Just desserts? Carl Icahn to face Sarbanes-Oxley

Jim Kim — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:42:45 -0400

Now that Carl Icahn has agreed to join the board of Yahoo, he just might have to face some Sarbanes-Oxley related issues, which has venture capitalist Alan Patricof chuckling. "He will also be restricted by Sarbanes-Oxley on how he behaves and, if we are really lucky, he will be appointed to the audit committee and have the further burden of being a steward of the company's finances," he writes. Patricof gets a big kick out of envisioning Icahn on the audit committee. "I can't wait until he deals with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley and has to judge Yahoo's internal controls." Icahn, of course, will now have to evaluate mergers from the inside. "Shareholders will be holding you accountable for your actions..." Icahn has to maintain 30 million shares to stay on the board. What do you think? Will Sarbox be enough for him to sell?

For more:
- here's a copy of the Patricof post

10 threats to small company compliance

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

Lord & Benoit, in a report, says that smaller companies face myriad Sarbox challenges, especially those moving up from start-up status. It lists the top ten threats to compliance:

(1) Accounting and disclosure controls
(2) Treasury
(3) Competency and training of accounting personnel
(4) Control environment
(5) Design of controls or lack of effective compensating controls
(6) Revenue recognition
(7) Financial closing process
(8) Inadequate account reconciliations
(9) Information technology
(10) Consolidations, mergers, and intercompany accounts. Article

Mergers

Just desserts? Carl Icahn to face Sarbanes-Oxley

10 threats to small company compliance