 ABC Learning: accounting lessons never learned?Phil Ross, Aida Sy and Tony Tinker International Journal of Critical Accounting, 2012, vol. 4, issue 1, 21-29 Abstract: The collapse of ABC Learning (ABC) is replete with lessons for accountants, auditors, executives and regulators. From its early beginnings, ABC's intervention into child care provision, gave plenty of red flags for anyone paying attention. Unfortunately, the euphoria, championed by Australian's new charismatic boy wonder (ABC's Eddie Groves) led a 'free market' mergers-and-acquisition incursion into child care. The chorus of cheer-leaders drowned-out the naysayers. No-one wanted to be branded as a non-believer. As with many high-growth entities that expand by merger and acquisition, they are heavily leveraged bubbles. Eventually, bubbles burst on margin calls. ABC Learning, stretching over several continents, collapsed and the Australian state, who gave generous subsidies to fund their poster boy, Eddie Groves, was left to pick up the pieces by underwriting the rescue package. Keywords: ABC Learning; Edmund Stuart Groves; Eddy Groves; Australia; New Zealand; state subsidies; fraud; business collapses; accountants; auditors; company executives; regulators; child care provision; free markets; mergers; acquisitions; high-growth entities; heavily leveraged bubbles; margin calls; underwriting; rescue packages; regulatory bodies; government regulation; critical accounting. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijcrac:v:4:y:2012:i:1:p:21-29 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Critical Accounting from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.