Big 4 'oligopoly' works swell -- for the surviving firms

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, November 30, 2003 | Lee Berton

[Willie Green]

Since the Big 8 shrunk into the newly structured Big 4 over the past dozen years, U.S. businesses -- particularly big companies -- have had a much narrower choice in deciding which accounting firm will peruse their books.

And now with the frequency some of the Big 4 get themselves into trouble over faulty audits, the investing public seems far less protected from fraud with so few major accounting firms acting as watchdogs.

[proxy_user]

Well, it sounds like there's a big incentive for companies to go private, so Sarbanes-Oxley does not apply. I always thought that we overdo public companies in the US, anyway. The pink sheets are full of very dubious organizations. With the reduction of the tax on dividends to 15%, there is really not much reason any more to take a small company public.