Bloomberg reports that now coming to light is how Ahold managed to report such strong “organic” growth from year to year. While organic growth generally is defined as revenue from existing units, Ahold in fact would include revenue from acquisitions in its reporting of these numbers.
The organic issue is just one of those that is occupying the attention of analysts and investigators probing the reasons for Ahold’s current economic problems; the others include an accounting scandal that had the company overstating profits by a half-billion dollars, in part because of how it treated vendor allowances.
Ahold’s mistakes have caused its stock price to drop by almost 75 percent during the past month.
In related news, The Washington Post has reported that investigators looking into irregularities at Ahold’s US Foodservice division found a kind of “smoking gun” -- two letters telling suppliers they could pay smaller rebates than officially agreed to, which in essence created two sets of books.
The organic issue is just one of those that is occupying the attention of analysts and investigators probing the reasons for Ahold’s current economic problems; the others include an accounting scandal that had the company overstating profits by a half-billion dollars, in part because of how it treated vendor allowances.
Ahold’s mistakes have caused its stock price to drop by almost 75 percent during the past month.
In related news, The Washington Post has reported that investigators looking into irregularities at Ahold’s US Foodservice division found a kind of “smoking gun” -- two letters telling suppliers they could pay smaller rebates than officially agreed to, which in essence created two sets of books.
- KC's View:
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The Content Guy’s mother used to warn him when he was a kid that if he did something wrong, no matter where and when he did it, she’d find out about it.
And she always did.
We’re beginning to think that many of the former and existing CEOs who now stand accused of malfeasance in the performance of their jobs either weren’t raised right, or forgot the lessons of what their mothers almost certainly told them at some point.
They always find out.
So, if doing the right thing isn’t in and of itself a good enough reason to do the right thing, the fact that people always find out ought to be enough of a caution.
