washingtonpost.com: KPMG Consulting Resolves Identity Crisis

KPMG Consulting Resolves Identity Crisis
Two Years After Split From Auditing Firm, Spinoff Renames Itself 'BearingPoint'

By a Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 3, 2002; Page E05

KPMG Consulting Inc., the McLean consulting firm that just couldn't shake its past as part of accounting firm KPMG LLP, renamed itself "BearingPoint" yesterday to try to reinforce its independence.

Despite KPMG's split two years ago, some customers and media continued to assume there was a relationship between the consulting firm and the auditing firm, company executives said. The misunderstanding became especially bothersome after this year's corporate scandals spurred criticism of cozy relationships between auditing and consulting divisions of the same company.

"We still had the appearance of a relationship," said Rand Blazer, BearingPoint's chief executive.

The company considered 550 proposed names, seeking one with literal meaning that could be trademarked in 130 countries. Employees briefly rallied behind the chief executive's surname, Blazer, but that's also the name of a Chevrolet sport-utility vehicle. The name BearingPoint is based on navigational terms that signify "setting a direction to an end point," the company said.

The firm has spent more than $5 million to promote the new name, and expects to spend $25 million to $30 million more, Blazer said.

BearingPoint will move from the Nasdaq Stock Market to the New York Stock Exchange today and will trade under the symbol BE. It is positioning itself as a global firm, having recently acquired the German, Swiss and Austrian consulting practices of KPMG International Inc.

KPMG Consulting stock yesterday closed at $6.54 a share, down 6 cents, and well off its 52-week high of $21.49, reached in March.

BearingPoint joins the ranks of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, which considered changing its name to "Monday" (it abandoned that idea after agreeing to be acquired by IBM in a deal that closed yesterday), and Andersen Consulting, now Accenture. Deloitte Consulting, a unit of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, has said it will change its name to "Braxton" once it completes its separation from the accounting firm.