"Second Tier" Increasing Audit Clout

Demands of SOX compliance and wanting to keep top clients happy has stretched Big Four firms thin (and perhaps could get thinner depending on how severe KPMG's troubles become). As a result, smaller national/international firms including Grant Thornton, BDO Seidman, McGladrey Pullen and Crowe Group have taken up some of the slack with Seidman particularly successful (note: I briefly worked for then-Seidman and Seidman in the late 1970s and actually met founding brother P. K.). Analysts believe that Seidman has been particularly successful because of historic concentration in retail and related industries, thus minimizing client losses of their own as the accounting industry reconsolidates.