The Big Four still control everything

I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.

So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.

In this issue:

• Governments have been hiding aging infrastructure in the numbers

• The Big Four still own public company audits

• Apple stopped being a hardware company a long time ago

- Ledger Lowdown Team

WTF of the Day🤯

GASB Wants Governments to Get Real About Their Infrastructure

GASB wants cities and states to be more honest about infrastructure that is getting old. Right now a government can lump a bunch of stuff together and it is hard to tell what is actually wearing out. GASB is saying if one piece is expensive and ages faster than the rest, break it out and show it separately.

They also want governments to tell people when roads, bridges, and other assets are getting close to the end of their useful life. So basically this rule is about making it easier to see what public infrastructure is old, what might need repairs soon, and what governments have been hiding inside big accounting buckets.

What’s poppin in accounting🍿

Big Four hold onto their share of SEC market

Everyone talks like the Big Four are losing their grip. Not really. In 2025 they still handled 51% of all SEC public company audits, basically flat from the year before. And if you zoom out to the 10 biggest audit firms, they control 65% of the whole market. Deloitte stayed on top with 926 SEC audit clients and 15% share. EY had 13%, PwC had 12%, and KPMG bumped up to 11%.

The interesting part is what is happening underneath that. Two firms cracked the top 10 because of mergers, CBIZ after combining with Marcum, and Baker Tilly after merging with Moss Adams. So the market is not really getting more diverse. It is just getting reshuffled. Smaller firms still handle 35% of the market, but the biggest players keep holding the power while everyone else fights over what is left.

Weekly Trend Chart 📊

Apple Has Reinvented lts Business Every Decade Since The '90s

Apple started as a computer company in a garage and for the first 20 years that was basically the whole business. Then it almost died, came back with the iPod, and accidentally built a music empire. By 2006 the iPod and iTunes were doing $9.6 billion in sales, which was about half the company. Then the iPhone showed up, killed the iPod, and by 2016 it made up 63% of Apple's sales by itself.

Now Apple is quietly pulling off its next trick. Everyone still thinks of it as an iPhone company, but the real gold mine is services. Stuff like the App Store, iCloud, AppleCare, ads, and Apple TV+ now makes up more than a quarter of revenue and runs at roughly 75% margins. The hardware business does about 37%. So Apple spent 50 years going from selling one computer to selling one phone to selling subscriptions and fees on top of everything. That is how you become a $3.7 trillion company without looking like you changed that much at all.

Meme of the Day😂

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