Walden Siew

Aug 21, 2024 | cfo.cmail20.com | Walden Siew

Companies are cutting staff and focusing on efficiency amid a commitment to do more with less following a year of widespread layoffs. Cisco Systems and Deere & Co. announced layoffs this week, joining Tesla, Alphabet and Amazon among major companies to cut jobs in recent months. The layoffs this year suggest that companies are cutting in more targeted areas—even as some of the biggest tech companies have continued to grow, adding more jobs than they have cut.

Jun 28, 2024 | linkedin.com | Walden Siew

☀️ Good morning.Amazon.com is stepping up its use of generative artificial intelligence throughout its finance teams, as many companies look for ways to effectively move from testing and experimenting with the technology to prime time. The e-commerce giant initially adopted rules-based systems, one of the earliest forms of AI that use a set of rules to solve problems and make decisions, in its finance organization, which it then augmented with machine learning.

Jun 14, 2024 | linkedin.com | Walden Siew

Good morning, CFOs. Companies' use of their own stock to pay for mergers and acquisitions has reached its highest level in five years, with M&A buyers taking advantage of the recent market rally. During the first five months of the year, all-stock deals accounted for 27% of the global value of strategic M&A, up from 11% the same period a year earlier and reaching the highest level since 2019.

May 3, 2024 | linkedin.com | Kristin Broughton |Mark Maurer |Jennifer Williams-Alvarez |Walden Siew

☀️ Good morning.Waste Management is reaping the benefits of an ongoing effort to replace some of its trucks and reroute others in a more efficient manner, reports Kristin Broughton . The publicly traded trash pickup and landfill company surprised analysts during the latest quarter by reporting a better-than-expected profit margin, which the company attributed, in part, to recent investments in vehicle-routing technology and side-loading trucks.

Apr 1, 2024 | createsend.com | Walden Siew

Good morning, CFOs. Inflation is proving stickier than expected in the U.S. and Europe, creating a headache for central bankers and sowing doubts on whether investors are too optimistic about the world economy. The decline in inflation from highs of around 9% to 10% across advanced economies in 2022 represent the easy gains, as supply-chain blockages eased and commodity prices, especially for energy, normalized. The “last mile” is proving tougher.