In a recent post on his blog, The Accounting Onion, Tom Selling added some thoughts to the ongoing debate surrounding non-GAAP disclosures. He proposed some additional requirements that he thinks could help improve non-GAAP reporting. One of the suggestions was that … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Enron Saga Concludes
After more than a decade of criminal proceedings and appeals, the civil court case against former Enron senior executive Jeffrey K. Skilling for his involvement in the historic fraud has finally concluded. On December 8, 2015, the SEC obtained a summary … Continue reading
SEC Staff Addresses Developments in Pension Accounting
At last week’s AICPA Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments, the topic of pension accounting came up more than once. In one session, Ashley Wright, a Professional Accounting Fellow in the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant, discussed a recent … Continue reading
When is a Cybersecurity Incident Material?
Recently we discussed the principle of materiality in the context of Valeant Pharmaceuticals and its Variable Interest Entity (VIE), Philidor. In that post we examined two key concepts in assessing materiality, namely quantitative and qualitative. It is possible for something to be quantitatively immaterial, … Continue reading
2015 SEC Comment Letters: Trends and Issues, a 3 Year Comparison
For the sixth consecutive year, there has been a steady decline in the total number of comment letters issued by the SEC. In the first half of 2015, 2,877 10-K and 10-Q comment letters (1,690 UPLOADs and 1,187 CORRESPs) were filed … Continue reading
Trends in Non-GAAP Disclosures
Investors were not overjoyed at the conclusion of the Q3 earnings season, thanks to lukewarm results for many significant companies. According to Bloomberg, earnings for the S&P 500 are expected to fall 0.5% for the year as a whole, and some … Continue reading