Most mergers end up as disasters. Studies shows that as many as 75 per cent fail to deliver value for shareholders.So why are so many mergers like groundhog Day? Why the same mistakes over and over...

Things are looking good but tread carefully. That's the warning that came out last week from the International Monetary Fund.Basically, the IMF has tipped strong economic growth continuing out of...

So the trans-Atlantic slanging match has started over the pledge from Ed Balls, the economic secretary to the Treasury, to give Britain's Financial Services Authority, the City's main...

This Q&A with Enron juror Wendy Vaughan in Inc magazine confirms the warning signs of a company going under.Vaughan, a small business owner from Katy, Texas, confirms that the systemic arrogance,...

The Hewlett-Packard spy-pretexting fiasco will probably go down as a case study in flawed corporate governance.Here's a board that tried fixing a problem about a director leaking, and made a mess...

Google has moved into philanthropy and, not surprisingly, the company is breaking new ground and killing a few sacred cows in the process.Google has set up a philanthropy to fight poverty, disease...

It's an interesting question and the answer, I suspect, is yes and no.Corporate governance regimes around the world have been overhauled in the aftermath of the corporate scandals led by Enron....

Just weeks after US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson delivered his first big speech advocating unwinding parts of Sarbanes-Oxley, a new commission is formed to look at changing Sarbanes-Oxley.And...

Yes, we all know accountants are the real winners out of Sarbanes-Oxley. The changes in the law have been an El Dorado for beancounters, something I have written about here, here and here.But...

Whenever companies are hit by scandal, we are told they're just bad apples. Don't believe it. The problem is a lot more complicated than that and usually, these sorts of scandals are best...

True to form, Conrad Black has gone for attack as the best form of defence.Facing up to 40 years in jail for plundering Hollinger International, the newspaper group he used to lead, Black told...

With Hewlett-Packard in turmoil over the dubious tactics used to used to access private phone records of board directors and journalists, HP chief executive officer Mark Hurd has put out a message to...

Last month I wrote about the lost laptop lunacy where I revealed that four out of five US companies had lost at least one laptop containing sensitive information over the past year and that most...

Someone's sure making money out of the war on terror and soaring oil prices!Last year might have been another monster year for corporate CEO salaries but guess what: oil and defense industry...

Even after his death, Ken Lay continues to shape the debate over corporate crime and punishment.Prosecutors have asked the court hold off the late Enron chief's fraud and conspiracy convictions...

While Congress is looking into what it can do about options backdating and soaring executive pay, some interesting revelations have emerged in Australia about another options scam.ISS Australia has...

Story of the week would have to be the revelations of Hewlett-Packard's chairwoman Patricia Dunn spying on the home phone records of the company's directors, as reported in full detail the...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has come out in defence of the Public Accounting Oversight Board against the lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.The lawsuit, filed in February by the...

Everyone knows that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a licence to print money for auditors and accountants.And the latest figures from the CCH Public Accounting Report show that revenue growth rates reported...

Whistleblowers are now regarded as a key issue in the post Sarbanes-Oxley world with the law specifically providing them with protection from discrimination.But how many organisations have methodical...