PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the world's largest professional services firms and the largest of the Big Four auditing firms. It was formed in 1998 from a merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, both formed in London. PricewaterhouseCoopers earned aggregated worldwide revenues of US$26.2 billion for the fiscal year 2009, and employed over 163,000 people in 151 countries. In the United States, where in 2009 it was the eighth largest privately owned organization, it operates as PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. PricewaterhouseCoopers is a Big Four auditor, alongside KPMG, Ernst... & Young and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. The firm was created by the merger of two large firms, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand in 1998. These two firms each have histories dating back to the nineteenth century. Samuel Lowell Price, an accountant, started his practice in London in 1849. In 1865 Price went into partnership with William Hopkins Holyland and Edwin Waterhouse. Holyland left shortly after to work alone in accountancy and the firm was known from 1874 as Price, Waterhouse & Co.
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