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Friday Footnotes: Recovering From Work Outbursts; Auditors and Shoes; Words to Eliminate | 05.08.15

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Don't forget Mother's Day this weekend, capital market servants. Also, remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and that Open Items is never closed.

This is what CEOs give (and get) on Mother's Day [Fortune]

Recovering from an Emotional Outburst at Work [HBR]

‘Game of Thrones’ Leadership Lessons for the Office [Speakeasy/WSJ]

Tesla's Battery Grabbed $800 Million in Its First Week [Bloomberg]

"These auditors are tying things out just for the sake of doing more work. They'd tie their shoelaces together to test the existence of both their feet." [r/accounting]

Federal Tobacco Tax Revenues are Declining [Tax Foundation]

Comcast Says Customer Must Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement To Get $600 Refund [Consumerist]

5 Words You Need to Eliminate From Your Vocabulary to Sound Smarter [The Muse]

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Yes, the SEC *Has* Heard About the Trend of Accounting Problems at Reverse Merger Companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors about the risk of fraud, accounting problems and other abuses at companies that obtain stock listings through so-called reverse mergers.

The warning on Thursday comes amid a rash of accounting scandals involving China-based companies listed on U.S. exchanges through reverse mergers, or mergers with U.S. shell companies. “Many companies either fail or struggle to remain viable following a reverse merger,” the SEC said in an investor bulletin. Investors should be especially wary of reverse merger operating companies that are “nonreporting,” meaning they are not required to file reports with the SEC, the agency said. “Keep in mind that information from online blogs, social networking sites and even a company’s own website may be inaccurate and sometimes intentionally misleading,” the SEC said. [Reuters]

The Company That Brought You Farmville Is Going Public

In addition to the Nets’ financials, you’ve got plenty of reading to do over this long weekend.

Some highlights from Zynga’s S-1 courtesy of Zero Hedge:

• Q1 2011 revenue: $235.4MM, up from $100.9MM YoY, LTM revenue $731.9 MM
• Q1 Net Income: $11.8MM up from $6.4MM YoY, LTM Net Income: $96.2MM
• Q1 Adjusted EBITDA: $112.2MM, up from $93.5MM, LTM EBITDA: $411.4MM
• Adjusted EBITDA definition also excludes stock based comp and change in deferred revenue
• Cash: $995.6MM, almost the same size as the entire proposed IPO
• Working Capital: $603.4MM

Some other fun things of note:

&bull Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks is on the Board of Directors and serves on the compensation committee.

• CFO David Wehner is formerly of Allen & Company, an investment bank that specializes in media and technology. He has an M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford and a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown. His total compensation for 2010 was $17,996,057, $16,087,500 of which was stock awards.

• The audit committee consists of Brad Feld, Reid Hoffman and Stanley Meresman. Feld is a MD at the VC firm Foundry Group, Hoffman is the former CEO of LinkedIn and Meresman, the chair of the committee, selected for “his background as chair of the audit committee of other public companies and his financial and accounting expertise from his prior extensive experience as chief financial officer of two publicly traded corporations.”

• Mark Vranesh is the Chief Accounting Officer and had total compensation for 2010 of $1,544,940, $1,287,000 was stock awards.

There’s plenty more to pour through, so have it. And yes, Ernst & Young says everything is kosher, so who wants a piece of this?

Zynga S-1 [SEC]