General Motors (NYSE: GM) announced last week in an Item 4.01 8-K that, after their 2017 annual report is filed, the company would be engaging Ernst & Young as its new independent auditor.
Following review of proposals from the independent registered public accounting firms that participated in the process, on September 25, 2017, the Audit Committee approved the engagement of Ernst & Young LLP (“EY”) as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the Company’s fiscal year ending December 31, 2018, subject to completion of EY’s standard client acceptance procedures and execution of an engagement letter.
GM is one of the largest US companies to change its auditor in recent years. Since the beginning of 2016, only seven companies in the S&P 500 index have changed their audit firm.
The only other S&P 500 company to change out its auditor after a longer tenured engagement is American Electric Power, which switched to PwC after having used Deloitte as its auditor for 106 years.
After General Motors, and American Electric Power last year, there are only four companies left among the S&P 500 with auditor tenures over 100 years.
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