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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2014/09/30/the-morning-ledger-the-cfo-on-ramp-grows-longer/\nThe Morning Ledger: The CFO On-Ramp Grows Longer\nThe Morning Ledger from CFO Journal cues up the most important news in corporate finance every weekday morning. Send us tips, suggestions and complaints: james.willhite@wsj.com. Get The Morning Ledger emailed to you each weekday morning by clicking here. Follow us on Twitter @CFOJournal.\nGood morning. Financial chiefs have been interacting more directly with corporate boards in recent years, whereas in the past, the CEO may have acted as more of an intermediary. Regulatory requirements over the past decade have also boosted the prominence of the CFO role. Along with the greater complexity of the job and the demand that CFOs be more strategic thinkers, all of these factors are driving boards to put longer, more elaborate succession plans in place for their top finance positions, CFOJ’s Kimberly S. Johnson reports.\nCFOs retiring this year are spending an average of 79 days showing their successor the ropes, compared to just 50 days only last year. At Delphi Automotive PLC, for instance, Mark Murphy is taking the helm of the finance department on Wednesday—but he’ll be spending the next six months with former CFO Kevin Clark, now COO, at his side.\nExecutive recruiters say that corporate boards are leading the push, not CEOs or human resources departments. Is your board leaning on you to commit to a lengthier handoff? And are your expectations growing as to how long of an on-ramp you’ll have at your next job? Share your experiences with us in an email or the comments.\nTHE DAY AHEAD\nThe Case-Shiller home-price index for July releases at 9 a.m., and market watchers are expecting an uptick of 0.1%, after June’s 0.2% price drop. Consumer-confidence data releases at 10 a.m., and the consensus is for a strong reading of 92.5, a slight improvement from August’s 92.4.\nWalgreen looks healthy to investors. Despite missteps including a $1.1 billion error in guidance, Walgreen Co.’s vital signs appear strong, Ahead of the Tape’s Spencer Jakab reports. Still, the drugstore operator, still smarting from its former CFO’s $1.1 billion accounting error related to future pharmacy earnings in guidance, isn’t out of the woods yet. Investors are focused on positive factors, like increases in same-store sales, but potential tax benefits the company chose not to pursue when it abandoned plans for a tax inversion are considerable.\nCFOJ EXCLUSIVE\nShareholders aim for greater control over board seats. Investors filed a record 17 “proxy access” proposals this year at companies in the Russell 3000 index, seeking the power to nominate their own candidates for corporate boards, CFOJ’s Emily Chasan reports. Of those, 13 advanced to a vote, compared with 11 out of 12 last year. Some shareholders say they are using the proposals to express frustration with boards on issues such as executive compensation.\nFord sharply cuts earnings outlook. Ford Motor Co. warned operating profit this year would be sharply below its earlier estimate, citing higher-than-expected costs of auto-safety recalls in the U.S. and economic weakness in Europe. The company expects to report pretax profit this year between $6 billion and $7 billion, about $1.5 billion less than it had forecast in July.\nGM CEO looks to shift gears, set strategy goals. General Motors Co. Chief Executive Mary Barra at an investor meeting Wednesday plans to unveil a multiyear financial strategy that would deliver the superior profits and market-leading vehicles that have always seemed to be in GM’s future, never its present. “I hate the word culture,” she says. “Culture is really just how we all behave.” Now, all GM employees have to behave differently, starting with herself. “In the past…I was too nice.”\nPay TV takes stock of Dodger fiasco. Pay-TV distributors are hoping the fiasco over the Dodgers cable channel—which generally wasn’t picked up—will be a turning point in a wider debate over sports programming costs. The high price for Dodgers-owned SportsNet LA, which carried nearly all of the team’s games, puts it among the most expensive regional sports networks in the country at a time when distributors are trying to lower content costs.\nJapan Inc. goes deeper into Southeast Asia. Japanese companies are turning to frontier markets such as Laos and Cambodia in search of cheaper labor, stepping into what has until now been firmly in China’s sphere of influence. The push comes at a time that disputes over territory and wartime history have worsened ties between Japan and China and deepened divisions in the region.\nSoftBank-DreamWorks merger talks cool. SoftBank Corp.’s talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. have cooled less than two days after word first emerged of the talks. People familiar with the matter said talks could restart, and that the two sides could ultimately strike a deal other than an outright takeover, such as some kind of content partnership.\nInstagram CEO, co-founder joins Wal-Mart board. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday that Kevin Systrom, the 30-year-old chief executive of Facebook Inc.’s photo-sharing social-networking service Instagram, has joined its board. The retailer is seeking to expand its technology expertise to better compete with Web rivals like Amazon.com Inc.\nEncana to buy Athlon for $5.93 billion. Encana Corp. on Monday said it has agreed to acquire Texas-based Athlon Energy Inc. for $5.93 billion, giving the Canadian company a large land position in the state’s oil-rich Permian Basin. The friendly deal is the latest in a string of transactions for Encana as it seeks to rebalance its production toward more oil output and improve its bottom line after years of low natural-gas prices.\nMicrosoft to unveil next version of Windows. Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday will give the first sneak peek at the next version of Windows. Top priority for the new Windows: Repair relations with its crucial constituency of corporate technology buyers. Microsoft will use a media event to woo corporate-technology departments that have been wary of Windows 8, now two years old.\nFrom Africa to Ukraine, deal police proliferate. These days, many big mergers don’t just need to win antitrust approval from regulators in the U.S. and the European Union. A growing roster of nations including China, Brazil and even Ukraine also want a say. More than 100 international jurisdictions now claim antitrust authority to examine deals, embracing different approaches for evaluating whether a merger might harm consumers.\nAs SEC enforcement cases rise, big actions are sparse. The regulator’s tally of cases is the first year-over-year increase since 2011. But some say the heightened activity masks a scarcity of the blockbuster actions that should be a feature of an effective Wall Street cop.\nFed rate policies aid foreign banks. Banks outside the U.S. have been unlikely beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policies, and they are likely to do even better as the Fed changes the way it controls interest rates. Foreign firms received nearly half of the $9.8 billion in interest the Fed has paid banks since the beginning of last year for the money, called reserves, they deposit at the U.S. central bank.\nFCC considers rules for Web video. The Federal Communications Commission is considering regulations for companies that provide cable-like subscription video services via the Internet. The move could have major implications for companies such as Sony Corp., Dish Network Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., all of which are planning to launch online video services aimed at consumers without traditional pay-TV subscriptions. At issue is whether such online providers should be regulated in the same manner that the FCC currently regulates traditional cable and satellite companies.\nFCC asks to see contracts with Comcast. The FCC wants media companies to submit details of their programming agreements with Comcast Corp., as it reviews the proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc. TV channel owners are wary, as they fear such disclosures could give their competitors an advantage.\nU.S. consumer spending increases. Steady consumer spending and income gains have put the U.S. economy on track for solid growth in the third quarter. Consumer spending rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in August from a month before, and personal income rose 0.3%.\nU.S. to become largest petroleum producer. The U.S. is overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of liquid petroleum, in a sign of how its booming oil production has reshaped the energy sector, the Financial Times reports. U.S. output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia’s this month or next for the first time since 1991.\nCFO MOVES\nAmerican Apparel Inc., a Los Angeles retailer, named Hassan Natha its new chief financial officer, effective immediately. He succeeds John Luttrell, American Apparel’s CFO and interim chief executive officer, who is leaving the company. Mr. Natha was previously CFO for Fisher Communications Inc., a media company. Executive compensation details for Mr. Natha were not released, but Mr. Luttrell’s total 2013 compensation was valued at $960,786, which included a base salary of $432,640 and stock awards valued at $480,600, according to a proxy filing.\nSasol Ltd., a South African energy company, named Bongani Nqwababa its executive director and CFO, effective March 1. Mr. Nqwababa succeeds Paul Victor, who will continue as acting CFO until the transition, the company said. Mr. Nqwababa was previously finance director of Anglo American Platinum Ltd. Since 2013 he has served as an independent nonexecutive director and a member of Sasol’s audit committee.\nPrevious Next CFO Waits in the Wings Next CFO Moves: EBay, CEC Entertainment, Mercer"