From the editor.

While the capital markets go agog over the few initial public offerings (IPOs) that shoot off the charts, like Google, the fact is that the IPO market is increasingly selective--and critical of offerings that aren't clear winners. That has increased interest in transactions like reverse mergers and private investments in public entities (PIPEs). Writer Paul Sweeney provides a very good review of these alternative financings and talks with a number of companies and bankers involved in them.

The venture capital market is healthy, finds writer Gregory Millman, but VC firms are increasingly leery of funding startups. And there are other issues that have cropped up that they need to think about, he writes, such as new geographies (like China), putting large blocks of cash to work and exit strategies in an era in which Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs are casting a significant cloud over the idea of going public.

The battle over share-based payments is basically over--or is it? Writer Glenn Cheney analyzes reactions to FAS 123(R), a standard basically a decade in the making, and finds a mixed bag: some companies have eliminated or sharply reduced the use of stock options, while others fret, believing they need to keep options as a key part of their compensation strategy. Considerable attention is now focused on a proposal from Cisco Systems to create a new derivative designed to mimic the value of options.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Business performance management (BPM) and business intelligence are linked, and we have a couple of articles built around them. Three executives from IBM Business Consulting Services examine the challenges facing CFOs and finance organizations wrestling with incomplete or hard-to-extract data. They outline a series of steps that they consider essential to unlocking the potential of business intelligence. Also, Tom Malone, the CEO of BPM provider SRC Software, reviews the arguments for, and benefits of, a robust BPM system.

Most companies look at real estate as a cost center, as a collection of expenses they are forever trying to control. But real estate advisor Derek Visocky argues that forward-thinking companies link their real estate policies to strategic goals--viewing overall real estate from a portfolio perspective and re-evaluating how it fits into their broader business decisions.

While far from universal, the chief risk officer post has been created by a number of mostly larger companies. But who is the best choice for that job, and what should their role be? Cheryl de Mesa Graziano of the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) and FERF Trustee Raj Aggarwal synthesize views from people in such jobs and others with a perspective on them.

For all the talk about convergence in international accounting standards this year, not much has actually been completed. But now the FASB and IASB--the U.S. and international accounting bodies--have concurrently released Exposure Drafts on an important and controversial subject, business combinations. Managing Editor Ellen M. Heffes talks to some of the principals involved and previews the likely reactions.

Multinational companies have a lot on their plate, and taxes are certainly part of that menu. Attorneys David Hryck and Brian Andreoli, specialists in international tax law, analyze time-honored techniques for taking advantage of low-tax foreign jurisdictions like Switzerland and Ireland. Setting up in such locales can be just the ticket, they write, for effectively lowering corporate tax rates.