Do CPA Firm Mergers Really Work?

6 metrics to measure success. Procrastinators’ 3 myths. And 5 steps you can’t skip.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers

As a generation of aging Baby Boomer partners marches towards retirement, thousands of firms are seeking the only exit strategy available to them – merge into another firm. Thus has a voracious appetite for mergers been created at all size levels, particularly:

  • Sellers who are sole practitioners (remember, 30,000 of the U.S.’s 45,000 AICPA-member firms are solos and a huge percentage of those are at an advanced age) and multipartner firms billing under $2 milllion a year.
  • Buyers with annual revenues of $3 milion and more.

Do mergers work?

Well, that’s what doing a merger successfully is all about – asking the “right” questions.
Look at the reasons why the merger was done in the first place and see if those goals were met.

Good examples of the “right” questions: