The Wall Street Journal has written a pretty detailed account of comments EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio made to WSJ’s CFO Network Summit earlier this week, scroll down to skip past a bunch of words and watch the clip.
Of note, the split vote is now expected to happen in April. “I do see potential [further] delays because the deal is complicated,” Di Sibio said. Up until now we have heard “by the end of the first quarter.” As has always been the case, a worsening of market conditions could delay the vote but besides that, Di Sibio sees “no tremendous hurdles” standing in the way of the split. Nor have we heard of any.
We also found out that EY has chosen BDO to audit the liberated consulting arm and a bit about potential future branding. WSJ:
EY is hiring rival accounting firm BDO to check the books of the planned public consulting company, Mr. Di Sibio said. The new company—advising clients on tax issues, deals and more—needs a new brand, as the audit-focused partnership will keep the EY name.
Choosing a brand for the consulting arm is proving tricky, because most regular words have already been taken by brands, Mr. Di Sibio said. So the new EY consulting company name will have to be a made-up word, or a combination of two or three words, he added.
“I’ve lowered my expectations,” he said. “The way the name thing works is you’re going to hear the name. And you’re going to be like, ‘What?’ And then little by little it will grow on you, and eventually it will be a household name.”
Anyone else thinking about this?
When I close my eyes, I see this thing, a sign, I see this name in bright blue neon lights with a purple outline. And this name is so bright and so sharp that the sign – it just blows up because the name is so powerful… It says, “Dirk Diggler.”
Anyway, that’s your Project Everest update for the week. Video:
EY’s Split Faces ‘No Tremendous Hurdles,’ CEO Says [Wall Street Journal]
