Research Assessment #6
27 October 2017
“Big 4 Accounting Firms - Who They Are, Facts and Information.” Accountingverse.com,
www.accountingverse.com/articles/big-4-accounting-firms.html.
After reading a previous article on deciding to pursue a MBA or CPA degree, the topic of financial firms and the most famous ones have been something I want to learn more about. Knowing nothing about the “Big Four” grew a curiosity to learn what this means. The previous article also mentioned how these firms are a hard company to be involved within and maintain a connection with. After reading an article, Who are the Big 4 accounting firms?, the four largest accounting firms in the world, Deloitte, PWC, Ernst & Young, and KPMG who generate more than over 100 billion dollars in revenue together.
To start off the Big Four accounting companies were an original eight companies that crossed paths with each other and merged. The one thing I would like to learn more about is why these eight companies decided to merge with each other and how the name and set-up worked. From previous knowledge, merging with another company can create a lower salary per individual and can create tension among the former employees of each merger. “Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young; and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells with Touche Ross to form Deloitte Touche. Then in 1998, Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers, famously known as PwC.” The one thing I noticed with these companies is their vast majority of employment. As these companies merged with other firms, job opportunities rise within their locations and their company as a whole, which is a good thing because almost all large employment companies generate a high revenue. They way I think of this connection is the more employees a business has, the more popularity and wealth they’ll receive in return.
The first and largest firm I read about was Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited that generates 36.8 billion dollars in revenue. Although they have been merging with several companies, the firm has managed to keep its name since 1845. What really caught my eye was their significance in 150 countries worldwide. One career I would like to learn more about is auditing because the article mentions this position several times which shows a significance in the firm. Along with auditing, Deloitte provides several services such as taxation services, business consultancy, and risk assessment. I also wonder how all these separate entities all come together as one firm and how these careers come together.
The next company following Deloitte is Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. This firm was originally two that merged together to work alongside each other. This makes sense to me because as these companies merged, the quality and amount of services they provide increases which brings more clients and careers. However, this firm is different because they are independently owned which does not allow a franchise or any other people to build onto of their firm.
All in all, the big four are the four largest accounting firms in the world that offer several services all around the world. Their revenue is economy-changing wealth that brings importance to not only the people, but the services that are necessities to clients all around.
