If, however, "Chinese walls" successfully separate audit and everything else, then the case for getting everything from one firm shrinks.
When a formerly high-flying tech firm shrinks to penny-stock status and suddenly no one cares that it is "an emerging leader" in the "fast-growing" optical-widget space, it's really hard on the firm's flacks.
The long restructuring process of the past year and a half has seen this firm shrink itself radically to fit the smaller equipment market that will remain after the late '90s telecom bubble finally finishes deflating.
The number of oil firms shrank from 14 to five, for example, and the number of cement companies from seven to three.
The commercial vacancy rate downtown is 11 percent and is expected to worsen as some Wall Street firms shrink and others relocate.
It found that companies bought by private equity firms let go a larger proportion of workers than similar firms, shrinking their work forces about 6 percent more over a five-year window.
The recent ousting for alleged corruption of the Caymanian premier, McKeeva Bush, has not helped.Cayman's public sector expanded hugely in the go-go years before the crisis, but it became a fiscal albatross as fees from offshore firms shrank.
Q. Are fees likely to rise if the number of major firms shrinks from the Big Five to what some are calling the Final Four? A. Let's say audits do cost more.
With Wall Street firms shrinking, how will people respond to the news that Brooklyn is, too? "All everybody else can talk about is how much bigger China and India are getting," said Sylvie Smoke, 59, a retiree from the Upper West Side.
Ultimately, as the technological differences between the firms shrink, it may come down to sales and marketing—and given EMC's legendary sales machine, that means NetApp has a fight on its hands.Since the market up for grabs is so huge, it is worth the bruises.
