* Big time Big Five

In the late 1990s, four of the "Big Six" firms -- Price Waterhouse/Coopers & L
ybrand and KPMG/Ernst & Young -- were considering mergers that would consolida
te the field. The KPMG/Ernst & Young union never materialized, but the Price W
aterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand marriage did, becoming capital "P," lower case
"w," capital "C," space-less PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1998. The firm n
ow has approximately 160,000 employees (including 10,000 partners) in 150 coun
tries and, with $22.3 billion in revenue in 2001, is by far the largest of the
Big Five.

PwC traces its history to 1849 when Samuel Lowell Price opened his practice in
London. Five years later, William Cooper opened a practice of his own in Lond
on that would soon become known as Cooper Brothers. Price's firm joined with L
ondon's Holyland and Waterhouse in 1865, and the partnership was renamed Price
, Waterhouse & Co. in 1874. It wasn't until 1957 that the Coopers & Lybrand pa
rtnership was formed. Both firms expanded internationally until the July 1998
union of Price, Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, which created Pricewaterhous
eCooper, the world's largest professional services organization.

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