Big 5 Winners & Losers

Posted by accountingweb on Feb 17 2000 185 printer friendly

The final numbers have been released for 1999 revenues and losses among Big 5 accounting firms.

Based on research compiled by the Public Accounting Report (PAR), the firm awarded the majority of audits was Deloitte & Touche [1], who placed first for the second time in three years as the number one auditor of public companies. Revenues exceeded $33 billion.

The PAR reports that Deloitte & Touche, along with Ernst & Young, are giving powerhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers a run for the top accounting firm--although PWC still remains the largest, despite having suffered the largest loss last year at more than $25 billion in revnue and $43 billion in assets audited.

PWC, KPMG and Arthur Andersen also suffered significant losses in total clients as well as revenue and assets audited.

A related story [2] shocked the accounting world this week regarding how the loss at PWC may cause a split into three firms.