An accountancy tounge-twister

Merging accountancy giants Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand yesterday announced their new proposed name - PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Having received final regulatory clearance for their merger from the European Commission a week ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers will come into being from July 1 1998.

In a joint statement, Nicholas G Moore, chairman of Coopers & Lybrand and James J Schiro, chief executive of Price Waterhouse, said: "Our new name and the way in which it is presented visually communicate the combination of an enormously successful past and breakaway future."

But advertising experts were less impressed, saying the name was too much of a mouthful.

Trevor Beattie, creative director of advertising agency TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, said he was not surprised the group had not created a more original name for themselves.

He said: "Compromise is the order of the day and it is rare that companies will have the guts to drop everything and come up with a new name. "The name's tired - not exactly inspirational - and smacks of compromise."