Accenture plc

Formation and early years, 1950–1989

Accenture began as the business and technology consulting division of accounting firm Arthur Andersen in the early 1950s. The division conducted a feasibility study for General Electric to install a computer at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, which led to GE's installation of a UNIVAC I computer and printer, believed to be the first commercial use of a computer in the United States.

Split from Arthur Andersen and renaming, 1989–2001

In 1989, Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting became separate units of Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative (AWSC), a Swiss coordinating entity. Throughout the 1990s, tensions grew between the two units. Andersen Consulting was paying Arthur Andersen up to 15% of its profits each year (a provision of the 1989 split was that the more profitable unit – whether AA or AC – pays the other 15 percent), while at the same time Arthur Andersen was competing with Andersen Consulting through its own newly established business consulting service line called Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. In 2000, as a result of arbitration, Andersen Consulting broke all contractual ties with AWSC and Arthur Andersen. As part of the arbitration settlement, Andersen Consulting paid $1.2 billion to Arthur Andersen.

On 1 January 2001, Andersen Consulting adopted the name "Accenture". The word "Accenture" was derived from "Accent on the future". The name "Accenture" was submitted by Kim Petersen, a Danish employee from the company's Oslo, Norway office. Petersen hoped that the name would not be offensive in any country in which Accenture operates, because the word itself was meaningless.

Incorporation and public listing, 2001–2009

Accenture was incorporated in Bermuda in 2001. On 19 July 2001, Accenture's initial public offering (IPO) was priced at $14.50 per share, and the shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Because of the split from Andersen, Accenture avoided prosecution on June 16, 2002, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuted Arthur Andersen for obstructing justice and accounting fraud in the supreme court case Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States around the Enron scandal.

Reincorporation in Ireland, 2009 until present

On 26 May 2009, Accenture announced that its board of directors had unanimously approved changing the company's place of incorporation from Bermuda to Ireland.

Since 2013, Accenture has acquired over 200 companies.

Accenture has been a strategic partner of The Alan Turing Institute since 2017.

In January 2026, the company announced the acquisition of Faculty, a UK-based artificial intelligence company, in a deal that values the company at $1 billion.

In March 2026, Accenture agreed to acquire Ookla, a Seattle-based network intelligence company known for Speedtest, Downdetector, Ekahau, and RootMetrics from Ziff Davis for $1.2 billion.