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DEATH of Aurther ANDERSEN
CNN | March 13th | LOU DOBBS

Posted on 03/13/2002 2:28:03 PM PST by Roger_W_Isom

LOU DOBBS is reporing that ERNEST YOUNG one of the TOP FIVE ACCOUNTING FIRMS HAS REFUSED TO ACQUIRE AA!!!!! This is NOT good NEWS!!!! if YOUNG refuses to accept AA offer to sell itself to YOUNG that means only one thing FOLKS!!!!

AA is in FAR more seious shape then we realize and we could be looking at the other accountting firms REFUSING TO ACQUIRE AA as early as Mid April!!!!


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corruption; deathknell; enron; enronlist; globalcrossing
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To: SauronOfMordor
along with 15% of KPMG

Yep...this is far from over...S&P PE at 62:1...give me a break...thats a cap weighted index....

What are the sheep saying....rally...recession over...recovery.....blah blah blah...

Step right up while the Pro's short into ya...LOL

41 posted on 03/13/2002 3:00:12 PM PST by antaresequity
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To: antaresequity
ANTARES = Heart Star in the constellation Scorpio
42 posted on 03/13/2002 3:01:42 PM PST by antaresequity
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To: PRND21
Citigroup APPEARS to be one of the COS. that created ENRON or HELPED to ......and THUS it TOO is looking at problems if this continues to balloon....
43 posted on 03/13/2002 3:02:15 PM PST by Roger_W_Isom
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To: KC Burke
But the rumor what not Earnt & Young's acquiring AA but Touche Ross. Have they bowed out, too? This collusion between accounting firms and clients can be fixed only if the requirement is added that these relationships must be changed every 2 or 3 years. Then the accountants will be checked by their replacement firm. Otherwise, the money is too good apparently to avoid payoffs!
44 posted on 03/13/2002 3:02:19 PM PST by SouthCarolinaKit
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To: KC Burke
Andersen is a firm of 90,000 people, dozens of divisions and hundreds of offices. They aren't all like that Texas Audit office.

Have you ever heard of "company culture" and "institutional memory?" The other offices may not be just like Houston. But it could be reasonably expected that making liberal interpretations of standards, shredding documents, etc. are okay--it is the AA way.

An acquiring firm gets the accounts (profitable), the employees, the lawsuits and liabilities. As it is now, when engagement contracts with clients come up for renewal, some AA clients are dumping them. If Ernst & Young were to acquire AA, EY's existing clients might look at them differently. That is why they are a problem--lawsuits, iability and image.

45 posted on 03/13/2002 3:02:28 PM PST by truth_seeker
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To: PRND21
Sorry for the hiccup posts.
46 posted on 03/13/2002 3:02:47 PM PST by PRND21
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Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: Bloody Sam Roberts
By the way does ANYBODY knows how high up the food chain on the top four YOUNG is THANKS in ADVANCE people!!!!
48 posted on 03/13/2002 3:04:26 PM PST by Roger_W_Isom
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To: untenured
the belief that current uses of scarce resources must be superior to what will follow if those resources are released.

Out of curiosity: what constitutes "scarce resources" in this scenario?
Shady bean-counters are a dime a dozen!

49 posted on 03/13/2002 3:05:26 PM PST by Willie Green
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To: Bobby777
Don't forget that AA OK'ed the Baptist Foundation in Arizona, a vast ponzi scheme, right into bankruptcy. AA just settled for several hundred million bucks. I seldom hear much sympathy for ordinary Baptists who were promised enormous returns, turned over all their savings to the foundation, and lost it all. That is a true betrayal. I think anyone could see that Enron was odd, with its commercials of a man in a metal suit crying "Why? Why? Why?"

The WS Journal said AA was once the gold standard in auditing. The whole purpose of a CPA (public accountant) is to make sure that public companies are properly financed. Greed changed that into giving a stamp of approval on shady dealings. This is yet another outgrowth of the Clinton-greed years. No, it's not all Clinton's fault this time, but he set the standards at rock bottom.

50 posted on 03/13/2002 3:05:27 PM PST by Chemnitz
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
"reporing that ERNEST YOUNG "

That's Ernst & Young.

You missed an excellent chance to add: , KNOWWADDAMEAN?

51 posted on 03/13/2002 3:07:46 PM PST by freedomlover
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To: antaresequity
That 15% figure I gave for KPMG, upon checking, seems to be just for my relative's Government Consulting group. Overall, KPMG is cutting 5% of its worldwide workforce, according to an article in Computerworld's latest issue
52 posted on 03/13/2002 3:08:08 PM PST by SauronOfMordor
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To: Shermy
If I were the Mid level people after hearing of THIS news I'd have to start getting my resume in order and start thinking of going INDEPENDENT now.....
53 posted on 03/13/2002 3:09:02 PM PST by Roger_W_Isom
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To: Roger_W_Isom
LOU DOBBS is reporing that ERNEST YOUNG one of the TOP FIVE ACCOUNTING FIRMS HAS REFUSED TO ACQUIRE AA!!!!!
Why would Ernest Young want to acquire AA? Afterall, they're already getting their customers.
54 posted on 03/13/2002 3:10:24 PM PST by Utopia
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To: SauronOfMordor
if YOU were a shareholder in KPMG and heard THEY were in talks abouting acquiring AA how would YOU like to hear that JUICY bit of news!!!!!!:-)))) facing a ROOT CANAL would be more pleasant I BELIEVE:-)))))))
55 posted on 03/13/2002 3:12:56 PM PST by Roger_W_Isom
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To: Roger_W_Isom
I was watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN yesterday, and they had a commercial showing two baseballs with Don Mattingly's signature. One was signed by Mattingly, and the other wasn't. The point was, how can you tell the diff if you are a collector?

The answer: Authentic collectables have a cool holographic sticker on them, signifying that Arthur Andersen certifies that Don Mattingly or whoever really signed the ball.

Oops. That's an error on the advertiser.

56 posted on 03/13/2002 3:15:22 PM PST by L.N. Smithee
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To: truth_seeker
These firms are almost all LLC Partnership firms. The merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers Lybrand required the enfolding of puchased partners to keep equity in the firm...very convoluted.

Only about half of Andersen's business is audit business as I recall. Many of the firm's divisions work in different fields like Consulting, Collection, Tax Policy Analysis etc.

I am simply amazed that many posters here think there is any difference between big accounting firms. Some how A. Andersen is a big bad Dirty Finacial Firm and punishment and blame are going to make them feel better about the world.

All of the big corporations such as Enron have their creative accounting schemes and it is only good management, not auditors, that keep it in check. Auditors are only able to look for purely cooked-books like the Pharmor Pharmacy chain a decade ago when the head guy was stealing the money of his own firm to buy WFL teams etc.

Andersen is just a media and congress-critter fall guy.

57 posted on 03/13/2002 3:15:32 PM PST by KC Burke
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To: Gordian Blade
Wait, never say it is so, that AA is only used by crooks. Lee Brown stands behind AA and the city of Houston still uses them. He'd stake his reputation on AA's credibility.

/sarcasm off

58 posted on 03/13/2002 3:15:36 PM PST by Jaded
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To: Roger_W_Isom;KC Burke
ENRON was what the securities industry is...A self indulgent sub-culture that sees no bounds of morality...

ENRON is a blip on the radar...a micro blip...but if you look at ENRON...you will see the whole scam that the securities industry is...

They are all crooks...Anderson...Enron...Market Makers...UnderWriters....the whole thing is set up to fleece the public...

I am amazed that the "focus" on Enron and Anderson hasn't moved to the real culprit of this scheme...the industry itself and its sub-culture.

Why do you think they issued upgrades when the market was tanking? Where do you think the smart (inside) money was? IT WAS SHORT FOR CHRIST SAKE! Why do you think they kept issueing upgrades? SO THEY COULD SHORT INTO THE SHEEP!!!...

Enron was nothing more than a corporate daytrader playing with leveraged and risky positions...AA helped them....nothing more....

KEEP YOUR EYE ON INDUSTRY! Enron and AA are indicative of a far greater problem...The rest of the boys in the club are plenty pissed off for the spotlight that ENE and AA brought...they will deflect and obfuscate....WATCH THE INDUSTRY

59 posted on 03/13/2002 3:17:34 PM PST by antaresequity
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To: VA Advogado
No, it's the unknown liability that's too high (in fact, the asking price is probably the proverbial one dollar). AA has attempted to find an insurer to insure a buyer against liability stemming from AA's past activities. The financial press is reporting that all insurance companies have turned them down. Without insurance, and with the very real possibility that several more $billion+ problems are just waiting to be discovered, nobody wants the Andersen entity even for $1.

The head of one of the other Big 5 is reported to have stated the obvious: "I just want their accounts and their talent (paraphrasing from memory). Those are readily available without purchasing the firm. The accounts are fleeing faster than anyone can keep track, the "talent" which worked on those accounts will be promptly laid off, the firm which picks up each client will try to pick up the "talent" which is already familiar with the client, and most of said "talent", being unemployed, will jump at the offer. AA is likely to become a corporate shell consisting of nothing but a huge pile of known and potential liabilities, and it will die slowly and quietly in the file cabinets of various bankruptcy courts.

60 posted on 03/13/2002 3:18:02 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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