SiliconBeat

Last fall, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) approved changes to the way many high-tech companies will recognize revenue. We saw the first of what will be many earnings reports affected by this when Apple reported on Monday results of its fiscal first-quarter earnings.

Other companies likely to be affected include such heavy weights as Cisco Systems and Tivo.

Often such changes take months for companies to adopt. And in this case, companies have until 2011 to adopt them. But this one is different because it will give companies a significant bump in short-term revenue. So many are racing ahead. As such, investors need to watch carefully to see if a company adopted the new standard, and if they reconciled old numbers to take the new standard into account.

On Monday, Apple disclosed the accounting change up front for this year, and also adopted it retrospectively for the past two years and reconciled past earnings in an amended annual filing. Companies are not required to do adopt it for past years. So good for Apple. Many companies may only make the change going forward, making comparisons harder.

This change is not trivial. To see the impact on revenue, look at the revised numbers from years past. The change bumped revenue for Q1 2009 (last year) from $10.2 billion (0ld) to $11.9 billion (new). As far as I can tell, the company didn’t disclose what the current quarter revenue would have been under the old standard.

Still, that didn’t stop the company, in a press release, from crowing about the big numbers:

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

That’s true. But under the old standard, Apple’s annualized revenue wouldn’t be quite as high. It would probably be four or five billion less, though still over $50 billion.

So what’s going on? For the details, read on. Read the rest of this entry »

West Marine, the Watsonville-based boating supply retailer, reported today that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a final settlement of the federal agency’s investigation into certain of the company’s accounting practices.

The SEC alleged today in a complaint filed in a federal court in San Jose that Read the rest of this entry »

Equinix, the Foster City supplier of data-center hosting,  said today in a regulatory filing that it “is not aware of any undisclosed accounting
matters affecting the company.

Several investors had contacted the company to inquire about a rumor in the market regarding Read the rest of this entry »

Immersion, the San Jose provider of hardware and software “touch” technologies used in digital devices said in a filing today that its audit committee has begun an internal investigation into “certain previous revenue transactions in its Medical line of business. The company said the investigation is being conducted “with the assistance of outside counsel”.

The company did not rule out the possibility of Read the rest of this entry »

Cisco Systems said it would be booking a one-time tax charge of about $130 million to $150 million in its current fiscal 2009 fourth quarter after a ruling Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case between Xilinx and the Internal Revenue Service related to stock-based compensation expense.

Although not named in the case decided, th Read the rest of this entry »

Selectica, the San Jose developer of contract-management software, said Wednesday that it is delaying the release of its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter and full-year financial results as the company reviews the accounting for the sale of its Indian subsidiary.

That sale, described in a press release on April 6, involved Read the rest of this entry »

Blockbuster delayed the filing of its annual 10-K report with the Securities and Exchange Commission as it seeks ways to refinance its debt to replace its current credit agreement that expires in August, and with it its access to $300 million in credit.

“The substantial time and resources dedicated to the refinancing negotiations” by Blockbuster’s management and financial staff has caused the company Read the rest of this entry »

West Marine, the boating supply retailer, received a “Wells Notice” from the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday saying that the federal regulatory agency’s staff intends to recommend that a civil action be brought against the Watsonville company related to an SEC investigation into its accounting for inventory in its 2003 fiscal year.

Those actions sometimes include recommendations that current or former employees Read the rest of this entry »

Now that earnings season is in full swing, we’re seeing some Silicon Valley companies post some whopping losses. To a degree, that’s to be expected when the economy sours.

But there’s more going on here. Companies are announcing big write-offs that are resulting in big-time losses. And while they might try to tell you these write-offs are no big deal, they’re wrong. They’re a very big deal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shares of Accuray plunged Friday, a day after the company said it would miss its deadline for filing financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter because the company was “further reviewing financial results” in response to allegations by a former employee of possible improprieties in handling and accounting for certain inventory items”.

Read the rest of this entry »