Corporate executives and their accountants have long contended that the use of adjusted earnings, which ignore costs like acquisition expenses, interest payments or just about anything they find inconvenient, gives investors a better picture of companies’ performance. Under no circumstances is it manipulation, they say. But a new study suggests it just might be. The study, which will be presented ...

Masayoshi Son is a man of grand ambitions. But his dream of raising $30 billion in an initial public offering of his Japanese mobile-phone company may be a stretch. SoftBank Group Corp is seeking a valuation of about $90 billion for its domestic wireless business and is speaking to advisers about selling a third of the unit, Giles Turner, Ruth ...

In the year since melding two companies to create an asset management company with sufficient heft to compete globally, Standard Life Aberdeen Plc shares have lost almost a quarter of their value. Imagine how much worse life might have been without that merger. Standard Life suffered net outflows of 16.6 billion pounds ($21.5 billion) in the first half, it said ...