Picking over Andersen

LIFE at the bean-counting firm of Andersen these days is definitely not boring—predictions of its ultimate fate change by the hour. In recent days, Andersen's operations in Russia, Spain, Chile and Asia were all said to be wrangling over separate exit strategies—on March 21st, partners of Andersen Hong Kong and China agreed to combine their practices with PricewaterhouseCoopers. There was still hope of a broad agreement for Andersen's non-American operations to join KPMG. Again, no one is ruling out a deal with PwC, Ernst & Young, or Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the remaining members of what were once known as the Big Eight—now commonly referred to as the Final Four.