Editing Accenture (section)

== History ==

=== Formation and early years ===
Accenture began as the business and technology consulting division of accounting firm [[Arthur Andersen]] in the early 1950s.<ref name=WBBM11>{{cite news |title=Accenture To Add 500 Jobs in Chicago |url=http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/10/11/accenture-to-add-500-jobs-in-chicago/ |newspaper=[[WBBM-TV]] |date=11 October 2011 |access-date=10 December 2015}}</ref> The division conducted a feasibility study for [[General Electric]] to install a computer at [[Appliance Park]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky]], which led to GE's installation of a [[UNIVAC I]] computer and printer, believed to be the first commercial use of a computer in the United States.<ref name=Betts01>{{cite news |title=GE's Appliance Park Still an IT Innovator |last1=Betts |first1=Mitch |url=http://www.computerworld.com/article/2590401/computer-hardware/ge-s-appliance-park-still-an-it-innovator.html |magazine=[[Computerworld]] |date=29 January 2001 |access-date=10 December 2015}}</ref><ref name=Betts90>{{cite news |title=The Univac I: First in the field |last1=Betts |first1=Mitch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7vRlroiLwsC&q=the+univac+I%3A+first+in+the+field&pg=PT26 |magazine=[[Computerworld]] |date=2 July 1990 |access-date=10 December 2015}}</ref>

=== Split from Arthur Andersen ===
In 1989, Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting became separate units of Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative (AWSC). Throughout the 1990s, tensions grew between the two units. Andersen Consulting was paying Arthur Andersen up to 15% of its profits each year (a provision of the 1989 split was that the more profitable unit – whether AA or AC, pay the other the 15 percent), while at the same time Arthur Andersen was competing with Andersen Consulting through its own newly established business consulting service line called Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. This dispute came to a head in 1998, when Andersen Consulting put the 15% transfer payment for that year and future years into escrow and issued a claim for breach of contract against AWSC and Arthur Andersen. In 2000, as a result of arbitration, Andersen Consulting broke all contractual ties with AWSC and Arthur Andersen. As part of the arbitration settlement, Andersen Consulting paid $1.2 billion to Arthur Andersen.<ref>{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Mitchell |date=8 August 2000 |title=Arbitrator's Ruling Goes Against Accounting Arm : Consultants Win Battle Of Andersen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/08/business/worldbusiness/08iht-consult.2.t.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=[[New York City]] |access-date=1 March 2014}}</ref>

On 1&nbsp;January 2001, Andersen Consulting adopted the name, "Accenture". The word "Accenture" was derived from "Accent on the future". The name "Accenture" was submitted by Kim Petersen, a Danish employee from the company's [[Oslo, Norway]] office. Petersen hoped that the name would not be offensive in any country in which Accenture operates, because the word itself was meaningless.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Kotler |first1=Philip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcmo-WZtOvQC |title=B2B Brand Management |last2=Pfoertsch |first2=Waldemar |date=2006-09-22 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-540-44729-0 |pages=291–292 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Incorporation and public listing ===
Accenture was incorporated in Bermuda in 2001. On 19 July 2001, Accenture's [[initial public offering]] (IPO) was priced at $14.50 per share, and the shares began trading on the [[New York Stock Exchange]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Accenture IPO gains in first trades |url=https://money.cnn.com/2001/07/19/deals/accenture/index.htm |publisher=[[CNN Money]] |date=19 July 2001 |access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref> Because of the split from Andersen, Accenture avoided prosecution on June 16, 2002, when the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] prosecuted Arthur Andersen for [[obstructing justice]] and [[accounting fraud]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salinger |first=Lawrence M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0f7yTNb_V3QC&dq=%22Andersen+Consulting%22+%22Accenture%22+%22Enron%22&pg=PA57 |title=Encyclopedia of White-Collar & Corporate Crime |date=2005 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-0-7619-3004-4 |page=57 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Reincorporation in Ireland ===
On 26 May 2009, Accenture announced that its board of directors unanimously approved changing the company's place of incorporation from Bermuda to Ireland.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=4830 |title=Accenture Newsroom: Accenture Announces Proposed Change of Incorporation to Ireland |publisher=newsroom.accenture.com |date=26 May 2009 |access-date=6 August 2010}}</ref>