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| PricewaterhouseCoopers | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Limited Liability Partnership |
| Founded | 1849, London (in 1998, firm took on current name) |
| Headquarters | London, U.K. & New York, New York, U.S. |
| Key people | Samuel DiPiazza, CEO |
| Industry | Professional Services |
| Products | Accounting Audit Consulting Financial advisory Tax |
| Revenue |  $25.2 Billion USD (2007) Facts & figures |
| Employees | 146,000 |
| Slogan | *connectedthinking |
| Website | www.pwc.com |
PricewaterhouseCoopers (or PwC) is one of the world\'s largest professional services firms. It was formed in 1998 from a merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, both formed in London.PWC History and milestones
PricewaterhouseCoopers earned aggregated worldwide revenues of $25 billionPWC Global Annual Review 2007 Page 35 for fiscal 2007, and employed over 146,000 peoplePWC Global Annual Review 2007 Page 39 in 150 countries.
In the United States, where it is the third largest privately owned organization, it operates as PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.Forbes - The Largest Private Companies
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a Big Four auditor, alongside KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
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The firm was created by the merger of two large firms "Price Waterhouse" and "Coopers & Lybrand". These two firms each had histories dating back to the nineteenth century.
Samuel Lowell Price, an accountant, started his practice in London in 1849. Accounting for Success: a History of Price Waterhouse in America 1890-1990. Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 9780875843285. In 1865 Price went into partnership with William Hopkins Holyland and Edwin Waterhouse. Holyland left shortly after to work alone in accountancy and the firm was known from 1874 as Price, Waterhouse & Co. (The \'& Co\' and comma were dropped from the name much later.) The original partnership agreement, signed by Price, Holyland and Waterhouse can be found in Southwark Towers, one of PwC\'s offices in London.
By the late nineteenth century, Price Waterhouse had gained significant recognition as an accounting firm. As a result of trade between the United Kingdom and the United States of America, Price Waterhouse opened an office in New York in 1890, and the American firm itself soon expanded rapidly. The original British firm opened an office in Liverpool in 1904 and then elsewhere in the United Kingdom and countries abroad, each time establishing a separate partnership in each country: the worldwide practice of PW was therefore a federation of collaborating firms that had grown organically rather than being the result of an international merger.
In a further effort to take advantage of economies of scale, PW and Arthur Andersen had discussed a merger in 1989University of Washington: Acounting firms and organisations but the negotiations failed mainly because of conflicts of interest such as Andersen\'s strong commercial links with IBM and PW\'s audit of IBM.
In 1854 William Cooper established his own practice in London, which became Cooper Brothers seven years later when his three brothers joined. A History of Coopers Brothers 1854-1954.
In the USA in 1898 Robert H. Montgomery, William M. Lybrand, Adam A. Ross Jr. and his brother T. Edward Ross formed Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery. Coopers & Lybrand is the result of a merger in 1957 between Cooper Brothers & Co; Lybrand, Ross Bros & Montgomery and a Canadian firm McDonald, Currie and Co. In 1990 in certain countries including the UK Coopers & Lybrand merged with Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
In 1998 Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged to form PricewaterhouseCoopers in an attempt to gain a scale that would put the new firm in a different league.Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand to merge Weekly Corporate Growth Report 29 September 1997
The 2002 indictment of Enron and WorldCom and the subsequent collapse of Arthur Andersen resulted in calls for stringent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules on auditor independence.The lessons of Andersen\'s fall Business Week 1 July 2002 One such result was the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which required auditor independence and separation of core audit from general consulting. This forced many of the Big Four to divest their interests in management consulting. However, a major part of the firm\'s practice is still to provide business advice in addition to its auditing services, notably in taxation and corporate finance.PWC: Corporate Finance
The legal structure of a limited liability partnership is very different to that of a company, and as such the global firm is in fact a collection of member firms, that are run autonomously in their respective jurisdictions. The senior partners of member firms sit on a global board of partners and there is also an \'umbrella\' organisation called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, a UK -based company which provides co-ordination. The current global CEO is Samuel DiPiazza.PWC Global Review 2007 Page 1
PricewaterhouseCoopers has three main service lines:PWC Global Review 2007 Page 34
PwC\'s service lines face the market in each country by broad industry specializations such as:
These sub-divisions may vary slightly in some territories.
PricewaterhouseCoopers new Melbourne offices at Freshwater Place.
Europe and North America account for about 81% of PwC\'s annual revenue, with Europe alone accounting for 45%. The firm\'s dominant practice is auditing which accounts for over 50% of PwC\'s revenue.
As of March 2005, PricewaterhouseCoopers\' audit clients included four of the 10 largest public companies in the United States (ExxonMobil, Ford Motor Company, ChevronTexaco and IBM). PwC also audits four of the 10 largest companies in the United Kingdom (GlaxoSmithKline, Royal Dutch Shell, Barclays and Lloyds TSB).
One client, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, gives PwC the unique distinction of having been (in various incarnations) the tabulator and certifier of votes for the Academy Awards since 1934.PricewaterhouseCoopers to safeguard Hollywood\'s biggest secret for 72nd year
PwC audits 40 per cent of companies in the FTSE 100 IndexKPMG closes FTSE 100 gap on PWC Accountancy Age, 13 December 2007 and 45 per cent of the Fortune 1000.PWC: Energy, utilities and mining
The following are PwC audit clients that are part of the FT Global 500 (2006), grouped by FT industry
Aerospace & defence: Raytheon, United Technologies, L-3 Communications Corporation
Automobiles & parts: Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Robert Bosch GmbH, Ford
Banks: Al Rahji Banking & Investment, Bank of America, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of Ireland, Banco Itau, Banco Popular Español, Barclays, Crédit Agricole, BB&T, BNP Paribas, BradescoSamba Financial, Commerzbank, Dexia, DnB NOR, Firstrand Bank Limited, Fortis, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Lloyds TSB, Macquarie Bank, Riyad Bank, Sanpaolo IMI, Sberbank (Russia), SEB, Standard Bank, Suntrust Banks, Westpac Banking Corporation
Beverages: Anheuser-Busch, Miller, SAB
Chemicals: Albemarle, Bayer, E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Praxair, Shin Etsu Chemical, Rohm & Haas
Electricity: Chubu Electric Power, FirstEnergy, Exelon, Unified Energy System, ATCO
Electronic & electrical equipment: Agilent Technologies, Kyocera, LG Philips LCD, Logitech
Fixed line telecommunications: BellSouth, BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, KPN, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk., Saudi Telecom
Food & drug retailers: Krispy Kreme, Seven & I Holdings Co., Tesco
Food producers: Danone, Kellogg, Unilever
Gas, water & multiutilities: Centrica, E.ON, RWE, National Grid plc
General financial: American Express, Freddie Mac, Franklin Resources, Goldman Sachs, Nikko Cordial, SLM, Moody\'s
General industrials: 3M, Honeywell International, Hutchison Whampoa
General retailers: eBay, GUS, Marks & Spencer
Healthcare equipment & services: Baxter International, HealthSouth Corporation, Medco Health Solutions, Medtronic, Zimmer Holdings, Southern Cross Healthcare.
Household goods: Reckitt Benckiser
Industrial engineering: Caterpillar, Volvo
Industrial metals: Alcan, Alcoa, Nippon Steel, Nucor, Phelps Dodge, POSCO, Tenaris
Industrial transportation: Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., Deutsche Post
Leisure goods: Nintendo
Life insurance: Legal & General, Protective Life Corporation, Prudential Financial
Media: CBS, Thomson, Viacom, Walt Disney, Pearson
Mining: Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining, Rio Tinto
Mobile telecommunications: Alltel, Bharti Tele-Ventures, KDDI, MTN Group, Sonera, Telia, China Unicom, Vodafone
Nonlife insurance: Ace, American International Group, AMB Generali, AXA, Millea Holdings, Progressive Corporation, Swiss Re, Zurich Financial Services
Oil & gas producers: BG, Burlington Resources, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, EnCana Corporation, Eni, Gazprom, Imperial OilSuncor Energy, Marathon Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Canada, Stuart Petroleum
Oil equipment & services: Schlumberger
Personal goods: Colgate-Palmolive, L\'Oreal, Nike, Richemont
Pharmaceuticals & biotechnology: Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Wyeth
Software & computer services: IBM, Yahoo!
Sports: Laureus World Sports Awards
Technology hardware & equipment: Cisco Systems, Corning Inc., Dell, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, Hon Hai Precision Industry, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics
Tobacco: Altria, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, ITC
Travel & leisure: Carnival, Las Vegas Sands, SKYCITY Entertainment Group
Primary Industries: ABB Grain Limited
The Kasumigaseki Building in Tokyo houses three of PwC\'s Japanese affiliates (Misuzu Audit Corp., PwC Japan Tax Services and PwC HRS), which operated under the ChuoAoyama name until 2006.
The member firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata (あらた監査法人 Arata Kansa Hōjin?) and a network firm Misuzu Audit Corporation (the former ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers) (みすず監査法人 Misuzu Kansa Hōjin?) provide auditing services in Japan.
From 2000 to 2006, PwC\'s affiliate in Japan was ChuoAoyama Audit Corporation (中央青山監査法人 Chūō-Aoyama Kansa Hōjin?). In May 2006, the Financial Services Agency suspended ChuoAoyama following a suspicious audit of cosmetics company Kanebo in which three of the firm\'s partners allegedly assisted with accounting fraud and boosted earnings for the company by about $1.9 billion over the course of five years. The accountants involved were reprimanded by the Tokyo District Court but escaped prison time after a judge deemed them to have played a "passive role" in the crime.CPAs in Kanebo fraud avoid prison, The Japan Times (registration required), Aug. 10, 2006.
Shortly after the suspension of ChuoAoyama, PwC acted quickly to stem any possible client attrition as a result of the scandal. It set up the PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata, and many of ChuoAoyama\'s accountants moved to the new firm, including most of the international divisions. ChuoAoyama resumed operations on September 1 under the Misuzu name. However, by this point the two firms combined had 30% fewer clients than did ChuoAoyama prior to its suspension.Rocky road for new accounting firm, The Daily Yomiuri, Sep. 2, 2006.
Global CEO Sam DiPiazza subsequently reported that "despite a significant programme of reform Misuzu had announced that it was closing for business on 31 July 2007".PWC Global Review 2007 Page 5
Because PwC\'s only product is the output of its employees, the firm has a competitive recruiting program. PricewaterhouseCoopers was recently included in Fortune magazine\'s "100 Best Companies to Work For" list, coming in at number 58 in 2007.Fortune: Best companies to work for In the UK PwC has been voted number one in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 4 consecutive years. Times Top 100 Graduate Employers PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the top 10 companies for working mothers.Working Mother In 2007, PwC\'s Canadian practice was named one of Canada\'s Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean\'s magazine, one of only a handful of professional services firms to receive this honor.Reasons for Selection, 2007 Canada\'s Top 100 Employers. PwC in Ireland was named as the winner of the Best Company to Work for in Ireland 2008 by the Great Place to Work Institute in their annual list of Ireland\'s top employers. Best Companies to Work for 2008
However, PwC came under increasing pressure to avoid conflicts of interests by not providing consulting services to its audit clients. Since it audited a large proportion of the world\'s largest companies, this was beginning to limit its potential market. These conflicts were going to increase when additional services such as the outsourcing of ERP systems were offered. For these reasons, in 2000, Ernst & Young was the first of the Big Four to sell its consulting services, to Capgemini.Ernst & Young sells consulting unit to Cap Gemini Cnet News, 29 February 2000
PwC therefore planned to capitalize on MCS\'s rapid growth through its sale to Hewlett Packard (for a reported $17 billion) but negotiations broke down in 2000.Hewlett-Packard drops PWC bid BBC News, 13 November 2000
PwC announced in May 2002 that its consulting activities would be spun off as an independent entity. An outside consultancy, Wolff Olins, was hired to create a brand image for the new entity, called "Monday". The firm\'s CEO, Greg Brenneman described the unusual name as "a real word, concise, recognizable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results."Monday name change for PwC, BBC News, June 10, 2002. These plans were soon revised, however. In October 2002, PricewaterhouseCoopers sold the consultancy business to IBM for approximately $3.9 billion in cash and stock.IBM buying PricewaterhouseCoopers\' consulting business Technology, 31 July 2002
PwC also has developed several broader consulting initiatives in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework, including a global effort to assist corporations with outsourcing, as well as a global political risk assessment with the political risk advisory firm Eurasia Group.PWC: How managing political risk improves global financial performance
Advisory services offered by PwC also include two actuarial consultancy departments; Actuarial and Insurance Management Solutions (AIMS) and a sub branch of "Human Resource Services" (HRS). Actuarial covers mainly 4 areas: pensions, life insurance, non-life insurance and investments. AIMS deals with life and non-life insurance and investments while HRS deals mainly with pensions.Actuarial & Insurance Management Solutions
PwC serves the U.S. Federal Government through their Washington Federal Practice (WFP). PwC has over 2000 professionals based in the Washington Metro Corridor.Washington Federal Practice
On January 31, 2007 PwC was named as a co-defendant in a class action lawsuit filed against Dell, the world\'s number two PC manufacturer. Taken on behalf of shareholders, the lawsuit alleges that Dell, and its auditors, failed to disclose information about Dell\'s financial condition.United States District Court Writ filed 31 January 2007
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