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Accenture to vote on IPO
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April 17, 2001: 5:26 p.m. ET
Consulting firm to vote on partial offering, Genomic firm Athersis pulls IPO
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Accenture, the firm formerly known as Andersen Consulting, will decide this week whether to launch a public offering.
Partners of the Chicago-based Accenture will meet Wednesday and Thursday to decide the firm's legal and financial structure, Accenture spokeswoman Roxanne Taylor said. One of the options the firm is reviewing is whether to launch a partial IPO of the firm.
Accenture won its freedom last August from parent firm Andersen Worldwide. As part of the split, Andersen Consulting changed its name to Accenture. In October, partners voted to approve a plan that could lead to a partial public offering of stock. The firm has spent the past six months reviewing the analytical, legal, financial and regulatory work needed to consider such a move.
Accenture's 2,500 partners will vote on whether to stay in its current form or change.
"We will make our decision on our legal and financial structure going forward," Taylor said.
Accenture, the largest global consulting firm, did not specify how many shares it would offer or a timeline for the offering. However, such an IPO could value the company at $25 billion to $30 billion, according to the press reports.
 The Accenture IPO would be the latest from a unit of the Big Five accounting firms, which include KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers. On February 8, KPMG Consulting Inc. surged 30 percent in its market debut. Shares for KPMG (KCIN: down $0.35 to $12.80, Research, Estimates) have since fallen below their $18 offer price.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the biggest of the Big Five global accounting firms, is also following KPMG's route and eyeing an IPO of its consulting unit. On Nov. 13, Hewlett-Packard ended talks with PwC that would have had the computer maker paying $17 billion-to-$18 billion for the accounting firm's consulting unit.
The Accenture spokeswoman also denied speculation that Accenture was going to dismiss about 4,000 to 5,000 employees as it prepares to go public.
The consulting firm has hired about 17,000 employees since September. Accenture currently has 71,000 employees, including 2,500 partners, in 46 countries.
"We at the current time don't have any layoffs planned," Taylor said.
Athersys pulls IPO
Genomic firm Athersys Inc. became the latest firm to pull its planned IPO Tuesday.
In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, Athersys cited poor market conditions for withdrawing the planned offering. Two technology firms pulled their planned offering Monday, also due to the stock market slump.
Cleveland-based Athersys originally filed in October to raise $115 million via Credit Suisse First Boston.
Athersys has developed technology to scan the entire human genome and find proteins with specific biological functions. The technology creates synthetic human chromosomes that will be used in gene therapy to treat diseases.
Analysts had expected the Athersys IPO to perform well. However, like most biotechs, the company is not profitable with $4.1 million losses on no revenue for the six months ended June 30.
The company had yet to specify how many shares it would offer or their price range but had planned to trade under the Nasdaq symbol "ATHX." 
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