Yeesh, we hope not. Problem is, when we reported on P. Dubs canceling Christmaskah last week, people were speculating that P. Dubs was also kinda sorta putting it out there that there would be no merit increases for fiscal 2010. We’ve received additional tips suggesting the same thing so we’ll put out to you to discuss further.
After Tuesday’s spintastic revenue results, Denny and Co. may have concluded that putting it out there that you shouldn’t get your hopes up for a super P. Dubya comeback was the best course of action.
Problem as we see it is that alluding to the idea that raises aren’t gonna happen can’t be good for morale. Plus, there are the continuing rumors of senior managers leaving en masse, via their own will or otherwise. On the bright side, that could set up for a nice little surprise come next year if things turn around and Den-Den sounded pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay optimistic in Tuesday’s press release.
Discuss your thoughts on P. Dubs seemingly pessimistic attitude in the comments.
Tag: PwC
PwC Global Revenue Was Down or Flat, Your Choice
The spin continues in accounting firm earnings season, this time courtesy of P. Dubya. The Firm reported global revenues of $26.2 billion, according to today’s press release. This was down from fiscal year 2008 by approximately $2 billion from $28.2 billion in global revenues when adjusted for foreign exchange fluctuations.
Assurance services increased slightly, rising 4.8% while tax and advisory revenues both declined 7.5% and 11.4%, again, when considering the foreign exchange fluctuations.
North America’s revenues held up well, only dropping 3.2% ($9.3b to $9.0b) while Western Europe, PwC’s largest region in terms of revenue, had a 11.6% drop in revenues. The drop for this region was primarily due to the strength of the U.S. Dollar.
Denny Nally remains stoic despite Satyam the challenges out there:
“The past 12 months have been challenging for our network, with most PwC member firms facing tough economic conditions. While PwC’s results for FY 2009 are not as good as we would have liked, they have held up well in the circumstances,” said PwC Global Chairman Dennis M. Nally. “In addition the combination of first rate customer service and very competitive pricing has allowed us to increase our market share in many of our markets around the world.
“The ability of so many PwC member firms to successfully sustain their business and their people through this difficult period provides us with a strong platform from which to serve clients in the recovery and to continue to invest in our own growth. While we cut our costs substantially, the PwC network also hired about 30,000 new people and increased its total workforce to more than 163,000 demonstrating a commitment to attracting the right people to serve clients around the world.”
Data for number of employees in fiscal year 2009 isn’t up yet on the global website but we’ve got no reason to not believe Denny when he says that they’re attracting the right people and getting rid of people that cost too much.
Discuss the revenue results and Denny’s vision of the ‘PwC Experience’, which is probably nothing like an acid flashback, for the future in the comments.
PricewaterhouseCoopers* post FY2009 global revenues of US$26.2 billion [Press Release]
*PwC just wants everyone to know that there’s this thing called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PWCIL) that doesn’t provide services to clients and doesn’t act as an agent for the member firms. PWCIL is NOT LIABLE for anything that these member firms f*ck up because that’s just ridiculous. If they screw the pooch, they are TOTALLY ON THEIR OWN. Don’t come crying to us about an audit failure because we will deny ’til we die. This has nothing to do with Satyam, btw. It doesn’t. We swear.
Is AMC Auditor Shopping?
Maybe! But the movie theater company did dump PwC on October 1st according to a filing with the SEC after just two years.
According to the filing, P. Dubs had only been engaged as AMC’s auditors for the last two fiscal years (4/3/08 and 4/2/09) and the audit committee decided that KPMG will now get the pleasure of opining, also effective on October 1st (congrats, we guess?).
As is typical in these auditor swaps, AMC’s filing states that they had no disgreements with PwC “on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure.”
We’d like to think this came down to a PwC partner making some sort of stand against the asinine concession prices that are borderline unethical but that’s just our personal vision. If you’ve got your own ideas about the reasons for the dismissal, discuss them in the comments.
AMC Entertainment hires KPMG to replace PricewaterhouseCoopers [Kansas City Business Journal]
Accountants Raiding Accountants Probably Makes for a Hilariously Awkward Scene
Jesus, that was fast. After Wednesday’s snoozer raids at the E&Y office in Hong Kong, Icelandic police have raided the offices of KPMG and PwC in Reykjavik, Iceland, according to the Daily Telegraph.
More, after the jump
Police have raided the offices of KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Reykjavik, seizing documents and computer data as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity at three collapsed Icelandic banks…The office of Olafur Thor Hauksson, the Icelandic investigator charged with examining the collapse of
the three banks a year ago, confirmed that 22 policemen and six foreign accountants took part in the searches yesterday.
Six accountants? Whoa, this thing was way more serious. No coffee and bagel strategy here as it would have totally distracted the investigating accountants from their jobs.
Likewise, we doubt anyone was strapped for this raid. Especially the number crunchers. We can definitely picture them begging the police though, “C’mon, they don’t even have to be loaded. We’ll just leave them in the holsters. WE SWEAR.”
The most excitement that we can envision was some bean counter trash talk that may have escalated into open-hand slaps and flailing arms and legs. The real police, after enjoying this hilarious scene for a few moments, would have had no choice but to break up the nerd fight as it began encroaching on the investigation and other people’s personal space.
KPMG and PwC Reykjavik offices are raided by Icelandic police [The Daily Telegraph]
Rumor Mill: PwC Jumps On the Cancel Christmaskah Bandwagon
Following the Grinchy yet charitable ways of KPMG and E&Y, rumor has it that P. Dubs is passing on holiday parties in all offices and donating $1.5 mil to charity instead.
Odds on Deloitte making a similar announcement prior to Halloween to complete the Scrooge Superfecta are currently going at 5-2.
PwC India Auditors Found Guilty of Professional Misconduct
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in India (ICAI) have found two former employees of Satyam and four Price Watherouse India auditors guilty, according to Times Now:
Continued, after the jump
Two Satyam officials found “prima facia guilty” are Ex CFO V Srinivasu and Senior Vice-President, Internal Audit Cell, V S Prabhakara Gupta. The disciplinary committee also found four auditors from Price Waterhouse, Bangalore–S Gopalakrishnan, Srinivas Talluri, P Shiva Prasad and C H Ravindranath prima facie guilty of professional misconduct, [ICAI President, Uttam Prakash] Agarwal said.
The exact repercussions of this are not clear so we’re trying to run someone down at PwC to enlighten us. Hell, if you’ve got the knowledge, please share. In the meantime, as far as we know, two of the auditors are still in jail which probably made for a less than pleasant summer vacation.
PwC ‘Prostitute’ Hopefully Won’t Spend it All in One Place
Dammit people, if someone is going to go to the trouble to sue the #1 company in all of Great Britain for every bloody list that can possibly be put out could we possibly get a more anti-climatic ending?
Mihaela Popa, who was obviously unaware that accountants are made to feel like prosties all over the world on a daily basis, hence, why the f*ck are you so special, wound up receiving £750 from a tribunal, according to the Romanian Times.
More, after the jump
The court:
“We find that in no way whatsoever did the unlawful victimisation either prevent Miss Popa from obtaining employment or cause her to lose employment. There was no loss of opportunity in this case. It is simply a case of injury to feelings.”
Maybe we’re a little shrewd but repeatedly seeing your name in the British press next to ‘whore’, ‘prostitute’, and ‘communist spy’, and then for a court to basically say you’re thin-skinned, all for £750 seems totally worth it.
Earlier: What if Everyone Sued Their Employer for Being Made to Feel Like a Prostitute?
PwC Is Going to Teach You Some Manners
Even though lots of you are beyond help but regardless, we’ve heard that P. Dubs hosts dining etiquette get-togethers in order to teach you heathens how to use a napkin, leave your feet off the table, not to lick your plate when finished, etc.
Never having the pleasure, inform us and our less dignified readers about your experiences at these or similar events so we can all learn something.
And for God’s sake, if you’re going to one of these events this week, we’ll remind you of our only advice: wear pants.
We Get It. PwC Wins Every Employer Award in the UK
The UK’s annoying hot crush on PwC continues as the firm has won the The Times High Fliers Top Graduate Employer of the year award.
This is the sixth year in a row that P. Dubs has won this award. They were also named top accountancy firm for the tenth year in row and won the top finance company award this year, the first time an accounting firm has won the award.
We know it’s a little late on a Friday to be asking our UK friends to participate but we’d really like to know how P. Dubs manages to win all these awards.
The vote early, vote often mantra immediately comes to mind but is it legitimately possible that PwC is really the best place to work in the UK year after year? Whatever the case may be, it’s just annoying.
If you’ve done some time across the pond and have stories of Google-esque cafeterias, rub n’ tugs, puppies for everyone and the such, let us know, otherwise, debunk.
PwC voted best place for graduates [Accountancy Age]
Tax Grads in Colorado Can Get Over PwC Now
Less than thrilling news out of the Denver office of PwC as a source has filled us in the firm’s plans for tax graduate students:
“PwC told tax graduate students at the University of Denver that they werent [sic] hiring again until September 2011.”
We touched on this last month, as campus recruiters have found that their intern pipelines will end up filling their full-time budgets for the following year. We can only assume that students specializing in tax at the other schools that P. Dubs-Denver visits are being told the same thing. If you’ve got news on firms’ hiring expectations at your school, discuss or drop us a line at tips@goingconcern.com.
KPMG UK Head of Audit Explains Rentokil Arrangement
KPMG’s new arrangement with Rentokil has brought some differing opinions amongst the firms, even prompting PwC to take a not-so direct jab at the Radio Station for scooping Rentokil.
Today, KPMG’s head of audit in the UK, Oliver Tant, wrote a piece for Accountancy Age explaining the firm’s new “extended assurance”:
Continued, after the jump
Under the service, those responsible for corporate governance may ask KPMG to perform work beyond that which is required for the statutory audit, for example by testing a larger sample of controls or additional transactions and balances of lower value than the materiality level set for the statutory audit.
This work does not replace, conflict with or undermine the independence of the external audit it simply extends our understanding of the business and its controls and hence the breadth and depth of insight we can offer. That is why we call it extended assurance.
Mr. Tant also cites the savings passed along to the client, which is so hot these days. He also explains what “extended assurance” is NOT:
The service is not about merging the external and internal audit functions. A company can continue to have its own internal audit function and those charged with corporate governance will still be responsible for assessing the overall adequacy of a company’s control environment and the need for skilled internal audit expertise.
Ethical standards do not prevent the auditor from doing more than the bare minimum to support the audit opinion. We will identify and plan the work necessary to support our audit opinion independent of any further work we may be requested to perform.
As we mentioned, PwC has already made their opinion known and E&Y’s head of assurance in the UK, John Flattery has stated that they will not be “mirroring the arrangement.”
It’s already been speculated that this type of arrangement would not be allowed in the U.S. but there has been no indication that the U.S. firm is pursuing such arrangements.
Since independence is kinda, sorta important for auditors, and many of you are ramming these rules into your brains as we speak (or just waiting to see if you learned anything) discuss in the comments how you feel about the arrangement. Would it pass the smell test Stateside? Is KPMG evolving to the market or are they on thin ice? Are P. Dubs and Ernie being self-righteous dicks since they didn’t think of it first? Feel free to get ugly about it.
KPMG audit head defends controversial Rentokil role [Accountancy Age]
What if Everyone Sued Their Employer for Being Made to Feel Like a Prostitute?
In, if first you don’t succeed suing your former employer news, a London Employement Tribunal opened yesterday for a former PwC forensic accountant who is suing P. Dubs for £40 million after the firm was exonerated in a similar suit she brought in 2007.
More, after the jump
Mihaela Popa claims that while she worked at PwC in London, the following allegedly happened:
• She was made to feel like a prostitute
• She was told ‘Eastern European women are whores’
• She was known as ‘Mihaela and porn’
• During the initial swine flu hoopla, she was told ‘this Romanian bird will have a slow death’
• She also claims that some co-workers thought she was a Communist spy
For all this alleged name calling and accused espionage, Ms. Popa is suing PwC for “£40 million in compensation for loss of earnings and hurt feelings”. That tidy sum wasn’t just pulled out of the air, mind you. This is because she “previously claimed that she was given promises she could become a £750,000-a-year partner.”
Since being made to feel like a whore is common at accounting firms many of you have referred to yourselves as such, we’re not sure that “being made to feel like a prostitute” really flies with us.
As for the Communist spy charge, we can’t barely recall a time when this actually mattered, since the Cold War effectively ended 20 years ago.
P. Dubs “strenuously denies the allegations” but we could probably all agree that there are a few bigots working at PwC in London. On the other hand, this could said about any firm, in any city in the world.
Discuss your thoughts on the case, and if you feel more like a whore at your job then Ms. Popa, in the comments.
Accountant claims £40m from PricewaterhouseCoopers [Telegraph via Accountancy Age]