Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper
Buyers want sellers who invest in the long game.
The Disruptors
with Liz Farr
mergers
Robert Fligel: Private Equity Shakes up M&A
Opportunity or threat? It depends.
^ Unmute for sound and adjust the volume
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).
With Rick Telberg
For CPA Trendlines
Private equity takeovers of accounting firms are changing the rules for the CPA business, impacting succession plans, shifting talent strategies, and reshaping the competition, according to Robert Fligel, CEO and founder of RF Resources, one of the nation’s leading advisors.
MORE: Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly Learn | Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | From Tax to Transformation | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory | Four Strategies for a Future Ready Firm Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More
SEE ALL: Podcasts and Videos here
In this exclusive interview with CPA Trendlines, Fligel, a veteran dealmaker in the vast and active New York market, explains what PE firms may not want you to know, why CPA firms are suddenly so much in demand, and the often-uncertain outlook for owners, staffers, and the profession.
For some, PE is an opportunity. For others, a threat. Fligel helps sort it all out.
Private Equity Heats Up M&A
Firms competing in the buyers’ market need to put on some polish.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Rosenberg MAP Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics
The accounting industry is seeing an upswing in mergers and acquisitions after a slowdown during the pandemic confusion.
MORE: Why Solo CPAs Need PCAs | Where Mergers Go Wrong | What Your Merger Letter of Intent Needs | 61 Things Buyers Should Explore with Sellers | Thirteen Ways to Woo Potential Firm Buyers | One Times Fees Isn’t the Only Way | Four Reasons to Fear a Merger
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
The reasons, according to consultants quoted in the 2022 Rosenberg Survey, are several:
- Sellers are looking for viability as partners retire.
- Sellers are looking for funding to upgrade tech and shift to CAS.
- Buyers are looking for scarce personnel.
- Buyers are looking for specialized niches.
- Buyers are looking for something to tempt private equity investment.
What kinds of tips are available for buyers and sellers?
How COVID Changes Succession Planning
Larger firms want to drive scale; smaller firms want more distribution and leverage.
By Ira Rosenbloom
Even as the pandemic rips through the world with horrific tragedy, it is also spawning some new ideas, some critical imperatives, and some unforeseen opportunities, especially in the area of CPA firm succession.
MORE: Top 10 Steps to Maximizing Profitability
We are witnessing a heightened interest in firms committing sincerely to mergers and other practice combinations, and there is now a shifting business culture that aligns better with internal practice succession than we have seen in a long while.
These shifts in succession potential are largely a function of technology, quality of life, client needs (and demands), and resources.
Let’s break it down:
How Artificial Intelligence Will Drive the Next Wave of Merger Mania
It may be time to prepare a Plan B.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
We are halfway into the year 2017 and the frenzied pace of CPA firm mergers and acquisitions – when compared to the years 2015 and 2016 when there were over 100 and over 200 transactions, respectively – has not slowed down one bit.
MORE ON STRATEGIC PLANNING: What a Value Proposition Truly Is (and Isn’t) | The Importance of M&A Culture Due Diligence | Are You Attracting the New Breed of Equity Partners? | Quality Work, Quality Service Not the Same Thing | Who Will Be the Next Category Killer? | Why Is Strategy Execution So Difficult? | Time Running Out for Succession Planning | The Benefits of a Client Situation Review
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
We continue to witness a perfect storm caused by:
READ MORE →
When the Inmates Are Running the Asylum
Crazy doesn’t get better by adding more crazy.
By Dom Cingoranelli
“We can’t really enforce this because we don’t want to risk having him (or her) quit.”
I can’t tell you how many times we hear something to this effect when we talk with CPAs. We hear this at small firms and we hear it at large firms. We hear it from partners, from directors, and from managers. It doesn’t matter what size firm they’re in, nor does it matter what level or position they hold.
It’s always the same line. It reminds me of the old adage, “the inmates are running the asylum.” And, it raises the question of who actually is running the firm. Who’s in charge?
SURVEY FINDINGS: Talent Wars, M&A Frenzy Continue
Plus a suggestion for renaming the MP.
By Gary Adamson
The Rosenberg MAP Survey
Organic growth continued to be slow and nowhere near pre-recession levels. In fact, this survey and others showed a lower 2015 growth rate than 2014.
MORE FROM THE SURVEY: Next-Gen Leaders Getting Restless | Mergers Keep Racing Forward | Do You Have a Firm or a Co-op? | Accountability, Equity, Compensation Are Concerns | MAP Survey Top 10 Findings | CPA Firm Revenues Rise a Hefty 8%
The talent wars are back with a vengeance and firms are generally not finding success in hiring their way out of long-standing succession issues.
READ MORE →
Cultural Optimization: Making Mergers Successful
How to begin successful post-merger integration strategies before the contracts are written.
By R. Peter Fontaine
Newgate Law
Rereading The Rational Optimist by British author Matt Ridley revived my belief in “cultural optimization” when it comes to accounting firm acquisitions. Ridley’s perspective is quite simple – over the millennia, human cultures have only progressed when the interaction between societies was collaborative. People are better-off today because of the ancestral exchange and integration of ideas, language, beliefs, skills, customs, habits, technology and social structure; rather than as a result of isolation or cultural dominance and extinction.
MORE PETER FONTAINE: What to Ponder Before Issuing a Letter of Intent | Why Due Diligence is Done | The Four Ways ‘Non-Competes’ #FAIL in the Social Media Age |
While Ridley’s notion of optimizing cultural differences makes perfect sense, it does not seem to be regularly applied in the context of accounting firm M&A activity. READ MORE →