Ray Wang writes about the end of the 5 year PwC non-compete with IBM. And speculates it will be a firm the larger outsourcers will need to watch. I am sure many at IBM will want to go back to the coziness and relative smallness of PwC.
But the market is so different than it was 5 years ago. The one mega-hit PwC Consulting had for the last few years before it was sold was its SAP practice which at peak had scaled to $ 3 billion a year. Today with offshore competition, and continued consolidation at top with IBM, Accenture and EDS in particular, and with SAP license growth flattening, repeating that success would be tough.
Sure compliance consulting has been hot, but around most technology areas I see Big 5 heritage firms like Deloitte fragmented in many different markets and Bearingpoint struggling...not sure PwC would do dramatically better.
Of course, there is something to be said about quality of life at an enjoyable boutique...
