Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (56939)	1/31/2002 9:47:15 AM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77397

>>That's why you usually get the top 10% accounting students at the Big 5. Who then do their public accounting stint for like 2 years before getting snatched up by private industry.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (56939)	1/31/2002 9:57:27 AM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 77397

Couldn't the market make that system competitive? It exists to a certain extent today. There are plenty of firms outside the Big 5 that do audits, at much cheaper prices than the Big 5. The main reason that most firms won't do business with them is that the market has tended to look askance at a non-Big 5 opinion. (Of course, now the market looks askance at an Arthur Andersen opinion, and rightfully so.) Don't use a Big 5 firm, the market gives your stock a discount. In your system, if a firm was deficient in the audit process, it would come out sooner or later. And the market would price the stocks of the companies that used that auditor with a discount.