Mar 19
The Eastern District of Texas is well known for its intense patent activity and already provides early disclosure of infringement and invalidity contentions to facilitate faster resolution of these cases. The Court has now taken similar action by providing an option for accelerated damage discovery, including requiring a two week turnaround between defendant’s production of …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/new-path-for-accelerated-discovery-requires-immediate-expert-assistance/
Mar 17
The Supreme Court has held in the case of Lawson v. FMR LLC that the whistleblower protection available under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) properly extends to employees of privately held contractors and subcontractors who perform work for a public company. Although the case in question was brought by employees of advisors to a …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/sox-whistleblower-protection-extend-to-certain-private-company-employees/
Mar 14
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) is requesting input from stakeholders regarding FASB Statement No. 157, Fair Value Measurements, (“157”). 157 provides a single definition of fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value, and expands disclosures about fair value measurements. A Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) review team found that some investors were struggling to understand the use of …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/fasb-wants-to-hear-from-stakeholders-on-fair-value-measurements/
Mar 13
In Plantronics, Inc.v. ALIPH, Inc, ALIPH was successful in its bid to exclude the report of Plaintiff’s infringement expert in this case involving the fit of ear buds. The Court found that the expert did very little analysis in order to conclude infringement: “Professor Katz never conducted any quantitative analysis (i.e., size, measurements, dimensions, or …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/court-strikes-expert-for-parroting/
Mar 12
In Estate of Helen P. Richmond et al. vs. vs. Commissioner T.C. Memo. 2014-26, February 11, 2014, the Tax Court addressed reasonably straightforward estate tax valuation questions in a reasonably predictable manner. The additional tax imposed because of a higher valuation was not particularly surprising to me, and probably not to others who regularly practice …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/estate-tax-penalty-occurs-because-of-a-lack-of-a-professional-appraisal/
Mar 10
Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported the shocking headline “One in Three Audits Fail, PCAOB Chief Auditors Says”. The PCAOB is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, so such a statement certainly has the ability to rattle not only the the audit community, but all users of audited financials. Reading the context of the quote …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/pcaob-quote-regarding-audit-failure-rate-raises-concerns/
Mar 05
In association with general cost cutting measures over recent years, many companies have pressured their vendors to reduce fees. This downward pressure has extended to the accounting firms hired to provide independent audit opinions, resulting in a significant drop in audit fees. According to Audit Analytics, audit fees in 2012 were $472 per $1 million …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/reducing-audit-fees-increases-restatement-risk/
Mar 04
Pepperdine University’s recently released Private Capital Markets Project (“PCMP”) reveals some interesting statistics derived from their survey of the current marketplace for privately-held business sales. One of the key topics is how a failure to come to terms on valuation conclusions often prevents deals from closing. For instance, investment bankers surveyed report that a valuation …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/crossing-the-valuation-gap-on-private-equity-transactions/
Mar 03
The Securities Exchange Commission (“the Commission”) has filed an amicus brief clarifying that whistleblowing employees should be protected under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act even if their whistleblowing report was only internal. In its brief, the Commission stated that it “interpreted the anti-retaliation protections to extend to any individual ho engages …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/sec-defends-internal-company-whistleblowers/
Feb 28
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released the agency’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2013, which summarized consumer complaints. There were over 2.1 million complaints reported in 2013. The following table summarizes the top ten types of complaints filed in 2013: Category No. of Complaints Identity Theft 290,056 Debt Collection 204,644 Bank and Lenders 152,707 …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/02/identity-theft-tops-consumer-fraud-list/