Hedge funds looking for accountants

According to this recent post on JobsintheMoney’s CareerWire blog, hedge funds are looking for accountants and paying top dollar for them: The Rothstein Kass report, The Compensation Conundrum, makes clear that even for non-investment professionals, hedge funds pay better than both Wall Street and corporate America. For instance, senior accountants at surveyed firms earned $71,000Continue reading “Hedge funds looking for accountants”

Loading springs and dodging bullets

Two terms, “spring-loading” and “bullet-dodging” have reminded me of the tendency in business to put a positive spin on negative practices. Spring-loading refers to the practice of granting options immediately before releasing good news that will likely increase the stock price, resulting in options that are not in the money technically when granted, but are,Continue reading “Loading springs and dodging bullets”

Novell investigating its options grants

Another tech company has announced it is conducting internal investigations into their options grant practices. This time it is Novell, a company known for its NetWare network operating system and more recently as a Linux company. Novell said its audit committee began the investigation because of news about irregularities in the way that dozens ofContinue reading “Novell investigating its options grants”

Options backdating investigation not making the SEC any friends

Tech companies are the primary focus of the SEC’s recently announced and currently ongoing investigation into options dating irregularities, which makes sense given their proclivity for awarding stock options as part of compensation packages with employees. An article in BusinessWeek documents what tech company executives have recently termed a “witch hunt”: Many executives are surprisedContinue reading “Options backdating investigation not making the SEC any friends”