1.   Although it would have gotten HP into the lucrative consulting business, helping it quickly diversify beyond low-margin hardware, it represented a huge risk.

2.   Analysts have speculated the consulting business of the merged companies would feed off their auditing business, creating potential conflicts of interest and crowding out smaller, local competitors.

3.   And a move last year to expand in services by acquiring the consulting business of PriceWaterhouseCoopers fell apart.

4.   And Hitachi bought the technology consulting business of Grant Thornton last year.

5.   And John Paul Marosy, a specialist on elder care issues and president of a consulting business, HM Associates in Belmont, tells a similar tale.

6.   And in Virginia, Doug Dobrynski recorded two employees at his government consulting business who spent their days instant-messaging friends.

7.   ANDERSEN STEPS UP TALKS ON UNIT Arthur Andersen is nearing a deal to sell its consulting business to KPMG Consulting, partners at the firm said.

8.   Anderson is no Gartner fan and there are many others in the information technology consulting business who feel the same way.

9.   Any kind of consulting business depends, almost entirely, on its people, and they have a habit of moving.

10.   Arthur Andersen, for example, started another consulting business even after it decided to part ways with Andersen Consulting.