Death of a CFO

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The unexpected death of Baidu.com's (Nasdaq: BIDU) CFO last week is a personal tragedy, but is it a corporate one as well? The leading Chinese search engine announced in a press release over the weekend that CFO Shawn Wang died in an accident while vacationing in China. Media reports state that the company released no details of the accident.

Company executives aren't immortal. Medical ailments take them, as do corporate jet accidents. Young leaders sometimes find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, like Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM) co-founder Dan Lewin, who was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 when terrorists slammed it into the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Death isn't a fun subject, but it's one that investors have to deal with in assessing the future of their companies. What becomes of Baidu now that Wang is gone?

I don't see any fiscal ramifications here. Baidu isn't going to earn any less next year under a new CFO. Baidu's buoyant share price and reputation as China's top Internet search engine will make it easy to land a sharp CFO.

Chief financial officer is an important position, but concerns typically arise when a CFO is booted or resigns over accounting irregularities, which is obviously not the case here. I recommended Baidu to Rule Breakers subscribers a year ago, and I have no intention of backing off the fast-growing company as a result of Wang's accident.

Not every executive is replaceable. Can you imagine Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) without Steve Jobs or Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) sans Warren Buffett? Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) just wouldn't have the same edge and acquisitive hunger if Larry Ellison wasn't around. Then again, the same things were once said of folks like Sam Walton and Walt Disney. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Disney (NYSE: DIS) went on to lap the accomplishments of their pioneers.

Will Wang be missed? Of course. Will the company he helped take public crumble without him? Of course not. With a tailwind of healthy quarterly financials, I would see any potential market weakness on Wang's passing to be an ideal moment to buy into China's dot-com star.