• The global capital markets are maturing. US dollars are scouring the globe, through funds and as individual investors given the increased visibility to foreign markets. Improved visibility translates into easier flow of dollars.
• Costs to go public will vary. I'm not just thinking about SOX per se, but all the additional requirements to be listed on a major exchange. In the litigation-heavy US, everything seems to be at least a civil case waiting to happen - hiring, firing, missing earning forecasts. When it takes five years to prosecute confessed business criminals, I don't know that such a market would be judicious in helping me manage my legal cost exposure.
• Investors want to believe that greater returns can be found abroad. If the idea of "outsourcing" has become to normal to investors, am I really going to get a bump in value based on lean SG&A? Maybe not on US markets, but when someone finds my imaginary middle eastern company with a substantial US client base, I look more sophisticated than expected with a list of recognizable clients - a diamond in the rough.
  
• The tolerable role of government in business affairs varies - and sometimes their partnership is too valuable. If my key stakeholder is my domestic government (or the friends of family of governmental officials), do I want to introduce foreign oversight into my plans for world domination? Do I want to expose my little pretend eastern block company to the constraints of american views of bribery and fair dealings?

If you think that savings can be found as a result of reviewing your scope and risk assessments, you might want to play a bit with this calculator from Aline. This is the handy tool we all talk around, but hasn't shown up until now.

What is GAIT?
GAIT provides guidance in support of IT-related Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) internal control objectives, such as financial reporting and operations. GAIT is not a controls framework; it provides information to appropriately identify and link COSO constructs of internal control objectives, assertions, risks, and controls. These principles communicate how IT relates to business objectives, how IT differs from company to company, how to make assertions on IT transactional processes, and how to reach a well-informed decision on which controls to include and exclude. GAIT also addresses the balance of manual and automated controls, entity and process/activity level controls, and percentage of business automation supported or enabled by IT.