KPMG faces shareholder protests over GE and Wells Fargo audits [FT]
Both GE and Wells Fargo hold their shareholder meetings this week, so we’ll see if investors heed the call of proxy advisors to dump KPMG. The firm and its predecessors have audited Wells Fargo since 1931 and GE since 1909, so chances for a revolt seem slim. Both companies are asking shareholders to retain the firm.
Ernst & Young accused of firing manager who requested parental leave [Reuters]
A former EY senior manager, Shmuel Eisenbach, has filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia, accusing the firm of firing him after “he requested additional time off after his wife gave birth.”
Alphabet’s earnings look better than ever thanks to a new accounting rule [Quartz]
Gains and losses from equity investments gave the company a boost last quarter. However, Google has warned that it can go both ways.
Private companies falling behind on new accounting standards [AT]
A survey from consulting shop MorganFranklin found that only 9 percent of private companies have “completed adoption” of the new revenue recognition standard and 6 percent for the new lease standard. Sixty-three and 68 percent haven’t made “significant progress” on revenue recognition and lease standard respectively.
Steinhoff Pleas for Investor Support to Save ‘Burning Building’ [Bloomberg]
Um, this is an odd way to contextualize a failing business:
“There was a time in early December that it could be likened to finding oneself in a burning building,” Heather Sonn said at the retailer’s annual general meeting at an airport hotel in Amsterdam, where the Stellenbosch, South Africa-based company is registered. “Typically when in a burning building you run out. Some stayed. We are happy some stayed in the burning building to help.”
Okay, since we are NOT talking about saving children or pets or leftover pizza, let me set the record straight — run out of the burning building.
Previously, on Going Concern…
Grant Hutchinson wrote about staying productive when working remotely.
In Open Items, a user wonders if accounting firms will consider their MBA with an accounting certificate “as sufficient to recruit me”?
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- Man rescued from tree after he got stuck while rescuing cat
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White House: No Permanent Tax Cut on Rich [