Jim,
Great write-up regarding your concerns.
One point of clarification though, in situations like this, it is the accounting firm’s responsibility to identify and remediate the conflict of interest. This would not be the responsibility of management. The SEC audit requirements around independence are very strict and it doesn’t surprise me that it was PwC’s conclusion that they were conflicted out.
I agree with others that stated that in PwC’s mind, it was better to use AYX’s product than it was to have them as an audit client. Hopefully that is because AYX provides a great service and its not because they’re a bad audit client…
Kevin