Judge Rules Against Deloitte: Shareholder Suit on US and Global Firm Can Proceed

We have blogged about Deloitte and Parmalat many times earlier. Parmalat, the Italian diary company plunged into spectacular bankruptcy in 2003 when it collapsed under a huge debt burden of EUR 14 Billion. Since then, the company restructured and relisted in 2005 in Milan Stock Exchange...

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Big Four Firms Honored by Fortune Magazine in 100 Best Companies List

All the Big Four firms have made it in the top 100 of Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2009. Not only have these firms made the list, they have also each moved up in rankings. Accenture, which did not even make the list last year, debuted at position 97...

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Tiger Woods May Return to Golf At High-Profile 2009 Accenture Championship

Accenture may be soon involved with exciting news in the world of golf!

Tiger Woods, the undisputed champion and uber-golf-player may use 2009 Accenture Match Play Championship in February 21-24, 2009 at Tuscon, AZ to mark his return to tournament play after his knee surgery in 2008...

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Deloitte: Record Pessimism in Global CFOs, High Future Uncertainty

Deloitte recently surveyed US Chief Financial Officers as part of a periodic quarterly initiative to understand how current stock market and economic environment is having an impact on their future expectations, concerns and plans for their companies...

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PricewaterhouseCoopers Issues Statement, Change from Previous Stance

The Satyam Scam Saga continues, and much as we like to step away to other matters, there continues to be interesting new developments which catch our attention.

Now The Economic Times of India reports that PricewaterhouseCoopers sent a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange and to the newly-constituted board of Satyam Computers, saying, “The former chairman has stated that the financial statements of the company have been inaccurate for successive years. The contents of the said letter, even if partially accurate, may have a material effect (which is currently unknown and cannot be quantified without thorough investigations) on the veracity of the company’s financial statements presented to us during the audit period. Consequently, our opinions on the financial statements may be rendered inaccurate and unreliable.”

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KPMG Says Global M&A to Fall in 2009, Late Year Pickup Possible

2007 was clearly the peak of global M&A, with private equity and strategic buyers in full force, strong capital markets and supportive debt structures freely offered by commercial banks. But what a difference a year makes!

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Satyam Scam – New Details Emerge Frequently, PwC Still in Focus

The Satyam Scam appears to be unfolding with news coming out so often that the Economic Times of India has a scroll bar with news marked by the minute. Given that the scandal hinges on non-existent cash on the balance sheet, and the lack of adequate controls and checks and balances on this, statutory auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers appears to be right in the middle of this situation.

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PwC Global CEO Reportedly In India to Deal with Satyam Situation

Reports from the Indian press are that the Satyam Scam has drawn the top leadership of PricewaterhouseCoopers to India to deal with the situation. It appears that PwC Global CEO Samuel DiPiazza, Jr., along with some senior worldwide partners are in India to assess and deal with any regulatory and reputational fallout from this scandal. PricewaterhouseCoopers were Satyam Computers’ external auditors and signed off on the company’s latest financial statement which is purported to contain $1 billion of “fictitious cash”

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Ernst & Young ex-CEO Becomes Ombudsman at Standard and Poors

The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP.N) named financial services veteran and former CEO of Ernst and Young, Mr. Ray Groves as Ombudsman for its Standard & Poor's (S&P) unit. This is part of a larger plan to improve the rating process and boost transparency, and restore confidence in the accuracy of its credit ratings...

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Satyam’s Statutory Auditor PwC Embroiled in Huge Satyam Scam

Public auditing can potentially create risk for Big4 firms.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is now facing such risk as the statutory auditor of Indian technology outsourcer Satyam Computer Services in yesterday’s blowup of the “Satyam Scam”, or as it being labeled, India’s Enron.

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Deloitte Alum Appointed to Top SEC Post

James L. Kroeker, an ex-partner at Deloitte and Touche LLP’s National Office Accounting Services Group, responsible for providing consultation and support regarding the implementation, application, communication and development of accounting standards, including disclosure and reporting matters was named Acting Chief Accountant by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

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Big Four Firms Combined Revenues Top $100B, Employment Nearly 600,000!

With KPMG being the last firm to reports its 2008 performance, we can now complete the full financial picture for all the Big Four firms in 2008. The five years from 2004 to 2008 have been some of the best growth years for these firms. In a strong economic environment, with rapid development in the BRIC nations and solid growth in emerging markets, the Big Four firms capitalized on demand for global financial and accounting services to boost their top line and posting a string of back-to-back record performances. Their worldwide reach and ability to offer complex seamless and multi-country services, coupled with need for name-brand public accountants enabled them to grow all their service lines, especially Audit boosted by Sarbanes Oxley regulations in the United States. Growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China was reported at nearly 30+ % each year, as these economies expressed their latent need for professional services.

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KPMG Revenues Increase 14.5%, Some Credit Crisis Impact, BRICs Shine

KPMG just announced today its 2008 revenues, which have increased 14.5% from US$19.8 billion to US$22.7 billion for the year ending September 30, 2008. In local currency terms growth was only 8.4%, the difference of 6.1% being attributable to the declining US dollar against all major world currencies in this period...



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KPMG’s 8-Point Prescription for Managing Through Economic Crisis

On KPMG’s home page, we find an interesting prescription for strategic management through these tough times, much like a top-tier consulting firm would provide in their CEO glossies, entitled, “The subtle art of turning round your business in a storm.” The article is a good read, since it has lots of real-life companies which exemplify each action...

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BearingPoint Delisted from NYSE, Stock Less Than a Nickel!

Earlier, we had blogged on how BearingPoint’s stock had fallen below 20 cents a share, clearly others were also taking notice. Just days ago on November 13, 2009, BearingPoint, Inc. received notice from NYSE Regulation, Inc. that the NYSE had decided to suspend BE's common stock from trading prior to market opening on Monday, November 17, 2008. The NYSE based its decision on the "abnormally low" trading price of BE common stock, which closed at just 7 cents on November 12, 2008. Further, BE had previously fallen below the NYSE's continued listing standard for minimum average closing price of $1.00 over a consecutive 30 trading day period and minimum average market capitalization of $100 million over a consecutive 30 trading day period...

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PwC Opines on Healthcare Policy in an Obama Administration

During one of the most riveting election campaigns in recent times, President-Elect Barack Obama has achieved a historic landslide victory.

Now comes the tough part. Delivering on his promises in a tough financial environment...





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KPMG Survey Finds EU Heading Rapidly Towards Recession

KPMG finds the European Union is quickly heading towards a recession. The recently published KPMG Business Outlook Survey, which questions 2,800 service sector firms all across the Union finds that the 12-month outlook for business activity has turned negative. Moreover, activity is expected to decrease on both volume and revenue fronts, and disturbingly, every non-price measure has fallen into negative territory, including new business, employment, profits, capital expenditure and outsourcing...

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PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst And Young Become TARP Auditors

Just a few days ago, the Treasury Department of the United States Government announced it had hired two of the Big Four firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young to help the government implement the $700 billion bailout program aimed at Wall Street and the economy...

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KPMG Asia Pacific Chairman Becomes New Deputy Chairman of International Firm

KPMG just appointed John B. Harrison to a newly created and critical position in firm management. Harrison 52, will become deputy chairman of KPMG International. He was most recently chairman of KPMG’s Asia Pacific region and co-chairman of the KPMG China and Hong Kong SAR firm with Carlson Tong, 53. Harrison will continue to hold both positions through March 2009, when his terms expire. Harrison joined KPMG London in 1977 with a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Durham University...

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BearingPoint (NYSE: BE) stock price drops to 20 cents!

We blogged earlier that BearingPoint stock had touched its all time low of 50 cents a share in September. But that was before the current meltdown in the financial markets, with today’s (October 9, 2008) shocking drop in the Dow of ~ 700 points, BearingPoint’s stock has fallen further amazingly to an even lower all-time low of 20 cents, touching at one point an intra-day low of 17 cents.The entire company’s market capitalization is now only about $40 million, this for a consulting firm in annual sales in excess of $3 billion...

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