Happy 125th Birthday, KPMG!
Today is August 2 and KPMG is turning 125! Way to prove the naysayers wrong as they pointed and jeered and insisted that we’d be down to just three Big 4 firms by the end of the 2010s. YOU GO, KPMG. Don’t listen to those haters. There’s a press release because of course there is: […]
Happy 20th Birthday, Sarbanes-Oxley!
Sarbanes-Oxley was signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2002.
Happy 50th Birthday to Walking KPMG Billboard, Phil Mickelson!
Everyone’s favorite blue-KPMG-hat-wearing, non-U.S.-Open-winning, left-handed duffer is turning the big 5-0 today. And the honorary Klynveldian was appreciative of the birthday wishes from the Mothership. Thank you @KPMG for the many years of support. I’m 50, time has flown by and I’ve loved every second of it! https://t.co/WMV8XYSRmO — Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) June 16, 2020 […]
Going Concern: 10 Years Of Giving You the Moon
July 20, 2009 was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. It also happened to be the first day that Going Concern was live on the Internet. So now July 20, 2019 is here, and it’s their 50th and 10th anniversaries, respectively. A big coincidence? Or a cosmic signature that will forever […]
Let’s Wish a Very Happy Birthday to Becker’s Peter Olinto!
Yes, it's that time of year again: Peter Olinto's birthday! If you, like me, are friends with him on Facebook, go ahead and shoot him a note and ask him when the hell he plans to let you cash in that free coffee he owes you. We're pretty sure this is the best one yet: […]
Happy 10th Birthday to the Computerized CPA Exam!
Has it really been that long? It's been that long. The American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and Prometric are pleased to mark the 10th anniversary of computer-based testing (CBT) for the Uniform CPA Examination and note the continued enhancements and successful expansion of the test administration over the […]
We Hear Peter Olinto Celebrated His Birthday at a Nursing Home
Thank you for being a friend, Tim Gearty. It took a lot of digging but Going Concern was able to track down this exclusive photo of Peter's birthday celebration at Tim's retirement home. How sweet, he gave the birthday boy a pony! Happy birthday, Peter!
Scoring Sarbanes-Oxley
As we pointed out in this morning's roundup, the New York Times' Room for Debate is discussing the success/failure of Sarbanes-Oxley. Sunday marks SarbOx's 10th birthday so naturally people in the accounting and compliance world are getting all nostalgic about it and yeah, okay, nostalgia can be fun sometimes. The Times had four contributors in […]
Happy Birthday, Leslie Seidman!
A little bird told me that today is FASB Chair Leslie Seidman's 50th birthday. Our source says that she happened to mention it last night during her keynote address at the annual dinner for the American Women's Society of CPAs' New York City chapter. Fifty is a big one so we here at Going Concern would like […]
Happy (Belated) Birthday Grover Norquist!
The Godfather of Tax Policy turned 55 yesterday and since I was traveling, I wasn’t able to send out the well wishes on the day of. Sorry, GGN.
Thankfully, there were plenty of people that weren’t so careless:
You’ve got to think that Grove was expecting something from the ATR scamps. He counts their bagel and coffee consumption, after all. No way they’re missing a birthday. Got any birthday wishes for my fellow Swedish influencer? Leave them below.
Happy 100th Birthday PwC Los Angeles!
Things sure have changed quite a bit since 1911 when it was just Price Waterhouse (what do we think the logo looked like?) and no one gave a shit whether working moms had a great place to work. Possibly in an effort to make up for those less diverse-sensitive years, the firm is celebrating their century in L.A. with “100 Years of Service, 100 Ways of Giving Back.”
P. Dubbersteins will spend a few hours sitting in god-awful traffic on their way to two dozen community organizations to do various nice things. And in case you feel compelled to share your story, the firm will let you do that too.
PwC has also built an intranet site with the theme, “What’s your LA story?” to generate excitement and internal buzz about the anniversary. It provides a centralized resource of information about the campaign and serves as another vehicle for the firm’s LA partners and staff to review and sign up for projects. A unique feature of the site is a page allowing people to share personal stories of how they have helped in the community, fostering a feeling of shared commitment and inspiring others to participate.
Sharing stories about how you’ve made a difference in your community is cool and all but I’m sure many current and former PwC L.A. employees have tales from the last 100 years that are just as interesting but fall within a different narrative. Maybe there was a partner at the Oscars who somehow ended up in the arms of Sophia Loren or maybe he got bombed with Jack Nicholson at the Vanity Fair party only to be found later, naked and passed out on the side of Mulholland Drive.
Or maybe you just recall some inter-office exploits that were especially memorable. The point is, PwC L.A., this is a time for reflection. So if you got memories (fond or not so much) about your time there, feel free to share them below.
Happy Birthday to Us! Going Concern Enters the Terrible Twos
Yes, today happens to be the blogoversary/birthday/whatever of this here fine publication. Back on this date in 2009, I woke up unusually late on a Monday only to discover that the site was live. I somehow was able to pull myself together and bang out a few posts sans pants without anyone – including David Lat – noticing that I was officially late for my first day of work (not the first time) day since then we’ve managed to come up with enough content to distract/keep you occupied throughout the week.
What have we learned in the past year? Let’s take a quick look back.
Well, for starters an email at PwC Ireland got a little out of hand. Adrienne’s lack of a CPA has come up a few times. Ernst & Young got sued over that Lehman Brothers thing. KPMG got sued for being a boys club. Lots of partners at Deloitte are unhappy. We learned that Rothstein Kass is officially the coolest accounting firm. BDO pays snitches in caffeinated beverages. And we gave lots and lots and lots of career advice. (Jesus, that Dear Abby must have wanted to keel over.) There was also de-pantsing by an accounting professor and now an accounting student. That doesn’t cover everything, obviously – Grover Norquist and Susan Coffey obsessions, Adrienne tells EVERYONE what they’re doing wrong on Twitter, DWB’s scotch-fueled advice, etc.
UPDATE:
I shamefully forgot this:
It’s all been pretty fun and we have you, dear readers, to thank. We really appreciate every single one of you. Especially you, John Veihmeyer. If you don’t email us, Tweet us, FB us, we don’t hear about these funny, disturbing and sometimes pathetic stories. KEEP IT UP. Thanks again for your support!
But now that we’re 2, where do we go from here? We’ve already managed to go from crawling to toddling, learned a bunch of naughty words (okay, we knew those) and quit drooling on ourselves. Basically, as Grover is fond of saying, ONWARD!
How Are BDO Offices Celebrating the Firm’s 100th Birthday?
We’re merely echoing the question.
Apparently there is some go-karting happening in Charlotte which sounds fun, especially if there was a three beer minimum to get on the track.
Other things we’re envisioning:
• Gents of all body types in the Woodbridge, NJ office coming to work as The Situation (i.e. sans shirt).
• Miami office employees are wearing their homemade “FUCK BANCO ESPIRITO” t-shirts (that could be any office really).
• At HQ in Chicago, CEO Jack Weisbaum reenacting Dos Equis ads only to substitute “Stay thirsty my friends” with “People who know – Know BDO”
What else is going on? Let us know.
Happy Birthday Sarbanes-Oxley!
Eight years ago on this this glorious day, the ‘Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act’ (in the Senate) and ‘Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act’ (in the House) came together to bring us Sarbanes-Oxley.
Most of you didn’t realize it at the time but this particular piece of legislation created thousands of new jobs at Big 4 firms, only to find those people out on their asses a few years later. Oh, well. Luckily, there are plenty of options with you holders of the accounting degree.
We perused the SOx Wikipedia page to find out some things worth noting:
• The final version passed the House 423-3 – Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Ron Paul (R-TX) were two of the three voting ‘nay,’ but Flake and Paul pretty much vote against everything.
• It passed the Senate 99-0 but our friend Jim Peterson has said, “the inability of Sarbox to reach global-scale problems shows the futility of legislation so politically anodyne that it passed the US Senate [unanimously].”
• GWB called SOx, “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” This, many will argue, has now been trumped.
• The PCAOB! If it wasn’t for Sarbanes-Oxley, there would be no PCAOB. Well, and some recent help from the SCOTUS.
Anyway, we’ve probably said enough. If you have fond wishes or memories of Sarbanes-Oxley that have transpired over the last eight years, cut loose in the comments.
Happy Birthday…Going Concern!
What were you doing one year ago today? Chances are, you were hating life on a Monday. BUT! This also marks the first birthday of this here publication. Some people around these parts view the jump to WordPress that happened back in January as a rebirth of sorts but if you’re counting days, then this #365.
If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can jump back to the welcome letter from the editor where we assured you that this was going to be anything but your typical site for the debit and credit enthusiasts out there and we hope that we have delivered in at least some regard.
After all, it’s not every day that you get to read about a PwC Happy Hour coming to blows (allegedly!) or how McGladrey is really into serving sugary refreshments.
And of course hotties and money. Oh, and hopefully some new ideas for your careers, some good CPA exam advice and everything else in between.
Whatever reason you visit Going Concern, we appreciate it. Yes, that’s a “thank you.” No really, THANKS! Our traffic is growing and that’s due to your loyalty to the site and sharing it with your friends and colleagues. Plus, thanks to all our advertisers who keep us chugging along, our Tweeps and friends. We really couldn’t do any of it without you (that includes noticing typos). Again, we’re being serious.
So going forward, what’s the mission? The goal? The end all to be all? World domination of course! But we need your help. We still need you to send us tips, story ideas, gossip and everything else in between because that’s what makes this fun. How do you do that? Well, you can email us at [email protected] or you can @ or DM us on Twitter, or send us a message on Facebook. We’ll even talk to you on the phone if you prefer but that would involve emailing us first.
So, again, on behalf of everyone involved with Going Concern, thanks for your support!
Happy Birthday Phil Mickelson!
Philip Alfred Mickelson was born 40 years ago on this blessed day (shares with 2Pac!) and we’re guessing it will be a busy one for the reigning owner of the World’s Ugliest sports jacket.
We imagine he kicked things off with 40 Krispy Kremes donuts for breakfast, followed by a little prep round for this week’s U.S. Open, Five Guys for lunch, maybe another practice round and wrap it up a nice dinner with the fam.
All the while, screening calls from Tim Flynn who desperately wants to wish Phil a happy 40th, good luck on his quest for the KPMG Grand Slam and to congratulate him for the umpteenth time on his third Masters Tournament victory.
It really is a big week for Phil/KPMG, as the U.S. Open has dogged PM for his entire career and a good performance this week (i.e. anything less than a win is unacceptable) could vault him over Tiger Woods who has other problems.
So send some Happy Birthday/good luck/Father’s Day/thanks-for-wearing-our-hat-for-$3-mil-a-year wishes to Phil below or just let him know what you think his chances are.
BDO Seidman Waited to Change Their Name Because They Had a Really Special Birthday Coming Up
When we saw the BDO rebranding story this week we were perplexed because we told you about this new effort to popularize the Global 6 in OCTOBER.
Come to find out that 2010 will mark the 100th birthday of BDO Seidman so there was no rush to change the name back on October 1 with the less-special firms because A) all the firm’s clients were already calling them ‘BDO’ and the change wasn’t really ness, and B) they couldn’t cancel all the festivities they had planned:
“The adoption of the single ‘BDO’ brand name reinforces our commitment to the BDO international network, even as we celebrate our firm’s centennial here in the United States,” said BDO (U.S.) CEO Jack Weisbaum in a statement. He acknowledged that many of the firm’s clients have been referring to the firm as BDO for years anyway.
BDO plans to conduct a year-long celebration of the firm’s founding by Maximillian L. Seidman in 1910, including historical podcasts on the firm’s intranet, a centennial video tracking the firm’s progress over the past century, and celebrations at the BDO Biennial and BDO Partner Meetings in November.
Gosh that does sound fun. We totally get it now.
Plus, the American firm still has to figure out how to pay $521 million to Banco Espirito. Going out at an even 100 years would put a nice cap on things.
BDO Seidman Rebrands as ‘BDO’ [Web CPA]
Happy Birthday Natalie Gulbis!
Girl is 27 today so leave her some bday wishes in the comments.
It must be an extra special day since the RSM McGladrey and McGladrey & Pullen kissed and made up last month.
Plus, since the marketing campaign has been such an unmitigated success it might be nice for the reconciled firm to throw a little extra scratch her way. Happy Birthday NG.