PwC

In 1854, William Cooper founded an accountancy practice at No. 13 George Street in London. It became Cooper Brothers seven years later when his three brothers joined.

In 1898, Robert H. Montgomery, William M. Lybrand, Adam A. Ross Jr. and his brother T. Edward Ross formed Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery in the United States.

In 1957, Cooper Brothers, along with Lybrand, Ross Bros & Montgomery and a Canadian firm (McDonald, Currie and Co.), agreed to adopt the name Coopers & Lybrand in international practice.

In 1973, the three member firms in the UK, US and Canada changed their names to Coopers & Lybrand. Then in 1980, Coopers & Lybrand expanded its expertise in insolvency substantially by acquiring Cork Gully, a leading firm in that field in the UK. In 1990, in certain countries, including the UK, Coopers & Lybrand merged with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells to become Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte; in 1992 it reverted to Coopers & Lybrand.

The firm relocated from George Street to modern offices designed by Dennis Lennon & Partners at Plumtree Court in 1985, and then moved to new offices designed by Terry Farrell at Embankment Place in 1994.

In 1849, Samuel Lowell Price, an accountant, founded an accountancy practice at No. 5 Gresham Street in London. In 1865, Price went into partnership with William Hopkins Holyland and Edwin Waterhouse at No. 13 Gresham Street. Holyland left shortly afterwards to work alone in accountancy and the firm was known from 1874 as Price, Waterhouse & Co. The firm was based at No. 3, Frederick's Place in Old Jewry in London from 1899.

By the late 19th century, Price Waterhouse had gained recognition as an accounting firm. It opened an office in New York City in 1890, and the American firm expanded. The original British firm opened an office in Liverpool in 1904, and then elsewhere in the United Kingdom and worldwide, each time establishing a separate partnership in each country: the worldwide practice of Price Waterhouse was, therefore, a federation of collaborating firms that had grown organically, rather than the result of an international merger.

The firm relocated from Frederick's Place to modern offices at Southwark Towers in London Bridge Street in 1975. …

PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity due to local legislative requirements. Much like other professional services firms, each member firm is financially and legally independent. PwC is co-ordinated by a private company limited by guarantee under English law, called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited. In addition, PwC is registered as a multidisciplinary entity which also provides legal services.

PwC firms are in 140 countries, with 370,000 people.

In September 2010, a new logo, designed by Wolff Olins, was introduced to reflect the new PwC trading name.

PwC's current logo was introduced in April 2025, featuring the new orange 'momentum mark'. This smaller and simpler design is said to be more fit for digital and online uses.

The firm has been embroiled in a number of corruption controversies and major criminal investigations as well as tax evasion and avoidance scandals. It has even aided war criminals in evading financial sanctions. PwC has also often performed faulty audits, vouching for the good financial health of companies without following basic auditing standards.

In 1989, the United States Supreme Court held that Price Waterhouse must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the decision regarding Ann Hopkins's employment would have been the same if sex discrimination had not occurred. The accounting firm failed to prove that the same decision to postpone Hopkins's promotion to the partnership would have still been made in the absence of sex discrimination, and therefore, the employment decision constituted sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The significance of the Supreme Court's ruling was twofold. First, it established that gender stereotyping is actionable as sex discrimination. Second, it established the mixed-motive framework as an evidentiary framework for proving discrimination under a disparate treatment theory even when lawful reasons for the adverse employment action are also present. Hopkins's candidacy for partnership had been put on indefinite hold. She eventually resigned and sued the company for occupational sexism, arguing that her lack of promotion came after pressure to walk, talk, dress, and act more "femininely."

In 1990, a Federal district judge in Washington ordered the firm to make Hopkins a partner. It was the first time in which a court awarded partnership in a professional company as a remedy for sexual or race-based discrimination.

Following the suit, the firm received media attention due to its discriminatory labor practices towards males as well.

In 2014, it came to light that PwC had received $55 million from Caterpillar Inc. to develop a tax avoidance scheme. According to a US Senate investigation, PwC had helped Caterpillar Inc. drastically reduce its taxes for more than a decade.

Profits worth $8 billion were shifted from the United States to Switzerland, allegedly enabling savings of more than $2.4 billion in US taxes over that period. …