Top 10 Worst Corporate Name Changes

When Andersen Consulting broke contractual ties with the accounting group Andersen in 2000, the consulting firm was forced to change its signature name. In an effort to find a new moniker, an internal competition was held; an employee in Oslo submitted Accenture, meant to be a derivative of "accent on the future." When the name was adopted on Jan. 1, 2001, it was blasted as a generic corporate nonsense word only a management consultant could have come up with (which, essentially, was true). The change cost Andersen/Accenture an estimated $100 million to execute and was regarded as one of the worst rebrandings in corporate history. The new title turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, when the Enron scandal erupted in October of that same year — permanently tainting the name of its accountants, Arthur Andersen.

See "The End of Arthur Andersen?"