Capgemini Finds Asia's New Rich Now Surpass European Wealthy

Rob Starr, Big4.com

June 30, 2010

For the first time, the wealthy in Asia can say they are better off than their European contemporaries.

The 14th annual World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Capgemini shows a dramatic shift in the money landscape between these two continents. Two major factors contributing to this change: a big rebound in Asian stock markets and relentless increase in property prices coming back from the last recession.

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Wind Hot? Perhaps Not, Says KPMG. Investors Like Biomass

Rob Starr, Big4.com

June 29, 2010

So you thought wind was hot. Look at all the hoopla that wind power is getting all over the world, and all the windmills which are popping up all over the world.

But it looks like wind’s time may be coming to an end soon.

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Sarbanes Oxley Unscathed by Supreme Court Decision, Big Four Also Win

David Nelson, Big4.com

June 29, 2010

We blogged yesterday about the impact of the Supreme Court decision on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which was mainly procedural rather than operational. Apart from requiring that PCAOB members could be removed by the Securities and Exchange Commission “at will” rather than “for cause”, the Court did not require any significant changes in the operation of the PCAOB.

All is well also on the flip side.

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PCAOB Can Operate As Usual, Despite Supreme Court Decision

David Nelson, Big4.com

June 28, 2010

A deeper reading of today’s Supreme Court judgment reveals two critical points:

One

PCAOB Board members are removable by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) only for good cause. However, the Court had an issue with how the Board members could not be removed by the President of the United States, even for good cause. Since PCAOB was considered part of Government, it had to function in sync with the President’s agenda, and thus he should have full power over appointing anyone and removing anyone he chose from the PCAOB hypothetically for any reason. The Congress of the United States through the Sarbanes Oxley Act, in effect prevented the President from removing PCAOB members and thus fully managing the Executive Branch. This was against the Constitution’s fundamental separation of powers, thus unconstitutional.

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US Supreme Court Rules PCAOB Law Is Unconstitutional

David Nelson, Big4.com

June 28, 2010

“We are asked, however, to consider a new situation not yet encountered by the Court.”

This sentence in the opinion of the the Supreme Court of The United States (SCOTUS) says it all – they and we are dealing with new material and new situations hitherto not encountered.

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Deloitte UK HR Head Steps Up In Age Of Social Media

Rob Starr, Big4.com
June 27, 2010

Times are changing on the business landscape and that necessarily includes the HR field. The list of attributes the successful HR executive needs has increased and the drive and ambition that was once a cornerstone for the successful HR head like Stevan Rolls (the head of Deloitte UK Human Resources), now also includes an awareness and ability to utilize social media to advantage.

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PricewaterhouseCoopers Tapped By Afghans, $3 Trillion At Stake

John Fowler, Big4.com

June 27, 2010

Just 10 days ago on June 17th, Afghanistan's mining minister Waheedullah Shahrani shocked the world by indicating that mineral deposits in the country could be worth up to three trillion dollars. Yes, $3 T, with a Big T.

This was three times a US estimate just released, which said Afghanistan had huge reserves of lithium, iron, copper, gold, niobium, mercury, cobalt and other minerals worth nearly one trillion dollars.

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Did The Big Four Firms Help Topple The Australian Prime Minister?

Susan Black, Big4.com

June 26, 2010

Just recently, Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was deposed by his own Labor Party today, shocking the nation as his popularity plunged over recent months due mainly to the controversial pushing of a 40% resource super profits tax (RSPT) on mining companies, which turned out to be highly unpopular both with industry, shareholders and the general public.

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Accenture Goes Deep Into Cyberspace To Recruit 50,000

Rob Starr, Big4.com
June 26, 2010

Big Four firms have become recently very savvy in noticing marketplace trends and then taking full advantage of them. Note that Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers have all strong and growing presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing, which has almost become the de-facto standard today for recruiting talent.

All the more with technology and how quickly it is changing.

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Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Shares Zoom 8% on Q3-2010 Beat

Lisa Chapman, Big4.com
June 25, 2010

Yesterday, we blogged about Accenture simply marching past expectations, much to everyone’s positive surprise. There was muted rise after hours.

But today the stock opened up about 8% and stayed right there for the whole day, ending at $40.50, a $3 jump from the pre-earnings closing price of $37.50.

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Yes! The Accenture (ACN) Machine Rolls On - Q3-2010 Beats Wall Street

Lisa Chapman, Big4.com
June 24, 2010

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) just released Q3-2010 results for quarter ended May 31, 2010, with net revenues of $5.57 billion and EPS of 73 cents. Both were ahead of expectations of $5.48 billion revenue and EPS of 69 cents,

We had said in our earlier blog post (http://www.big4.com/?page=blog_item&url=accenture-q3-2010-tomorrow-an-earnings-round-up-571), “We would be surprised by a beat, though given Accenture’s global breadth and scale, that would not be completely out of the question.”

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McGladrey Reorganizes, Celebrates New Logo With Monster Cake

Susan Black, Big4.com

June 24, 2010

RSM McGladrey (tax and consulting) and partner firm McGladrey & Pullen (assurance) recently decided to go to market under the "McGladrey" brand. Combined, the firms are fifth-largest U.S. firm with revenues of $1.5 billion, 7,000 professionals in nearly 90 offices. Also, the firms recently realigned to focus on national lines of business and industry. Both firms are members of RSM International, the sixth largest global network in the world, and operate as separate legal entities in an alternative practice structure.

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Uber Rich Get….Well, Richer in 2010. Capgemini’s World Wealth Report Reveals All

John Fowler, Big4.com

June 23, 2010

Consider these amazing facts:

10 million rich folks in the world have a combined wealth of US$39 Trillion, yes that’s a trillion with a T!, and that was up $6 Trillion from 2008, or a solid 18%

Asia Pacific had more rich folks than Europe in 2009 at 3.0 million, with a combined wealth of $9.7 trillion, up 31% from 2009

The US, Japan and Germany account for 54% of all the richest individuals in the world

The combined wealth of most-wealthy individuals increased 22% in 2009, soaring to about $14 Trillion, and that’s only about 93,100 people

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Accenture Q3-2010 Tomorrow, An Earnings Round Up

Lisa Chapman, Big4.com

June 23, 2010

Accenture reports its third quarter 2010 earnings tomorrow, Thursday, June 24, 2010 just after market close. Wall Street analysts are expecting $5.48 billion in revenue and 69 cents a share EPS.

There have been a number of developments prior to this release. Recently, Citi maintained its Buy rating on the stock with a target price of $50.

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You Can Shortly Own A Piece of Booz Allen Hamilton

David Nelson, Big4.com
June 22, 2010

Just a few weeks ago, we blogged about Booz & Company, the management consulting firm exploring a merger with another leading management consulting firm, A.T. Kearney. (http://www.big4.com/?page=blog_item&url=at-kearney-boozes-big-four-firm-stay-sober-538)

Now, the other Booz is in the news.

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FSA Breaks Up, But What Does That Mean For The Big Four?

James Spencer, Big4.com

June 22, 2010

George Osborne, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom seems to have finally got his wish and managing to get the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) wound up. The Conservative’s "White Paper" on City regulation will call for the erstwhile financial regulatory structure to be dismantled owing to its less than desired response to the financial crisis. Under the new proposal, the FSA's powers will be transferred back to the Bank of England, and it will cease to exist. Its three key responsibilities:

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KPMG Sells Another $600 MM of Lehman Asia Assets, But Long Road Ahead

Lisa Chapman, Big4.com
June 21, 2010

We have blogged extensively about PricewaterhouseCoopers’ role as the administrators or Lehman Brothers Europe, including their $24,000 per hour price tag to the bankrupt holding entity (http://www.big4.com/?page=blog_item&url=pwc-administration-of-lehman-translates-to-24000-per-hour-491).

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Phil Mickelson, Sponsored by KPMG, Places Fourth in 2010 US Open

John Fowler

June 20, 2010

Phil Mickelson, who is sponsored by KPMG, and can be constantly seen wearing his sponsors hat, placed fourth today in the US Open at Pebble Beach, sharing that spot with Tiger Woods.

Mickelson had +2 today and had 75, 66, 73, 73 on four days (par 71) having a spectacular showing on Friday June 18, 2010. Mickelson was only three shots behind Graeme McDowell who won the tournament with an even score.

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Citigroup (NYSE: C) Reiterates "Buy" on Accenture Ltd (NYSE: ACN)

June 19, 2010

Susan Black, Big4.com

Citibank is maintaining its "Buy" rating on Accenture stock and their price target of $50.00.

Accenture has 21 Wall Street analysts following with a mean target price of $47 with a low of $37 and high of $55. So Citi is slightly higher than the average analyst in the crowd, but well below the most optimistic. The stock has an average rating of 2.1 with 1.0 being a strong buy and 5.0 being a sell, so 2.1 is about a Buy. Citi is toeing the line on the rating.

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New IASC Chaimanr: If you cross a typhoon, the manual doesn’t help

New IASC Chair: If you cross a typhoon, the manual doesn’t help

June 19, 2010

John Fowler, Big4.com

That's what Mr. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, 69 said about the recent Euro crisis, which spurred an unprecedented response from the ECB recently.

But that's not why he's making news today.

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What Will Audit Firms Do On Their PCAOB Annual Reports?

June 18, 2010

David Nelson, Big4.com

June 30, 2010 is rapidly approaching, and it is a key deadline for US audit firms.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requires all its registered firms (over 2,200 of them) to file an annual report with the Board, with the first annual reports due June 30, 2010. The report (in Form 2) covers the 12-month period ending March 31, 2010; and contains general information on the firm plus some very interesting numbers which may be available to the public for the first time (we believe) in a consolidated summarized format in one place.

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Accenture Installs Cloud Computing Applications in Just 25 Minutes

June 18, 2010

Nita Teoh, Big4.com

Internet-based business computing (also known as cloud computing) is all the rage as more and more businesses are turning to the Web to source their IT services.

According to Accenture, “Cloud computing is promising to become the most important technology development since the internet. ..In fact, Accenture expects half of its applications will be running in the cloud by 2012.”

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Big Four Tax Services May Need To Adapt To European Uncertainty

June 17, 2010

James Spencer, Big4.com

At one time it used to be so simple, at least in Europe. The national governments taxed, the European Commission wanted to tax and the local authorities had no real powers to speak of. Of course they had some tax on land ownership and in some cases there would be some limited income tax abilities – but that was it, really. In KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young or PricewaterhouseCoopers you did not really hear many questions about Scottish income tax or Bavarian taxation of corporate entities.

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Capgemini Buys Strategic Systems Solutions (Beatlemania?)

June 17, 2010

Lisa Chapman, Big4.com

Capgemini is making deeper forays into Business Process Outsourcing. And what's interesting at this stage that its betting on a revival in the beleagured Finacial Services industry.

Capgemini is buying 51% of Strategic Systems Solutions (SSS), a global IT services and business process outsourcing firm (BPO), headquartered in Liverpool, UK, focused on the financial services industry, that it doesn't already own. By doing so, Capgemini is moving from the minority investor stage to the owner-operator stage. Interestingly, from Capgemini's 2009 annual report, we see that Strategic Systems Solutions was a 49% ownership investment of Capgemini USA, and not of the European companies.

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Looking For A Job Online? - Ernst & Young, Accenture Are Tops

A recent interesting survey of top employer websites by Potentialpark Communications (of Stockholm, Sweden) shows that Ernst & Young and Accenture are keeping the best of company.

(We recently saw this ranking in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704764404575287254249588026.html?KEYWORDS=potentialpark) and reached out to Potentialpark to get more background and how the other Big Four firms fared in their analysis.)...

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Capital Retreat – 300 KPMG Folks To Leave DC for Virginia

June 16, 2010

Susan Black, Big4.com

Washington DC and Virginia papers are reporting today that KPMG is moving more than 300 employees from its downtown Washington DC offices (2001 M Street NW) to Tysons Corner, Virginia (1660 International Drive Mc Lean, VA). After this, KPMG will have 800 employees at its new Virginia offices and 650 at the D.C. offices.

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