Your average audit opinion is a pretty ho-hum affair. Boilerplate language and standard, precise wording doesn’t make for an enthralling read generally. But when you go through many thousands of audit opinions each year, there are bound to be some eye-opening outliers. … Continue reading
Author Archives: Olga Usvyatsky
Could the MDC Partners Enforcement Action have been Predicted?
How likely is a company to be cited for a violation of non-GAAP reporting rules? Is non-GAAP violation a primary offense? That is, can a company face an enforcement action just for that? Let’s take a look at a recent … Continue reading
EBay Reports Material Weakness: Second Control Deficiency in Three Years
Last week on February 6, in its Fiscal 2016 10-K, eBay (EBAY) disclosed a material weakness in its internal controls over financial reporting (“ICFR“). The deficiency related to a failure to properly apply tax accounting and affected the Deferred Tax Asset and Income Tax Benefit … Continue reading
SEC Comment Letters: Early Returns
Note: This post features a guest contribution from our friend Jack Ciesielski, the publisher of the Analyst’s Accounting Observer. Together with our friends at the Analyst’s Accounting Observer, we reviewed the first batch of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance non-GAAP comments. The blog … Continue reading
Early Adoption of ASC 606: first glance
In a recently released tool for the Audit Committees, the Center for the Audit Quality stated that it is “urgent that audit committees understand how management is assessing the impact of the new revenue recognition standard”. ASC 606 (which is … Continue reading
Warning Signs Leading to Securities Litigation
Over the past 10 years, major drivers behind securities litigation were either financial restatements and misrepresentations or significant corporate events (such as IPOs and M&A activity). Material restatements are very likely to trigger a legal action. Yet, the key question that … Continue reading
Disclaimer of Opinion – have you ever seen one?
Non-standard audit opinions got their fair share of attention earlier this year in conjunction with the late filing of Valeant Pharmaceuticals. For Valeant, getting anything but a clean, non-qualified opinion could have meant a default on substantial loans. It has been … Continue reading