MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Seven Signs Your Firm Is About to Change | Accounting Voices

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The smart move is learning which signals matter and how to prepare.

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Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

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If you work in an accounting firm today, you can feel the tension in the air. Something is shifting. You sense it before anyone tells you. Leaders start speaking in strange new phrases. Workloads rise without explanation. New people appear in meetings while familiar faces quietly disappear. Rumors travel faster than email. And you begin wondering what everyone else is wondering, Is something happening here?

MORE Accounting Voices with Rob Brown | Why Accounting Firms Feel So Unstable Right Now | Should I Leave Public Accounting? | Visibility Is the New Accounting Authority | How to Outsmart the Big Four on AI | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Today, accounting firms feel unstable. The private equity wave. The mergers. The leadership turnover. The technology pressure. The partner exits. The new business models. Today we look at the next step. How to read the signals inside your own firm before anything becomes official.

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PE Wars: The CPA Platform Economy Is Concentrating Fast

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After hundreds of deals, the data show a gravitational pull toward a handful of buyers now driving the profession’s future.

Five Top Power Players

CPA Trendlines chart showing PE-backed accounting platform power players

CPA Trendlines PE Deal Tracker: Mega-aggregators dominate the money flow as the race tightens between Ascend, Aprio, Crete, Eisner and Ryan. (Data: March 31, 2026)

By CPA Trendlines Research

The frantic pace of deal-making this past March marks a turning point. What had been described as a consolidation phase has matured into something more defined and more consequential: a platform-driven market in which a relatively small number of repeat acquirers are shaping the profession’s future.

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As the first quarter of 2026 closes, the story is no longer simply about transactions. It is about structure. The question has shifted from who is buying whom to which investment models, operating systems, and capital strategies will define the next decade of accounting.

For years, the prevailing narrative held that private equity would democratize the profession. Capital, it was said, would spread broadly across hundreds of firms, opening access to institutional funding that had never before been available. But the data tells a different story.

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Merger Checklist: 34 Action Steps

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https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/11/09/why-its-time-for-an-acquisition/

There are a lot of decisions to make.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

Most firms find that it takes three to four years to fully implement a merger. But during the first few months after the effective date of the merger, there are quite a few administrative and procedural things that need to be attended to immediately.

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Most firms try to get as much of a head start as possible, before the effective date of the merger.
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The Six Types of Due Diligence You Need before Merging

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Don’t concentrate on some and breeze through others.

By R. Peter Fontaine
NewGate Law

My approach in writing this post is to give you a comprehensive list of due diligence items for your consideration, and to let you select the reviews you wish to perform. The ultimate decision rests with you.

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The scope of due diligence will differ depending on the transaction, and should be appropriately tailored. However, your Letter of Intent combined with the six areas outlined below result in a fairly comprehensive list of due diligence procedures that should serve the needs of most CPA mergers.
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