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"University of Toronto accounting professor Ramy Elitzur said Andersen is being treated as the industry's pariah despite its stellar past reputation and the fact that other top firms also have been involved in cases of negligence."

Andersen has had a sleazy reputation for over a decade, with clients such as Waste Management Executives going to jail and Andersen paying huge fines for signing off on proven, documented FRAUD. Then Andersen got busted at SunBeam. Then Andersen got busted at Global Crossing, Enron, O'Neil Steel, etc.

And there's more to this story than merely losing a few clients...

Here in Alabama, SouthTrust Bank is hammering the heck out of Andersen. Either Andersen cuts its rates in HALF, or else they lose SouthTrust. Wallace Malone is famous for using leverage to squeeze out better pricing, and in this case he knows that Andersen has to play ball.

Now, if some small regional Alabama bank is busting Andersen's chops over their rates, rest assured that many of the other clients who are keeping Andersen on board as their auditor are doing likewise.

So Andersen isn't just losing clients and marketshare, it's also losing its profit margin on its remaining clients (at least those clients with enough business sense to know when to cut a better deal on pricing).

But that part of the story hasn't been covered in the article above...

Andersen never had a good reputation with me. Their projects always exceeded budget and they were always trying to sell us something. Their rank and file accountants were probably fine, but the snake oil salesmen were running amok.

So Andersen isn't just losing clients and marketshare, it's also losing its profit margin on its remaining clients

What's the under/over for how many months before Andersen goes under?

I would set the line at 12 months from now.

Good riddance to them.