UK Government Reveals Consultant Spend, Big Four Firms Garner Millions

by James Spencer, Big4.com

August 20th, 2010

(blog) The recent release of the Communities and Local Government spending data for the last year 2009 may have been meant as a political gimmick, but it’s proven very useful to see who is really up and down in the reasonably secretive world of public sector procurement.

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KPMG Extends Consulting Depth, Buys Grant Thornton Supply Chain Practice

John Fowler, Big4.com

July 19, 2010

We have not seen many acquisitions come through for KPMG US, but there has been growing rhetoric about the need for Big Four firms to get back into the consulting business.  See this article right from KPMG’s global site, which says….”For some time, the Big 4 accountants have been keen to make the point that they're more than just auditors. Less than ten years ago though, three of them exited the market for consultancy services. Fast forward several years and they're back en masse - and seemingly more assured than before.

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Big Four Firms Benefit From Strong Growth Outlook In Asia Pacific

Nita Teoh, Big4.com

Jul y 9, 2010

The Asia Pacific Region has been a growth hot-spot for the Big Four firms, as strong increases in the emerging economies in this region has fueled demand for financial and professional services.

As our 2009 Big Four Firms Financial Performance Analysis (available at http://www.big4.com/?page=blog_item&url=the-2009-big-four-firms-performance-analysis-450 or download the entire pdf analysis at http://pdfcast.org/pdf/the-2009-big-four-firms-performance-analysis), shows Asia Pacific has been steadily gaining revenue share over the last six years. 

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Ernst and Young Is First Big Four Firm To Globally Implement UK Governance Code

David Nelson, Big4.com

July 5, 2010

Ernst & Young just made an important announcement to totally strengthen its internal governance processes, becoming the first Big Four firm to formally do so. And it goes one step beyond what is required by Code. Recall that the firm was indicted quite hard in the recent Valukas report which examined E&Y’s role in the Lehman bankruptcy.

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Where There is Tax, There Will Be Tax Havens. Big Four Firms Hope So Too

James Spencer, Big4.com

July 1, 2010

As the old saying goes, there’s nothing certain in the world except death and taxes.

Taxes can be avoided (to some degree) by going to tax havens, jurisdictions that shelter corporate and individual profits from onerous taxation.

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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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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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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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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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Optimistic Australian Budget Shores Up Future Growth For Big Four Firms

June 15, 2010
Nita Teoh, Big4.com

The release of the Federal Budget in May 2010 paints a bright future for the Australian economy. The budget predicts a return to surplus in 2012-13, as this commodity-rich country sells its wares to hungry Asian economies. The Government has forecast real GDP growth of 3.25 % in 2010-11, with a further increase to 4% in 2011-12. These are far better numbers than most other developed economies, and the robustness is evidenced by the recent hike in interest rates.

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Big Four Tax Services May Thrive on European Government Loopholes

By James Spencer, Big4.com

June 10, 2010

It sounds too good to be true. The deficits that are looming over Europe could actually be cut by not only raising taxes, but actually lowering them. That’s exactly the situation that the governments of Europe find themselves today. But the chances are that they will not cut those taxes directly.

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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!...

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Top 100 US Accounting Firms Reveal Decline, Glimmers of Hope

Accounting Today (www.webcpa.com, http://www.webcpa.com/news/Accounting-Today-Top-100-Firms-2010-53590-1.html) came out recently with its very insightful, comprehensive and timely 2010 annual ranking of accounting firms in the US. From this wealth of data, we will focus selectively on the Big Four and Next Four firms in this blog post. Thanks to Accounting Today for collating and publishing this very useful summary...

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KPMG 2009 Revenues of $20 B Drop 11%, Most Among Big Four Firms

KPMG just reported its 2009 combined revenues for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2009 of US$20.11 billion versus US$22.69 billion for the prior 2008 fiscal year. This was a 11.4% decline in U.S. dollars terms and a 2.6% decline in local currency terms...

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Deloitte Revenues Grow 1% Local Currency, Now Just Behind PricewaterhouseCoopers

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the global firm, just came out with its fiscal 2009 revenues for the year ending May 31, 2009. 2009 full year global revenue was US$26.1 billion, an actual increase in local currency terms of 1%, but a drop of 4.9% in US dollar terms from 2008. The tough economic climate and appreciating US dollar were the two main factors in 2009 which impacted Deloitte as much as it did other Big Four firms...

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Big Four Firms Are Best Places To Launch A Career, Again

BusinessWeek just released its 2009 rankings of its much-anticipated “2009 Best Places To Launch A Career” list and for a second year, Big Four firms completely dominate the list, capturing the top four spots in the rankings. This year, only 69 companies made the list compared to 119 in 2008 due to more stringent criteria, making the 2009 list “both more exclusive and more competitive.” Thus, this year, there was more relative competition to make the list and this year’s rankings are at least 40% tougher than the previous year.

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KPMG Is Number One Best Big Company to Work For in the UK

KPMG is the “Best Big Company to Work For in 2009” in the United Kingdom according to The Sunday Times of the UK. It beats 2nd place Bourne Leisure and 3rd American Express. This is from one of the most respected newspapers in the island and widely quoted list, so kudos to Big Four firm KPMG for securing this top honor...

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Ernst and Young Revenues Rise 16%, Retains Third Place in Big Four

Another Big4 firm reports good performance.

Today, Ernst & Young reported that its worldwide revenues increased to US$24.5 billion for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2008, rising 16.2% in dollar terms and 9.5% in local currency terms from the previous year’s revenue of $21.1 billion. Major factors included gaining new clients, new services sales and ROI in emerging markets, offset somewhat by “audit efficiencies enabled by the new US internal control standard” (which we would assume are clients automating their processes and relying less on E&Y) and economic slowness in many markets...

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Big Four Firm Get Top Spots in Business Week Best Career Companies Ranking

Great news for Big Four Alumni! You made the right choice for your career.

Business Week Magazine just came out with its list of “100 Best Places to Launch A Career in 2008.” And all four of the Big Four firms this year are in the top 5 of that list, the only other is the ultra prestigious investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs...

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