Ernst & Young - History

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06 July 2009  

Early history

Ernst & Young is the result of a series of mergers of ancestor organizations. The oldest originating partnership was founded in 1849 in England as Harding & Pullein.[4] In that year the firm was joined by Frederick Whinney. He was made a partner in 1859 and with his sons in the business it was renamed Whinney Smith & Whinney in 1894.[4]

In 1903, the firm of Ernst & Ernst was established in Cleveland by Alwin and Theodore Ernst and in 1906 Arthur Young & Co. was set up by the Scotsman Arthur Young in Chicago.[4]

As early as 1924 these American firms allied with prominent British firms, Young with Broads Paterson & Co. and Ernst with Whinney Smith & Whinney.[4] In 1979 this led to the formation of Anglo-American Ernst & Whinney, creating the fourth largest accountancy firm in the world.[4] Also in 1979, the European offices of Arthur Young merged with several large local European firms, which became member firms of Arthur Young International.

 

Mergers

In 1989, the number four merged with the then number five, Arthur Young, on a global basis to create Ernst & Young ("EY")[5].

In October 1997, EY announced plans to merge its global practices with KPMG to create the largest professional services organization in the world, coming on the heels of another merger plan announced in September 1997 by Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. The merger plans were abandoned in February 1998 due to client opposition, antitrust issues, cost problems and difficulty of merging the two diverse companies and cultures[6].

EY had built up its consultancy arm heavily during the 1980s and 90s. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and members of the investment community began to raise concerns about potential conflicts of interest between the consulting and auditing work amongst the Big Five and in May 2000, EY was the first of the firms to formally and fully separate its consulting practices via a sale to the French IT services company Cap Gemini for $11 billion, largely in stock, creating the new consulting firm of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, which was later renamed Capgemini[7].

 

 Recent history

In 2002, EY merged with many of the ex-Arthur Andersen practices around the world, although not those in the USA, UK, China or the Netherlands[8].

 

Global structure

EY Global does not perform client work. It sets global standards and oversees global policy and consistency of service. Client work is performed by the member firms. Each EY member country is organised as part of one of five areas:

  • EMEIA: Europe, Middle East, India, Africa
  • Americas
  • Far East
  • Oceania
  • Japan

Each area has a single management team that is led by an Area Managing Partner who sits on the Global Executive Board. All areas are integrating their business models.

On 1 July 2008, EY received approval from partners to integrate all of its 87 country practices in Europe, the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Africa to create a single EMEIA managerial entity [9], effective from 1 July 2008.

 

Services

EY has four main service lines:

  • Assurance. This comprises mainly financial audit (core assurance) with 54% of total revenues and advisory services with 12% of revenues in 2007.
  • Advisory Services. On July 1st 2009, Advisory Services will separate from Assurance to form a new top-level service. Formerly, they were combined as Assurance and Advisory Business Services (AABS). Advisory services will fall into three categories: IT Risk and Assurance, Risk, and Performance Improvement (primarily the former Business Advisory Services, or BAS, that focuses on helping clients improve the way their organizations work by identifying opportunities and developing complex, sustainable change programs. This includes looking at things like improving processes and managing performance.
  • Tax Services share of total revenues in 2007 was 22% and includes Business Tax Compliance, Human Capital, Indirect Tax, International Tax Services, Tax Accounting & Risk Advisory Services, Transaction Tax.
  • Transaction Advisory Services (TAS), includes commercial, financial, real estate and tax due diligence, mergers & acquisitions, valuation & business modeling, corporate restructuring and integration services.

 

Major clients

EY is the auditor for many of the world's leading corporations, including the following (as verified by their annual reports):

 

Name and branding

The firm's name arises from the global merger between Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young in 1989.

 

Staff

The firm was ranked No.1 in BusinessWeek's annual list of 'Best Places To Launch a Career' for 2008.[10]

The firm was ranked No.25 in the Fortune list of '100 Best Companies To Work For', and the highest among the Big Four, for 2007.[11]

The firm is No.36 in ComputerWorld's 100 Best Places To Work For In IT for 2008.[12]

The firm was also placed among the Top 50 Places in the 'Where Women Want to Work' awards for 2007.[13]

The firm was named as one of the '10 Best Companies for Working Mothers' by Working Mothers magazine in 2006.[14]

 

Criticisms

 

Equitable Life

In April 2004, Equitable Life, a UK life assurance company, sued EY after nearly collapsing following a House of Lords judgement that it had to pay guaranteed annuities held by its policyholders. Equitable claimed that EY neglected its duty as auditor and demanded £2.6bn in compensation. Equitable abandoned the case in September 2005 and each side agreed to pay their own legal costs. EY described the case as "a scandalous waste of time, money and resources for all concerned."[15]

 

Anglo Irish Bank

EY Audits Under Investigation

In January 2009, in the Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy, EY was criticised by politicians[16] and the shareholders of Anglo Irish Bank for failing to detect large loans to Sean FitzPatrick, its Chairman, during its audits. The share price fell by almost 99% and the Irish Government had to subsequently take full ownership of the Bank.[17]The then Chief Executive of the Financial Regulator told a parliamentary committee that "a lay person would expect that issues of this nature and this magnitude would have been picked up” by the external auditors.[18]EY declined to appear before the same committee after receiving legal advice.[19][20] The Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board has initiated an investigation into the "circumstances around the issue of inappropriate directors' loans at Anglo Irish"[21] and into the performance of EY.[22]

 

Sponsorship

Ernst & Young's publicity activity includes its worldwide Entrepreneur of the Year program, run in 50 countries.[23]

EY UK also publicizes itself by sponsoring big name art exhibitions, eg Cézanne, Picasso, Bonnard and Monet. This year's exhibitions were Rodin at the Royal Academy of Arts and Renoir at the National Gallery.[24]

In addition, EY publicizes itself by sponsoring the educational children's show Cyberchase on PBS Kids under the PBS Kids GO! television brand, in an effort to improve maths literacy in children.[25]

 

 Notable current and former employees

 

Business

 

Politics and public service

  • John Campbell - Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (2005-present)
  • Jun Choi - Mayor of Edison, New Jersey (2006-present)
  • Christopher Chope - Member of the British Parliament (1983-92; 1997-present)
  • Sheila Fraser - Auditor General of Canada (2001-present)
  • Cheryl Gillan - Member of the British Parliament (1992-present)
  • George McCarthy - Chief Secretary of the Cayman Islands (2004-present)
  • Edward H Ntalami - CEO of the Kenyan Capital Markets Authority (2002-present)
  • John Howell - Member of the British Parliament (2008-present)
  • Mark Olson - Chairman of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
  • Hugo Schiltz - Belgian Senator (1992-95)
  • Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto - President of Pakistan (1971-1973), Prime Minister of Pakistan (1973-1977)
  • Cesar Purisima - former country manager of EY's Philippine practice (known as Sycip, Gorres and Velayo & Company or "SGV & Co.") who became that country's finance minister under President Gloria Arroyo (2004-2005)

 

Other

 

References

  1. ^ Ernst & Young Global Limited Company Profile
  2. ^ Forbes: Largest Private Companies
  3. ^ Hoovers. Retrieved 25 November 2006.
  4. ^ a b c d e Ernst & Young - History
  5. ^ Reports say Arthur Young and Ernst may merge New York Times, May 1989
  6. ^ Accountancy merger off
  7. ^ Cap Gemini to acquire Ernst & Young consulting business New York Times, March 2000
  8. ^ Ernst & Young acquires Anderson India
  9. ^ Ernst & Young to form single business
  10. ^ BusinessWeek: The Best Places to Launch a Career
  11. ^ Fortune: 100 Best companies to work for
  12. ^ ComputerWorld: 100 Best Places To Work For In IT
  13. ^ Times-on-line: Where women want to work
  14. ^ Working Mother
  15. ^ BBC News (2005). Equitable drops High Court action. Retrieved 26 August 2006.
  16. ^ Where were the auditors?
  17. ^ Anglo's board and auditors criticised at egm Shareholders told FitzPatrick owed bank a total of €129m in 2007
  18. ^ FitzPatrick Anglo loans were more than €87m
  19. ^ Anglo's external auditors decline to appear before oireachtas committee
  20. ^ RTE News
  21. ^ Drumm resigns as chief executive of Anglo Irish
  22. ^ Statement from CARB
  23. ^ Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
  24. ^ Royal Academy
  25. ^ Cyberchase - PBS Kids Official PBS Kids Website with corporate sponsorships.