Big Four Competition: Ernst & Young Maintains Advantage

Big Four Competition: Ernst & Young Maintains AdvantageAmes Research Group released their latest Big Four Quarterly Competitive Summary (posted on their site November 21, 2006), covering competitive auditor change activity between the fourth quarter of 2005 and third quarter of 2006.

Per their analysis, Ernst & Young continues to perform well in winning new work and doing so efficiently. E&Y won the most new clients during the 12 months covered, and the firm won almost 50% of the engagements on which it proposed.

Deloitte’s engagement success rate, or “batting average” fell slightly. However, Deloitte continues to narrow its net loss in clients over a 12-month period. Since 2003, the Big Four have collectively lost clients, but Deloitte has moved back towards a net gain quicker than the other firms.

KPMG dropped slightly in its invitation and engagement rates, but also improved slightly on its net client loss.

PricewaterhouseCoopers trails the rest of the Big Four by a significant margin in both invitations and successful engagements, and continues to have a large net loss in market share.