In 1997, KPMG and Ernst & Young announced that they were to merge, in a manoeuvre largely seen as a spoiling tactic over the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. However that merger, to form PricewaterhouseCoopers, was granted regulatory approval and the KPMG/Ernst & Young tie-up was later abandoned.
In 2001, KPMG divested its US consulting firm through an IPO of KPMG Consulting Inc, which is now called BearingPoint, Inc.
In 2003, KPMG divested itself of its legal arm, Klegal.
Some of KPMG's major audit clients include HSBC, Diageo, and AstraZeneca and Halifax Bank of Scotland.