Accounting Irregularities

Penny Pritzker: Commerce Secretary? — More news has come out about the makeup of Obama's Cabinet. The New York Times reports that Penny Pritzker is a leading candidate for Commerce Secretary: Two other leading contenders for cabinet positions emerged late Wednesday, Democrats with knowledge of the process said. Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona was poised to be offered the position of homeland security secretary, and Penny Pritzker, a Chicago businesswoman and national finance chairman of the Obama campaign, was in the final stages of vetting for commerce secretary. A longtime friend of Mr. Obama, Ms. Pritzker was a chief architect of his record-breaking fund-raising efforts... [Tags: accounting irregularities, barack obama, cabinet positions, chief architect, cnn]

What’s Up With Cadence? — Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) shares have bounced impressively today from their recent sell-off; but if there is a catalyst, I can’t find it. On October 15, CEO Mike Fister and a number of other execs were pushed out; a week later, the company postponed a planned earnings announcement after finding accounting irregularities concerning revenue recognition. The result: the Street threw in the towel. The stock fell 45% from March 15 through last Friday. But the stock has since changed direction, and today is up 74 cents, or 22.4%, to $4.05. There are a few Cadence-related news releases today - a... [Tags: accounting irregularities, cadence design systems, catalyst, ceo, class action lawsuits]

Comverse: Rumors of Break-Up Back on the Front Burner — Oft-heard rumors of a break-up of stock-options-fraud poster child and telecom software provider Comverse Technology (CMVT.PK) are back in the news today — specifically, in the Israeli newspaper Globes, according to a note out this morning by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Daniel Ives. Those breakup anticipations have consistently been put aside amid turmoil in Comverse’s books, from the stock-options scandal of its former CEO, Kobi Alexander (he fled prosecution in Namibia) to accounting irregularities in its revenue recognition. But according to Ives, who has been a big proponent of the company breaking itself apart, Globes today reports that Comverse is... [Tags: accounting irregularities, acquirers, billing software, business paper, comverse]

Verifone To File Earnings Restatements; Stock Jumps — Verifone (PAY) shares are sharply higher today after the company announced plans to file restated financial statements for the last 6 quarters with the SEC on August 19. In December, Verifone shares staged a massive collapse after the company noted the discovery of accounting irregularities involving inventory valuation and other issues. The restatement presumably will put the issue behind the company; PAY shares today are up $2.03, or 14.9%, to $15.67. The stock was trading for about $48 before the company disclosed its accounting troubles.... [Tags: accounting irregularities, august 19, discovery, earnings, financial statements]