Darktrace hires EY in bid to win back credibility after short seller questions accounts February 20, 2023 Cybersecurity company Darktrace has hired EY to review its finances in a bid to win back credibility after a short seller questioned its accounts. Darktrace has recruited the Big Four auditor to carry out an independent review after New York investment fund Quintessential Capital Management cast doubt over the “validity” of the tech firm’s financial [...]
Calling the consultants’ bluff: The Big Con author on reining in the power of consulting firms February 20, 2023 Rosie Collington is seeking to call the consulting sector’s bluff. The UCL researcher is on a mission to challenge the notion that “consultancies exist on the scale and scope they do today because they create value in the economy.” Collington — one author of ‘The Big Con: How the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments [...]
Audit reform plans ‘ready to go’ but government delays now holding UK back, accountancy chief warns February 20, 2023 The UK government’s failure to overhaul the country’s audit sector risks seeing Britain lose its position as a world-leading investment hub, the head of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales has warned. ICAEW chief Michael Izza told Morning Wire continued delays to the UK’s planned reshaping of the country’s audit sector could see foreign investors [...]
Mazars UK business posts ‘record’ growth as firm pushes to tackle Big Four’s dominance February 16, 2023 Mazars today said its UK audit business grew 37 per cent over the previous year, as the accounting firm seeks to take on the Big Four and capture a larger share of the market. Mazars’ UK business posted “record” growth, despite rising costs, after its revenues increased by more than a fifth (23 per [...]
Big Four: EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC step on law firms’ toes increasing legal revenue to £1.25bn February 15, 2023 The Big Four accounting firms – EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC – are capturing an ever-larger share of the global market for legal services. The accounting giants are rapidly expanding their legal businesses, in boosting their own sales and taking work away from traditional firms, the research from Said Business School shows. The world’s four [...]
Legal tech revolution: Firms invest in cost saving AI tools like ChatGPT to improve profitability February 15, 2023 Law firms are continuing to invest in cost-saving technologies, including artificial intelligence driven tools like ChatGPT, in seeking to stave off falling profitability. A sharp drop in M&A deals has hit US law firms’ profitability, wiping out the majority of all gains they made during Covid, the research from Thomson Reuters shows. US law firms [...]
Analysis: Audit watchdog faces catch-22 in hunt for new chief February 15, 2023 Britain’s audit watchdog is on the hunt for a new chief executive who can face down the Big Four accounting firms after Jon Thompson announced last week he would leave the post to lead the grossly delayed HS2 project. But in choosing a new boss, the newly-merged Department for Business and Trade has a difficult [...]
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UK agency looks to seize mortgage fraudster’s donation to Chelsea private school February 13, 2023 The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is seeking to seize a £92,500 donation given by a Mayfair property magnate who was convicted of fraud to his daughter’s private school. The fraud investigator is seeking permission from a London court to confiscate the money given to his daughter’s school by mortgage fraudster Achilleas Kallakis. The conman [...]
UK law firms hold back on layoffs as legal sector revenues continue to soar February 12, 2023 The UK’s legal sector continued to grow in the final months of 2022 despite a downturn in the wider professional services sector. Legal sector revenues increased six per cent from November to December 2022, to heights of £4bn, figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics show. The uptick came as the UK’s wider services [...]