m&a

learning how to to ask all the right questions.

accounting firms combine for a reason, or not at all. in fact, firms may need many reasons to merge. making sure the merger discussions end in a successful deal requires hard work, some compromise and not a small amount of luck. according to marc rosenberg in how to negotiate a cpa firm merger, it shouldn’t start with “love at first sight.” but it must start with at least 13 ingredients necessary for success. read more →

what’s the first sign a deal won’t work? you can’t agree on the name of the new firm.

marc rosenberg, author of how to negotiate a cpa firm merger, sees negotiations unravel for too many reason. some of the reasons are serious, others just seem ridiculous. for example, rosenberg recalls one deal failed when one side insisted on “requiring a positive attitude toward employees.” in most cases, one firm wants something, the other firm doesn’t, and the two can’t agree on how to resolve the conflict. sounds simple. it isn’t. here are 15 ways to make something that should be simple into something way too complicated. read more →

the eight most important facts in settling on a multiple.

with the merger-and-acquisitions frenzy showing no signs of slowing down, practice owners seem to be checking almost daily: what’s my practice worth?

“one thing is for sure,” says gary adamson, former ceo of brady ware, a top 200 firm, now providing advisory services for firms across the country, “baby boomers are selling at a rate that the profession has never seen before.”

it’s still a sellers’ market, he says. but that could change soon, he says, citing “the demographics and the thousands of practices that will soon come onto the market.”

in this report, adamson addresses:

• the question of valuing a practice
• two basic types of deals
• the value of a multiple
• eight critical components to making a deal
• the effect of size of practice on valuation
• profitability
• down payment
• transitions read more →