- eAlmanac | A Unique Online Reference Source - http://www.ealmanac.com -

 

The Big Five Accounting Firms

Posted September 3, 2009 @ 10:21 pm In Five,Numbers | No Comments

Prior to 1989, the major accounting firms were nicknamed “The Big Eight [6].” In 1989, after four of the firms merged (Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross to form Deloitte & Touche), they became known as “The Big Six [7].”  In 1998, the Big Six became “The Big Five” when Coopers & Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse to form PricewaterhouseCoopers.  In 2002, after Arthur Andersen ceased operating in the wake of the accounting scandal [8] and subsequent bankruptcy of its client Enron, the Big Five became “The Big Four [9].”



Links

Related on eAlmanac
The Big Four Accounting Firms
The Big Six Accounting Firms
The Big Eight Accounting Firms

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on the Big Five Accounting Firms
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants official Web site



Article printed from eAlmanac | A Unique Online Reference Source: http://www.ealmanac.com

URL to article: http://www.ealmanac.com/1186/numbers/the-big-five-accounting-firms/

Return to article

URLs in this post:

[1] Arthur Andersen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen

[2] Deloitte & Touche: http://www.deloitte.com/

[3] Ernst & Young: http://www.ey.com/

[4] KPMG Peat Marwick: http://www.kpmg.com/

[5] PricewaterhouseCoopers: http://www.pwc.com/

[6] The Big Eight: http://www.ealmanac.com/1975/numbers/the-big-eight-accounting-firms/

[7] The Big Six: http://www.ealmanac.com/1184/numbers/the-big-six-accounting-firms/

[8] accounting scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal

[9] The Big Four: http://www.ealmanac.com/numbers/the-big-four-accounting-firms/

Copyright © 2012 eAlmanac. All rights reserved.