How much we should pay for SOX Compliance

Sox compliance is very expensive. I agree, and it’s become more expensive if you put wrong approach in to. Here is an example how much people pay for Sarbanes Oxley Act Compliance. It remind me during early implementation of ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning), the fact said that only several number of implementation that success.

According to Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire-Hathaway spent $24 million on auditing this year; a figure he says would have been closer to $10 million without SOX. (DealBreaker . A Wallstreet Tabloid, March 2007)

Investors are taking companies private at a record pace. On Monday, it was Sallie Mae, the mammoth school-loan company, in a $25 billion deal. Do private equity firms know something the rest of us don’t? (Investors Business Daily, April 2007)

100,000 fans flock to Shelbourne, Vermont, each year to tour the factory of the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. Although they can buy the bears, they can no longer buy the firms shares. That’s because Vermont Teddy Bear went private in September 2005, after 12 years as a public company. The company’s CEO, Elisabeth Robert, says a major reason was the SOX. Had the firm remained public, she estimates the cost of complying with the law would have doubled to about $600,000 a year. (Nightly Business Report, April 2007)

Financial Executives International, a professional association, suggested that the cost of complying with Section 404 has been falling as companies become more efficient, but is still substantial. The survey showed that companies with a market capitalization greater than $75 million spent an average of $2.9 million in fiscal 2006 to comply. That was a 23 percent decrease from the 2005 figure. . Michael Hardy (Quote.com, July 2007)

Any other experience? How much you company pay for preparing SOX compliance

PS: Data taken from Sarbanes Oxley IT Compliance, Christian B. Lahti and Roderick Peterson