Normally, when people get nostalgic, it's a process of counting up. Like, "Timmy's so big now...he used to be three feet tall and now he's four." Or "I can't believe Sally's turning 18 today. I remember when she was only nine." Or "in high school, I weighed 185 pounds and now I weigh [mumbles, covers mouth with hand]."
Anyway, the opposite is true for the major accounting firms. As you move forward in time, the process involves counting down, rather than counting up.
Once upon a time, there were the Big Eight accounting firms. But in 1989, two key mergers took place. One combined Ernst & Whinney with Arthur Young. This deal created Ernst & Young. (Don't ask what happened to Whinney. No one talks about Whinney.)
Meanwhile, the second major accounting merger of 1989 led to Deloitte, Haskins & Sells joining forces with Touche Ross. This combination was named Deloitte & Touche. (Why do people keep disappearing? Does anyone care about Haskins or Sells? Where's Ross? What happened to Ross!?)
Following those mergers, the Big Eight had become the Slightly Smaller Eight. Er...the Big Six. That situation lasted nearly a decade.
But in 1998, a deal brought together Price Waterhouse with Coopers & Lybrand. That netted us PricewaterhouseCoopers. (Lybrand? It's like a horror movie...people keep going out into the forest and not coming back...)
The Big Six was down to the Big Five.
One more cut coming (cue: music stinger and jump scare as masked knife-wielding killer jumps onto the screen).
Arthur Andersen. No one took over Arthur Andersen. Arthur Andersen died of suicide (stinger becomes sad violin solo, maybe the tune from a Civil War documentary). Arthur Andersen was destroyed in the wake of the 2001 Enron scandal, which saw the firm implicated in a financial cover-up related to one of the biggest corporate collapses in U.S. history.
Leaving us with the Big Four: Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Pour one out for Whinney and the rest.
