PricewaterhouseCoopers, trading as PwC, is headquartered in London. It is the world’s second largest professional services firm measured by 2013 revenues.  PwC has offices in 776 cities across 159 countries and employs over 180,000 people. It had total revenues of US$31.5 billion in its 2012 fiscal year, of which $14.9 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $7.9 billion by its Tax practice and $8.7 billion by its Advisory practice. The firm was formed in 1998 by a merger between Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse. The trading name was shortened to PwC in September 2010 as part of its major rebranding strategy.

Ernst & Young (known as EY), also headquartered in London, operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries. It has 175,000 employees and more than 700 offices in over 150 countries. EY is ranked third of the Big Four, based on its 2013 revenues of US$25.8 billion. It provides assurance, financial audit, tax, consulting and advisory services to companies.

KPMG, the result of merger of Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler in 1987, has its global headquarters in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. KPMG employs 152,000 people and has three lines of services: audit, tax, and advisory. Its advisory services are further divided into three service groups – Management Consulting, Risk Consulting, and Transactions & Restructuring.   Its 2013 global revenues are US$23.4 billion.

THE HONG KONG SCENARIO
The Big Four in the world are still ranked top 4 locally in Hong Kong, at least in terms of staff strength. For the year 2013, PwC reduced its number of staff by 100 while Deloitte increased its staff by 200 to tie for the top spot at 2400 each. The momentum seems to be with PwC though, as it finished the year with a proposed merger with management consulting firm Booz & Co. to complement PwC’s advisory business. According to respective spokespersons, this merger will bring 275 Booz partners and more than 3000 professionals to the PwC network in 33 countries.

Ernst & Young is third in Hong Kong with 2100 professionals, up from 2000 in the previous year.

KPMG increased its recruitment effort to arrive at 2000 staff, up from 1700 the previous year, to place 4th in terms of staff size in Hong Kong.

BDO is still ranked fifth with 1000 employees, unchanged from the previous year.

Currently, the managing partners for PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG in Hong Kong are respectively Cassie Wong, Joseph Lo, Agnes Chan and Andrew Weir.

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In 2010, IBM’s consulting and technology services generated gross margins of 32%. The company’s software business, which accounts for 20% of revenue, had margins of 88% in the 3rd quarter of 2011. IBM also owns more patents than any other US based technology company. It invested $6 billion in R&D in 2010, the equivalent of 6% of its revenue, compared to $3 billion, or 2.4%, at its rival Hewlett-Packard.

The areas that IBM is focusing on now – cloud computing, analytics and emerging markets are part of its carefully planned strategies for global growth.

Earlier this year, IBM announced a $38 million investment to build a new Asia-Pacific Cloud Computing Data Center in Singapore to exploit the potential of cloud computing through its comprehensive solutions and services. The new facility in Singapore will extend IBM’s globally integrated cloud delivery network that includes centers in Canada, the United States and Germany. The company also has 13 global cloud labs, of which seven are based in Asia-Pacific countries namely China, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and India.

Another cloud computing data center will be built in Langfang, a city near Beijing, under the collaborative efforts between IBM and the China-based Range Technology. The 620,000 square meter facility, which is to be owned by Range Technology, is scheduled to be completed in 2016. The data center, the largest in Asia by floor area, aims to serve mainly government departments from Beijing and across the country, but will also be open to major banks and private enterprises throughout China. According to IBM spokesperson Harriet Ip, the center is also designed to support the development of a new information technology hub being built in the area.

IBM’s data-center business in China has tripled in the last four years. In 2010, China overtook Japan as IBM’s second largest data center market, with the U.S. as the company’s number one market. Moreover, the Asia-Pacific market for cloud computing is set to grow 40% per annum through 2014 to $4.9 billion, according to IDC Asia Pacific. IBM is well positioned to take advantage of this growth by establishing regional data centers that will provide the necessary infrastructure for growth of key cloud computing areas.

IBM is headquartered in Armonk, New York. As of September 2011, IBM is the second-largest publicly traded technology company in the world by market capitalization. In 2011, Fortune ranked IBM the 18th largest firm in the U.S., as well as the 7th most profitable. Globally, the company was ranked the 31st largest firm by Forbes for 2011, and 18th most innovative company by Fast Company. IBM employs more than 427,000 employees in over 200 countries, with occupations including scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals.

For 2010, IBM’s brand was valued at $64.7 billion. IBM’s closing value of $214 billion on September 29, 2011 surpassed Microsoft which was valued at $213.2 billion. It was the first time since 1996 that IBM exceeded its software rival based on closing price. However, IBM’s value is still less than two-thirds of Apple’s value of $362.1 billion.

Though faced with strong competitors such as Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL), Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and EMC Corp (NYSE:EMC), IBM is still viewed by many industry analysts to be a heavyweight in the cloud computing market. Its strong cash balance will no doubt help it acquire more companies with high intellectual property assets, which will drive further growth in the upcoming quarters. New CEO Virginia “Ginni” Rometty says that despite IBM’s deep pockets and $100 billion in 2010 sales, she plans to keep pressing her management team to take more risks and embrace change. “Whatever business you’re in, it’s going to commoditize over time, so you have to keep moving it to a higher value and change”.

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