Audit Flaws Revealed, at Long Last [ NYT ] In theory, the board can put a firm out of business, but since the demise of Arthur Andersen reduced the Big Five to what some call the Final Four, there is general agreement that going to three would be unacceptable. So while the board can credibly threaten to close down a small firm that does a dozen or two audits each year, no such threat would be credible for Deloitte or one of the other three major accounting firms. Groupon's Loss Narrows, Spending Declines [ WSJ ] As Groupon Inc. prepares for a roadshow next week to woo investors, the daily-deals site filed amended initial-public-offering papers that showed a narrower quarterly loss and a decline in its marketing spending. According to an amended S1 filing, Groupon narrowed its net loss for the third quarter to $10.6 million from $49 million in the same period a year earlier. The Chicago company's third-quarter operating loss shrank to $239,000 from $56 million a year earlier.