Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Only 12 Days to E&Y Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010



Each year Ernst and Young selects a global visionary leader to be its Global Entrepreneur Of The Year. Last year, Cao Dewang, Chairman of China's Fuyao Glass Industry Group, won the prestigious Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2009 award in Monte Carlo, selected from 43 entrepreneurs, each of whom had already been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year in their home countries. This year EOY is celebrating its 23rd anniversary, with awards presented annually to over 900 of the world’s most successful and innovative entrepreneurs in 135 cities in 50 countries....



Monday, May 24, 2010

PricewaterhouseCoopers UK HQ To Run on Cooking Oil!



We’ve heard of accounting firms running on the blood, sweat and tears of their thousands of employees.


We’ve also heard of Big Four firm professionals burning the midnight oil to get their client reports done to deadlines.

Now from London, we see that PricewaterhouseCoopers wants to power its South Bank, London headquarters – directly with cooking oil....




Yes, There’s A (Deloitte) Game for That!



If you’ve been hearing the buzz on Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, and are truly unaware of what this is all about, there’s now a fun way to learn all about it by just playing....







Friday, May 21, 2010

Deloitte’s Birkett Helps Dubai World Reach Agreement



We have blogged extensively about Dubai World, whose debt default announcement shocked world markets in Thanksgiving 2009. And that Deloitte UK’s Aidan Birkett was first representing the debtor and then finally joined Dubai World as its Chief Restructuring Officer in November 2009....





RSM McGladrey: Private Equity More Confident, Focus on Growth and Hiring


Watch private equity to get a good sense of ground-level operating performance and cash flow.

When these typically hard-nosed guys get optimistic, then very likely things are getting better....


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

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) Upgraded to Buy by Standpoint Research


In a reversal of their prior opinion today, Standpoint Research of Miami, FL, a leading independent equity research organization, upgraded Accenture stock from Hold to Buy...




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



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

KPMG Goes To High Court Down Under (Against ASIC on Westpoint)



19 May 2010


Reports from Australia today are that KPMG has started a challenge in the Australian High Court against the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), being seen as a landmark action in that country....





Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Cool – Capgemini Website Morphs Into Elevator Ad


If you check out http://www.capgemini.com today, the main global site for Capgemini, you will see the site opening out as elevator doors, two men in black walk in and then automatically become part of an advertisement for the firm....



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

Monday, May 17, 2010

Arabian Nights Saga Features Big Four Firms



There’s a fascinating story from The Times of London today by Alex Spence, Professional Services Correspondent, on something that seems right out of Arabian Nights, and it goes something like this...





Should Big Four Firms Enter The Credit Ratings Business?


Today’s Financial Times article can be a kick-off to an interesting and controversial debate.

Should the Big Four firms enter the credit rating business?

Quoting the Financial Times of London, there seems to be some very preliminary thinking by KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers UK…


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



Thursday, May 13, 2010

Overstock Back on Solid Footing With Help from KPMG


We had blogged earlier about Overstock.com, which had changed three auditors in 2008-2009, from PricewaterhouseCoopers to Grant Thornton to KPMG, all in a space of about a year, and been in trouble with Nasdaq for filing unaudited financials...

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






Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Deloitte: Executives Seem To Feel A Double Dip Is Coming


Ever have that sinking feeling that this current upswing may just not have the legs needed to power us out of this recession?



Viking Drama: Glitnir Bank Sues PwC for Malpractice and Negligence





It’s not just volcanic ash that comes out of Iceland.

We see today a large $2 billion lawsuit filed by one of Iceland’s largest banks, now defunct, naming PricewaterhouseCoopers as one of the defendants.

Glitnir Bank (we see in Wikipedia that Glitnir is the hall of Forseti, the Norse god of law and justice, and the seat of justice amongst gods and men), filed today a legal claim against Jon Asgeir Johannesson and also PwC for malpractice and negligence in the Supreme Court of the State of New York...



Saturday, May 08, 2010

Why Did ACN Drop to One Cent? No One Really Knows



There is a great exposition in today’s WSJ of what happened on Thursday to Accenture PLC (NYSE: ACN)’s stock price, which for two minutes dropped to a ridiculous price of 1 cent from $40 and bounced back again....


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

KPMG Settles Countrywide Suit With $24 Million

KPMG will pay $24 million and Countrywide will pay $600 million to settle a class action securities lawsuit by New York state's retirement fund and five New York City public pension funds to recover investment losses. KPMG was the auditor for Countrywide, and Countrywide itself was purchased by Bank of America in 2008, which will eventually pay the amount...


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


Friday, May 07, 2010

Blankfein Continues At Goldman, And So Does $100 Million for PwC



Today May 7, 2010, the Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) shareholders meeting was probably the most watched and scrutinized in all its history. With the SEC filing suit against the investment bank on April 16th, criminal charges being investigated, with Blankfein going to Capital Hill to be deposed in front of some tough Senators, and the stock down 20%+ from just weeks ago, this is mildly put, a very difficult time for Goldman Sachs....




The Big Four Down Under Means Something Else!





From an article today from Sydney Morning Herald, we were tickled to learn that Big Four in Australia refers typically to the largest four banks in that country. Seems like its different down under!...




Thursday, May 06, 2010

PCAOB Inspection of Deloitte Audit – 20% Error Rate??




In its first inspection report of a Big Four firm in the year 2010, the PCAOB just released its 2009 inspection report of Deloitte & Touche LLP, finding quite a high percentage of errors in the sample of audits selected to be reviewed....




Accenture Stock (ACN) Drops to 1 Cent for 2 Minutes!!







At 14:48 PM today New York time, Accenture stock (NYSE:ACN) dropped to 1 cent per share.

At 14:46 PM the stock was trading at $40 per share, and after this momentary drop to 1 cent, the stock jumped back again at 14:50 PM to $40 per share...



Capgemini Q1-2010 Results Very Encouraging, Pleasing Investors


Capgemini Group just released its Q1-2010 earnings report today with revenues of €2,052 million, exactly same as Q4-2009 revenue of €2,049 million, and somewhat better than what the company had indicated earlier on this year, however, they were 6.9% lower than Q1-2009 revenues of €2,205 million....




Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Deloitte India A Bomb Target?


Indian papers are just reporting that Indian police had arrested Mohammad Zia Ul Haq in the southern city of Hyderabad, who was apparently directed by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)to “bomb the Hyderabad office of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the four largest auditors in the world, and was in the process of carrying out the plan.” He has “already procured the explosives supplied by the LeT to carry out the attack, sources said.”...




Monday, May 03, 2010

PricewaterhouseCoopers Removes Salary Freeze Ahead of Schedule




Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on how the quick economic improvement is impacting employee salaries, saying that “…companies in recent weeks have started to get more aggressive about spending money to retain employees.”...