A GAO report warns that overzealous enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act promotes consolidation of the accounting industry, implying less competition, fewer firms to choose from, higher fees (and possibly some future casework for Justice Department antitrust lawyers). Reports Forbes.com: ”A series of mergers and the collapse of Andersen last year have reduced the number of top accounting firms capable of auditing large multinational companies from eight in the 1980s to just four today. The four — jocularly referred to as the Final Four following Andersen’s demise — include PricewaterhouseCoopers , Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche and KPMG . Combined, they audit over 78 percent of all U.S. public companies and 99 percent of all public company annual sales, the report said.”
Thanks, S-OX
