PricewaterhouseCoopers in LatAm Hot Salsa

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP appears to be getting into a little bit of Latin American hot sauce, following their Japanese misadventures which landed them into miso soup

Carrefour SA, the French retailer is suing PwC and Argentine Exxel Group for purported fraud when it bought Supermercados Norte SA from Exxel in April 2001. Carrefour says it overpaid

Exxel by nearly $120 million when it bought the 49% of Norte that it did not own earlier for $252 million....indicating the price paid should have been $132 million...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Ex Ernst & Young LLP Partner Heads PCAOB

A Big Four Alumni has made it Big.

Mark W. Olson was recently appointed head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board by Chris Cox, SEC Commissioner. This ends months of uncertainty about leadership at the PCAOB or Peekabo as it is popularly known. Mr. Olson was a governer at the Federal Reserve Board....

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

New Fresh Start for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Japan

We told you a few weeks ago that the Japanese Financial Authority came down strong and hard upon the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP affiliate in Japan for condoning some not so clean auditing practices.

There was a rumor that PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP) would be opening its own subsidiary in Japan...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Accenture (Champion) Beats BearingPoint (Champion) in Nail Biting Finish

The just concluded US Open ended with its fair share of thrills and upsets.

Phil Mickelson (the BearingPoint guy) (NYSE: BE) was the clear favorite and in top form running at plus 3 going into the 17th hole on the last round. He slipped by a bogey on the 17th to be plus 4 going into the 18th. A par on the 18th would have secured him victory and a place in the golf history books. But such is the fickle game of golf that Phil went twice past the hole and ended with a double bogey and a total score at plus 6...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

BearingPoint Versus Accenture at Winged Foot

The US Open is on, with the last round being played out today, the final 18 holes to decide the 2006 Champion.

Phil Mickelson strongly surged into a share of the first position with solid play of 69 in the third round and 70-73 in the first two rounds. With a total of 212 he is square with Kenneth Ferrie for number 1 and plus 2 over par for the first three rounds.

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Diebold Insources Outsourcing, Leaving Deloitte & Touche At Sea

Can't count your chickens before they hatch. In this case, can't even count'em even while hatching.

In an unusual turn of recent events, Diebold, Inc., a $2.6 billion manufacturer of ATM machines, security systems and services and 14,000 employees, pulled out of a 7 year outsourcing contract with DC Outsourcing ITO L.P., an affiliate of Deloitte Consulting LLP, a part of Deloitte & Touche...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Mitchell & Titus Joins Ernst & Young: Diversity is Good Business

Mitchell & Titus, the largest minority-owned accounting firm in the US will join Ernst & Young Global as a member firm. M & T was formed in 1974 and has 125 employees. Exact revenue was not disclosed, but an an average of say $200,000 per employee, this is a $25 million dollar firm...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Big Four Alumni Go Places! Focus on Ernst & Young Alumni

We have recently started compiling key movements on Big Four alumni, here is a sample of Ernst & Young alumni.

Even from this small sample, we can see that Big4 alumni:

Take on senior positions in a variety of industries
Represent multiple roles and backgrounds
Go beyond traditional accounting and financial roles
Represent their Big Four background with pride

Great going! For other alumni news, check out www.Big4.com.

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Accenture is Unilever's HR Department: Well, Almost!

Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) scales new heights!

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is now going to provide full HR services to Unilever. First the numbers: services to nearly 200,000 employees in more than 20 languages in 100 countries, affecting 3,300 HR professionals over 7 years. Exact deal numbers were not disclosed but estimates exceed $1 billion!!...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

China Inc. Takes on Big Four Audit Firms

It appears that China, Inc. the growing economic juggernaut is turning its focus on the Big Four Accounting firms. The Big Four - Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have each around 4,500 staff and looking to add an additional 20% ....

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

South African Lynch Turns Hard Work into Imperial Riches

Ernst & Young just announced their 2006 World Entreprenuer of the Year as Bill Lynch, CEO of Imperial Holdings of South Africa. Imperial is a logistics and car dealership company with annual sales of 42 million Rand, and uninterrupted growth for 18 years since inception. Market capitalization is US$3.7 billion....


We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Who's Blogging at the Big Four? Let's Connect!

We set out to see who is blogging at the Big Four....simply by typing in the word blog in the search at each site. And this is what we found:

At Accenture (NYSE:ACN), it looks like two technologists are blogging with Accenture's blessing. The Accenture blog focuses on emerging technologies and how technology innovation is likely to impact business in the future. Ed Gottsman (BlogGottsman), from Accenture (NYSE:ACN)Technology Labs, tends to focus on unanticipated (and sometimes alarming) uses and applications of new technologies...

We've moved. Click here to go to the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Ernst & Young Books a Hotel Room and Ends up on Wrong Floor

Bad room, poor service, noisy elevator, rubber chicken…and now identity theft…all in the game when you book a hotel room on line. And how does this connect with the Big Four? It appears that about a quarter-million Hotels.com customers’ names and credit card numbers were lost when a laptop from an Ernst & Young employee was stolen from his car.....

We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Accenture BPO in Emerging Markets: Boom Time

Within just a few days, Accenture announces two new BPO centers in developing countries, aimed at increasing headcount, enhancing capabilities and reducing service delivery costs. The new center in Pune, India is the fifth one in India’s major cities and will focus on SAP and Siebel; Net-centric technologies like Java and Microsoft; business intelligence and testing....


We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

PwC in a bit of Miso Soup in Japan

PricewaterhouseCoopers had landed in a bit of miso soup in Japan, as authorities there begin to keep a closer watch on auditor independence. Japan's Financial Services Authority took a historic step in suspending a local audit firm associated with PwC for 2 months....


We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!

Deloitte & Touche LLP Gets Pulled into Stock Option Accounting Mess

There is a raging scandal going on in how companies have issued options to senior executives. Apparently several companies have manipulated the date of granting options to a day when the stock price was the lowest for a certain period. So when the stock even goes up modestly from this level, the options become "in the money" and have a good chance of staying in the money due to their artificially low exercise price....


We’ve moved. Click here to go the full post at the new Big Four Blog at Big4.com!