What Is a Finance Lease? A finance lease is a lease agreement where the lessee effectively controls and uses an asset while assuming most of the risks and rewards of ownership, even though legal ownership may not transfer immediately. For accounting purposes, a finance lease is treated similarly to purchasing an asset using borrowed funds,…
Corporate success is often measured by growth and diversification, but for many conglomerates, being too big leads to a “conglomerate discount.” This is the moment when the boardroom turns to corporate separation—the strategic process of intentionally breaking a business apart to create massive new shareholder wealth. In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained on FinPod,…
The Leveraged Buyout (LBO) is one of the most powerful and high-stakes tools in modern finance. It is the primary engine of the private equity (PE) industry, where a massive amount of debt is used to acquire a company, with the goal of restructuring it for a highly profitable exit. In this episode of Corporate…
In the high-stakes world of M&A, Goodwill is arguably the most important yet invisible asset on a modern balance sheet. It represents the “engine of ambition,” but as history shows, it is also a significant source of financial volatility. In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained on FinPod, we unpack why companies pay billions in…
Inflation is no longer just a macroeconomic headline; it is a systematic distortion of the corporate financial engine. For finance teams, high inflation makes historical data obsolete and forces a fundamental rewire of capital allocation, debt management, and pricing strategies. In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained on FinPod, we move beyond “macro talk” to…
In 2025, CFI learners earned 17,501 program certifications and completed more than 629,000 courses across financial modeling, valuation, FP&A, and Excel. These results highlight the resources that resonated most with finance professionals worldwide. Below, we’ve rounded up CFI’s Best of 2025 — the top courses, articles, templates, ebooks, podcasts, and videos that helped learners sharpen…
Professional sports franchises are some of the most recognizable brands on earth, yet many operate with negative annual cash flows. This deep dive moves past the scoreboard to explore the “Billion-Dollar Paradox”: how trophies worth billions can lose money on paper while their valuations double every decade. The Pillars of Team Revenue Modern sports finance…
Powering the World’s Top Corporate Finance Careers In 2025, CFI did not just grow. We shaped how corporate finance professionals learn, earn credentials, and advance their careers. Across FP&A teams, finance leadership roles, and strategic finance functions, professionals turned to CFI for one reason. Practical, job-ready finance education that delivers real outcomes. From industry-leading certifications…
In finance, success often means getting bigger, yet time and again, the market cheers when a huge company decides to intentionally break itself up. Why does spinning off a subsidiary so often unlock massive shareholder value? In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained on FinPod, we break down the strategic logic, mechanics, and critical financial…
Inflation is a brutal, immediate pressure point on corporate finance, forcing CFOs and analysts to completely overhaul their operating models. In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained on FinPod, we break down how inflation erodes profit margins, manage debt structures, and the radical countermeasures companies employ to maintain financial resilience. The Dual Attack on the…
