Big Four

The Big Four are the four largest international accountancy and professional services firms, which handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies. The Big Four firms are shown below, with their latest publicly available data:

Firm	Revenues	Employees	Fiscal Year
PricewaterhouseCoopers	$28.2bn	146,700	2008
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu	$27.4bn	165,000	2008
Ernst & Young	$24.5bn	135,000	2008
KPMG	$22.7bn	137,000	2008


Type	Limited Liability Partnership
Founded	1849, London (in 1998, firm took on current name)
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Key people	Sam DiPiazza, CEO
Industry	Professional Services
Products	Accounting Audit Consulting Financial advisory Tax
Revenue	$28.2 Billion USD (2008)
Employees	155,693
Website	www.pwc.com


Type	Swiss Verein
Founded	London, United Kingdom (1845)
Headquarters	New York, New York, United States
Key people	John Connolly, Chairman Jim Quigley, CEO
Industry	Professional services
Services	Audit Tax Consulting Financial advisory
Revenue	▲US$27.4 billion (2008)
Employees	165,000 (May 2008)
Website	www.deloitte.com


Type	Member firms have different legal structures, USA and UK: Limited Liability Partnership
Founded	1989; individual components from 1849
Headquarters	London, England, UK (EY Global)
Key people	Jim S. Turley, Chairman and CEO
Industry	Professional services
Services	Audit Tax Financial advisory
Revenue	$24,523 million USD (2008)
Employees	135,730 (Global)
Divisions	Assurance, Advisory, Tax, Transaction
Website	www.ey.com


Type	Swiss Cooperative
Founded	1987; merger of Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler
Headquarters	New York, NY (global)
Key people	Tim Flynn (Chairman and CEO) John B. Harrison, Chairman KPMG Asia Pacific Region Ben van der Veer, Chairman KPMG Europe, Middle East and Africa Region
Industry	Professional services
Services	Audit Tax Advisory
Revenue	▲$22.7 billion USD (2008)
Employees	136,896+
Website	www.kpmg.com