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The major media say the chaos on Wall Street was the result of a "trader error, possibly a typo," as the Washington Post put it. Some reports claim the culprit was a "fat finger" on a computer somewhere that pressed the wrong key. But Zubi Diamond, author of the Wizards of Wall Street, says these claims are all lies. "What happened in the market on Thursday is a typical example of pure market manipulation" by unregulated hedge fund short sellers. His book, whose subtitle refers to the scam that elected Barack Obama, warns that the same hedge fund short sellers...

You think the action in Procter & Gamble was weird, check out the nosedive on Accenture, which plummeted from above $40 at 2:47 p.m. to $0.01 at 2:48 p.m. Had demand for consulting services declined so sharply in that one minute? Obviously there was some sort of technical snafu out there. Still, it seems that the worries in Greece were seriously worsening Thursday. So how much of that scare was robots gone wild and how much was sensible worry from flesh and blood investors? We’ll have to wait and see, though we did close down more than 3% on the...

MARANA, Ariz. – Tiger Woods isn’t playing the WGC-Accenture Match Play, a tournament he has won three times, but his presence is being felt here. Like a dark cloud in Arizona sunlight. In mid-December, Accenture dropped Woods as a commercial spokesman. Wednesday, the Woods camp dropped this little diversionary bombshell on the first day of Accenture’s PGA Tour event: Woods will be seen and heard Friday for the first time since his sex scandal began unfolding at Thanksgiving and led to his indefinite leave from golf. Woods will appear in an ultra-controlled setting, in line with his modus operandi of...

When Tiger Woods sits down in Florida Friday with "friends, colleagues and close associates," he won't really be there to make amends, as his agent suggested Wednesday. Woods will be coming back to launch a new, 2010 version of Tiger Woods, the same as if he were launching this year's version of his video game. Woods doesn't want to take questions, so he won't, because he's still Tiger Woods. But all husbands caught cheating - just once - probably wish they could find this soft a place to land. The agent, an overbearing and wildly overrated huckster named Mark Steinberg,...

NEW YORK - AT&T says it will no longer sponsor Tiger Woods, joining Accenture and Gillette in dropping support for the golfer after numerous allegations of infidelities.

Accenture ends sponsorship of Tiger Global consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture is ending its sponsorship of Tiger Woods, saying the golfer is "no longer the right representative" after the "circumstances of the last two weeks." (SNIP) The company is the second key sponsor of Woods to pull away. Gillette said Saturday that it won't feature Woods in its ads for an unspecified period of time.

Global consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture is ending its sponsorship of Tiger Woods, saying the golfer is "no longer the right representative" after the "circumstances of the last two weeks." Accenture's announcement Sunday marks the company's first statement since allegations of Woods' infidelity surfaced in recent weeks. The company is the second key sponsor of Woods to pull away. Gillette said Saturday that it won't feature Woods in its ads for an unspecified period of time. Woods is taking an indefinite leave from golf to work on his marriage after allegations that Woods had trysts with multiple women.

When the Indian outsourcing upstarts came on strong five years ago, it looked as if some giants of the $600 billion tech services industry would fall like top-heavy palm trees in a Category 4 hurricane. The Indians' combination of high quality and super-low cost flattened the stock prices and revenues of companies such as EDS (EDS ), BearingPoint (BE ), and Capgemini. Even mighty ibm (IBM ), the No. 1 tech services player, has struggled to rebound. One Western company has come through stronger than ever, though—and it did so by motoring straight into the eye of the storm. Accenture...

Inspired by India's success at turning itself into the king of global outsourcing, countries all over the world are trying to perform the same feat on their often-struggling economies. Many send delegations to India to meet with experts and visit its hundreds of call centers, into-tech support operations, and back-office processing facilities. They also tap into expertise at the World Bank or hire consultants such as Accenture (NYSE: ACN - news) , McKinsey, or market researcher Gartner (NYSE: IT - news) . Armed with support from ambitious politicians, many countries then roll out packages of economic reforms to sweeten their...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Taxpayers face a price tag of at least $1 billion over the next seven years to fix the state's aging computer systems that run payroll, budgeting and purchasing functions, according to the state's technology chief. Consumers and businesses would also be asked to pay user fees to support new Web-based services such as renewing driver's licenses, obtaining business licenses or filing corporate documents. Meanwhile, the state will aggressively continue to consolidate its many computer processing facilities, call centers and other information systems to save money and improve services. The ideas are all part of a grand technology...

The Department of Homeland Security recently awarded what could be a $10 billion border security contract to Bermuda-abased Accenture. My guest tonight says it is outrageous and wrong to reward a company for abandoning our country. Congresswoman Rosa DeLaura has authored legislation that would prevent government contracts from being awarded to foreign companies. In her statement, she said, "The United States should not be doing business with those who want all the benefits of citizenship without any of the responsibilities."

could be worth as much as $10 billion. The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it has picked Accenture as the prime contractor for US-Visit, an IT-based system that will control entry of foreigners into the country. The five-year contract, which could be lengthened to 10 years, could be worth up to $10 billion. Some people questioned whether the U.S. government would award Accenture the contract because it's incorporated in Hamilton, Bermuda. But only a handful of employees are situated there; 25,000 of Accenture's 90,000 workers are based in the United States. Accenture, with operations in 48 countries, says it...

NEW YORK TIMES, June 2, 2004 Accenture Is Awarded U.S. Contract for Borders By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOHN MARKOFF WASHINGTON, June 1 - The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday named Accenture as the prime contractor for a multibillion-dollar project aimed at creating a "virtual border" around the country to head off would-be terrorists entering the United States. Asa Hutchinson, the under secretary in charge of border security, said the project, called U.S.-Visit was "a significant milestone in the history of the department" and in the bolstering of border security since the Sept. 11 attacks. "I really don't think you...

Services abroad already include consulting and business process outsourcing BANGALORE, INDIA - Accenture Ltd. announced Wednesday that it is more than doubling its staff in India to 10,000 by next December. The company, based in Bermuda, currently employs 4,300 professionals in India for services such as consulting, system integration and business process outsourcing (BPO) for functions such as human resources management and financial accounting. The company also runs call centers in India. The BPO and call center services are offered both to customers and customers' clients. Accenture's India facilities are the only company sites as of now to offer voice-based...

Retailers and manufacturers that adopt wireless inventory tracking technology will reap significant improvements in supply chain operations and inventory accuracy, Accenture said Thursday. Known as auto-ID, the technology is a combination of electronic product codes (EPC) and radio frequency identification (RFID). Together, the two technologies make the process of tracking goods moving through a supply chain faster, more efficient and more accurate, proponents say. Several studies by Accenture show that companies adopting auto-ID can increase revenues up to 1 percent and cut working capital 2 percent to 8 percent by reducing the amount of raw materials inventory needed for production,...

<p>Consulting firm Accenture is acquiring Election.com, a New York-based company that provides election systems software for Arkansas and all its 75 counties, according to several sources.</p> <p>"Technically, Election.com doesn't exist anymore," an Election.com employee said on condition of anonymity.</p> <p>Repeated messages to Election.com's headquarters in Garden City, N.Y., seeking comment were not returned.</p>

Agency nears completion of financial enterprise architectureBy Matthew FrenchThe Defense Department next month will complete a $100 million project that few thought could be finished on time and within budget: the world's largest financial enterprise architecture. The financial management enterprise architecture project, an ambitious undertaking designed to consolidate and standardize all of DOD's financial reporting systems, is scheduled to be completed in April, just one year after the contract was awarded.The project is designed to help the department obtain a clean financial audit &#8212; something it has been unable to do. With DOD on the brink of war, this goal...

Questions raised over another Davis gift Donation in 2000 from firm that won huge state contract Greg Lucas, Sacramento Bureau Chief Thursday, May 9, 2002 Sacramento -- A company that won approval of a $453 million contract in 2000 to help California manage welfare cases gave $50,000 to Gov. Gray Davis' campaign within a day of hiring one of the governor's top fund-raisers as a lobbyist. The contribution by Accenture, an international consulting firm, was made while the Davis administration was weighing whether to drop one of the four providers of software for the huge computer system California uses to...