin revised a CDI regarding disclosure about selling shareholder entities and withdrew another CDI on the same topic.
Corp Fin refuses to permit exclusion of proposal to amend proxy access bylaws under Rule 14a-8(i)(10). Who is gaming the system?
by Cydney Posner Just when we thought we had a handle on the new rules of the game for exclusion of proxy access shareholder proposals comes this new letter to H&R Block, issued on July 21. The proposal, from the prolific James McRitchie (one of the group working with John […]
New UK Prime Minister proposes “something radical.” Could it happen here?
by Cydney Posner She may be the new leader of the Conservative Party, but her party affiliation may not be entirely obvious from the speech delivered in July by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, launching her national campaign. In her vision of creating “an economy that works for everyone,” May […]
New study shows inverse correlation between CEO pay and performance over the long term
by Cydney Posner As reported in the WSJ, a new study from corporate-governance research firm MSCI showed that, over the long term, there was a significant misalignment between CEO pay and stock-price performance. The study looked at CEO pay relative to total shareholder return for around 800 CEOs at more […]
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