Accenture plc is a consulting and technology services company incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, and listed on the NYSE. It grew out of Andersen Consulting, formed in 1989, and reported $69.7B of revenue in fiscal 2025 (year to August 31, 2025).
How Does Accenture PLC Make Money?
Accenture earns revenue in two ways. Consulting ($35.11B in FY2025) covers strategy, systems implementation, cloud migration and data and AI projects. Managed services ($34.57B) covers multi-year contracts to run clients' applications, infrastructure and business processes. New bookings were $80.62B in FY2025, and since September 1, 2025 the services are sold through one Reinvention Services unit.
What Is Accenture PLC's Competitive Advantage?
Accenture can carry a client from strategy through implementation into long-term operations, and it has about 799,000 employees (May 31, 2026) with delivery centers in India, the Philippines, Europe and Latin America. It works closely with Microsoft (including the Avanade joint venture formed in 2000), SAP, AWS, Google Cloud, Salesforce and Oracle. Unlike the Big Four it has no audit business, so auditor independence rules do not limit what it sells to a client.
Who Founded Accenture PLC and When?
Accenture has no single founder. In 1953 an Arthur Andersen team led by Joseph Glickauf studied payroll automation for General Electric, which installed a UNIVAC I in 1954. The consulting practice became Andersen Consulting in 1989 under George Shaheen. After arbitration filed in 1997, an August 2000 ruling let it leave Arthur Andersen but required a new name, and it became Accenture on January 1, 2001, listing on the NYSE on July 19, 2001.
Who Runs Accenture?
Julie Sweet has been CEO since September 1, 2019 and chair since September 2021. Her predecessors were Joe Forehand (1999 to 2004), William D. Green (2004 to 2011), Pierre Nanterme (2011 to January 2019) and interim CEO David Rowland (January to August 2019).
How Is Accenture PLC Growing?
Accenture combines organic services growth with acquisitions. It spent $6.58B on businesses and investments in FY2024 and $1.47B in FY2025. In 2026 it completed the purchase of UK AI company Faculty and agreed to buy Ziff Davis's Ookla connectivity unit for $1.2B. It announced a $3B Data & AI investment in 2023.
What Are the Biggest Risks Facing Accenture PLC?
Generative AI can automate work that Accenture has long billed by headcount, and hyperscalers and software vendors also sell their own services. Growth slowed to 1% in FY2024, and in September 2025 the company started an $865M business optimization program, mainly severance. For FY2026 it guided to 3% to 4% local-currency growth, including an estimated 1 point drag from U.S. federal work.
