A report today in Financial Times suggests that "U.S. regulators put direct pressure on Citigroup (NYSE: C) to replace its finance chief only weeks before his surprise departure." As part of a June-dated agreement with regulatory officials, Citi reportedly agreed to consider replacing CFO Ned Kelly prior to October, says the newspaper. Upon learning of the pact, Kelly tendered his resignation. (He later accepted a new role as the bank's vice chairman.)

Neither Citigroup nor regulatory officials have publicly confirmed or denied the reports of government meddling. However, it would hardly be the first time that the U.S. has clamped down on Citi, in which it now holds a 34% stake. Earlier this year, the banking issue opted not to accept delivery of a new corporate jet, following a rather strong suggestion from President Obama.

After just 18 months on the job, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) chief financial officer Pete Bocian will be leaving the company to become the chief administrative officer at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Troy Alstead will be taking over as CFO. He has been with the company since 1992, most recently as senior vice president of Global Finance.

Starbucks spokesmen have said that Bocian was not asked to leave, and we might as well take them at their word. But the question is why did Mr. Bocian leave the company with its stock trading now at less than half its value than when he took the reins, especially given the company's professed optimism about its turnaround?

This resignation may not be the canary in the coalmine of much larger problems that resignations in the executive suite often are, but it doesn't point to huge confidence on Mr. Bocian's part about the company's turnaround efforts.

His departure probably isn't a good enough reason to sell the stock, but it should give investors pause.

Perhaps it is why they have not been promoted to CEOs. A survey of CFOs show that they are taking the odd position that the economy is getting better.

According to Reuters, "Compared with the previous quarter, 28.5 percent said they were more optimistic about the U.S. economy, up more than 7 percentage points from June." The poll was taken by Duke University and CFO Magazine and covers 1,300 financial chiefs from around the world.

Since the upbeat sentiment is hard to believe, it might be attributed to wishful thinking. Economists have been slow to call the current economic situation a recession, perhaps because they are hoping it won't be. Corporate officers usually forecast their results will get better and often tell the public that. It happened with several bank and brokerage executives last April. Things are improving, they said, but they were wrong.

Any normal executive looking at high commodity prices and rapidly dropping consumer demand would say that conditions will get worse for several quarters. Access to capital, even for large companies, is worse than at any time in over a decade. Banks do not want to risk capital even on "safe" lending.

If wishes were horses, all the beggars would ride. Someone is out of touch.

It is either CFOs or everyone else.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Biovail (NYSE: BVF), a poster child for accounting fraud and the "blame it on short sellers!" diversion strategy, has hired yet another chief financial officer, announcing that Peggy Mulligan will take over for interim finance chief Adrian A. De Saldanha, who had held the position since March.

In March, Biovail paid $10 million to the SEC to settle charges related to improper accounting and false and misleading statements. Former CFOs Brian Crombie and Kenneth G. Howling were implicated in that mess. So Ms. Mulligan has a tough act to follow: she'll have to produce results legally!

Shares of Biovail are trading near their lowest price of this millennium, understandable given that phony accounting and vast conspiracy theories are no longer there to prop up the stock price.

Biovail plans to spend more than $600 million on research and development over the next five years, in an effort to create real shareholder value.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), which can't seem to make up its mind regarding its floundering wireless handset division, has given yet another sign that it may be considering some kind of equity move with it. The Illinois-based telecom company has hired private-equity executive Paul Liska as its new CFO. Liska will have responsibility for hoarding as much cash for the wireless giant as possible, but will also probably take a look under the hood in regards to what needs to be done about the company's wireless handset business so that it can be making consistent profits again.

Here's tip number one to Liska: all the financial moves in the world won't help a thing unless Motorola can make wireless products customers want -- and hopefully, desire. That's not happening right now. Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics are churning out sexy handset designs with multiple wireless carriers left and right. Motorola? Not so much. The Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone has put the hurt on Motorola just that much more.

So, where does that leave Liska? Even though Motorola CEO Greg Brown said that the company was committed to its handset division, that could be interpreted as this: "we are committed to looking at every option to ensure our handset division remains part of the company or is spun off into a separate entity that would shield Motorola shareholders from its dastardly performance." I'm not putting words into anyone's mouth here, but Brown's "committed" statement could mean several different things. It will be up to Liska to make a map of those things and drive the best decision into the boardroom for the company. Maybe he'll get chummy with longtime Motorola pundit Carl Icahn as well.

The nation's CFOs are becoming increasingly concerned that the United States economy will fall into a recession, a quarterly survey indicated Wednesday.

The quarterly survey by Financial Executives International and Baruch College indicated that its optimism index for Q4 2007 dropped to 52.26 from 62.95 in Q3 2007, with almost every chief financial officer polled saying they were as concerned/or more concerned about a recession than they were in the previous quarter. The two organizations announced their results, that included the above, in this statement.

In addition, the CFOs' outlook toward their own companies decreased again this quarter, as the Optimism Index of CFOs' own companies fell to 70.26, from last quarter's 71.68, which itself was a three-year low.

For months now, there has been endless speculation in the market that Monster Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ: MNST) would be taken over. In the past days, including today, and weeks, rumors are coming fast and furious. Thanks to the recent appointments of CEO Sal Ianuzzi and CFO Timothy Yates, who worked together at Symbol Technologies Inc (NYSE: SBL), the stock has been trading up. These appointments were "designed to simplify and streamline [Monster's] operations on a global basis," the company said in a press release, and are intended to fuel future growth.

Possible suitors for Monster have included Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), as well as newspaper publishers and, more recently, private-equity firms. Does this mean a sale will come any time soon for the global online employment solution provider? It depends on who you ask:

On the "not for sale" side of the fence is Wachovia, who says that after speaking with management, they're confident the company has no intention to sell in the near-term. Analysts at Goldman Sachs appear to agree, as they believe the restructuring in the upper ranks provides a second data point, indicating the company will not be sold. Goldman specifically says that the company's June and July volatility is near a 26-week average, which suggests non-directional risk.

Okay, but other firms beg to differ, including Stifel Nicolaus, which says the appointment of Yates is evidence that management would consider strategic alternatives - alternatives which may include selling the company. The firm points to the sale of Symbol Technologies to Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) on Ianuzzi's and Yates's watch.

LBO or no, many firms agree that now is the time to buy shares of Monster.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) named a new Chief Financial Officer this morning. Blake Jorgensen will assume the duties beginning in early June and report directly to Chief Executive Officer Terry Semel.

What is interesting is Jorgensen's background. He was a co-founder of San Francisco-based investment banking firm Thomas Weisel Partners. Why would Yahoo select the critical position of CFO from the investment banking world? It could signify that Yahoo is indeed for sale and an experienced investment banker knows exactly how to cross the T's and dot the I's and pretty up the baby for display.

The other possible reason to hire a CFO with an investment banking background is to establish solid and reliable communication with Wall Street. The analytical and portfolio management world love a CFO who communicates effectively surprises to the upside! With that appreciation, unforeseen events will tend to rock that stock less than if handled by a CFO the Street likes.

The CFO of any publicly traded company must effectively deliver the financial vision of his company. The CEO must deliver the business vision. A good CFO can compensate for a less-than-excellent CEO by managing the CEO internally within the company, and helping to absorb any body blows by the financial media.

Many investors have called for Semel's resignation because he hasn't delivered earnings to Wall Street's liking. Semel is indeed a visionary technologist, but is he an effective manager/CEO? The jury is still out.

With a strong CFO, investors may take comfort that the news out of Yahoo will be smoothed out over the ensuing quarters.

We shall see, but remember, investment bankers are deal makers.

Georges Yared is the CIO of Yared Investment Research where he explores more growth stock ideas.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• According to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to the situation, Las Vegas casino company Station Casinos Inc (NYSE: STN) has entered into a definitive agreement with Fertitta Colony Partners to be acquired by the company for about $5.5B and taken private.
• The Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column reported that many investors are getting cautious on REITs, saying "If Sam Zell is selling, I should too." The article advises to be cautious, and not to flood the REIT market, but not to be too worried by these signs.

OTHER PAPERS:

• In more Sam Zell related news, the Chicago real estate billionaire who just sold his office development company for $39B wants to buy the Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB), according to the New York Times.
• Also according to the New York Times, Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) is expected to name Gary Crittenden as its new CFO, replacing Sallie Krawcheck.
• According to Bloomberg, Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) is expected to receive an LBO offer of up to $54B, or $60 per share, from a private equity consortium.
• According to the Sunday U.K. Times, EQT is close to acquiring Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE: HLT) Scandic Hotels for around $1B.
• The Associated Press, citing an Iranian State-run radio, is reporting that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will move forward with its nuclear program despite international demands to halt the uranium enrichment.

International Business Machine Corp.'s (NYSE: IBM) headline earnings report looked strong but analysts tore CFO Mark Loughridge apart in last night's conference call.

Global Business Services, which reported good bookings for short-term contracts, missed big on long-term bookings. The long-term contract business has been viewed as a good indicator of IBM's future results. If these long-term bookings are weak, IBM's future revenue could be weak.

It was clear from the call that IBM is having trouble signing long-term services contracts for reasons not clearly stated during the call. One must suspect this business remains very competitive and they cannot sign profitable deals.

In addition, there were some concerns about potential margin compression. While IBM reported good gross margin improvement, SGA was up 10% and R&D was up 8% for the quarter; there is only so much cutting the company can do at the gross margin line. When asked about this trend, Loughridge was evasive.

Further, IBM provided little, if any, guidance.

Also, there are concerns about IBM's linkage to SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), that missed big, as well as the success Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) is having with its vertical acquisition and middleware strategy.

All told, Loughridge pitched the company, whether intentionally or not, as a company with a healthy balance sheet that generates a lot of cash. For now, IBM is a dividend play at best. Oracle seems the better choice for investing in the enterprise software space.

Curiously, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) has hired Don Carty, an old-economy executive from American Airlines (NYSE: AMR), as CFO to help Dell get back to its high growth ways.

Carty is one hell of a nice guy, but was never known as an in-your-face low-cost type of guy. He was best known for smoothing relations between American's management and unions.

Investors seriously have to question the thinking behind this decision. Dell became Dell by developing a massive global logistical infrastructure that was one of the great feats in business history. Understanding this infrastructure and then helping management might be asking a lot from someone new to the industry like Carty -- especially when Dell is receiving serious competition from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Lenovo (OTC: LNVGY).

Adding Carty to Rollins' team seems to make Dell's executives more reactive rather than proactive. It is hard to get excited about Dell's stock after hearing this announcement.

Did you hear that CBS is coming out with a new CSI franchise? It's called CSI: Time Warner Center. Yeah.

Time Warner (not the police, not the SEC, not Ernst & Young) late yesterday announced that they had cleared CFO Wayne Pace of having used company funds to support accused madam Andrea Schwartz, or of having done anything illegal. Assisted by "outside advisors," of course.

Pace was not cleared of having been Schwartz' friend, lover or sugar daddy, it should be noted: he was simply cleared of doing wicked things with company money. Which is always a good thing.

Sirius Satellite Radio CFO, David J. Frear, will be doing double duty over the next several months. His controller, Edward Weber Jr., has resigned. Weber is off to bigger and better things (for his own career, maybe) as CFO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media.

Is this a case of a major member of the management team jumping ship, or is Sirius acting as farm team? Either way, it can't be good news for the satellite radio company.