Arthur Andersen & Co.

Arthur Andersen

Type	Limited liability partnership
Industry	Accounting Professional services Tax Consulting Licenses of Certified Public Accountants surrendered in 2002
Founded	1913
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Products	Professional services
Revenue	US$9.3 billion (in 2002)
Number of employees	approx. 200 as of 2007 85,000 (in 2002)
Website	www.andersen.com

Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, is an American holding company and formerly one of the "Big Five" accounting firms among PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG, providing auditing, tax, and consulting services to large corporations. In 2002, the firm voluntarily surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accountants in the United States after being found guilty of criminal charges relating to the firm's handling of the auditing of Enron, an energy corporation based in Texas, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

The former consultancy and outsourcing arm of the firm, now known as Accenture, which had separated from the accountancy side in 1987 and renamed themselves after splitting from Andersen Worldwide in 2000, continues to operate and had become one of the largest multinational corporations in the world until 2002.

Born 30 May 1885 in Plano, Illinois, and orphaned at the age of 16, Arthur E. Andersen began working as a mail boy by day and attended school at night, eventually being hired as the assistant to the comptroller of Allis-Chalmers in Chicago. In 1908, after attending courses at night while working full-time, he graduated from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in business. That same year, at age 23, he became the youngest CPA in Illinois.