Andersen

is my last name, not the name of the company I work for (and in these Enron times, one should be thankful...). But it was close once. Here's the story:

In 1989, I was working as an IS manager in Norway, but also doing some consulting on the side (Norwegians are a lot less strict in these matters than most US corporations). I was seriously considering incorporating, which in Norway at that time involved registering a company name and paying what seemed to me a rather large fee (around $1000). After thinking about it, and investigating whether the name I wanted was available, I deemed the fee to high and continued without incorporation.

The name I had chosen for my not-to-be company was

Andersen Consulting

Six months later, Arthur Andersen separates out their consulting business from the accounting and calls the new business unit Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). And I would have had a legitimate company, in the same business, owning that name in Norway. What a nice little position I would have been in, figuring out the licencing fee.... (I have since talked to people at Andersen Consulting Norway, who confirmed that they would have had to buy me out.) Oh well.

Incidentally, I never learn, which is why this page is not at www.andersen.com.