*Merger Mania Continues

Source: Accounting Today

As M&A activity in the accounting industry continues to increase, Accounting Today asked experts for their insights on what's in store for 2016. Here are a few highlights from their comments:

• “Acquirers want to keep growing and expanding into new markets to leverage their infrastructure. Smaller and local firms continue to view merging as a way to fund retirement benefits, gain ability to service larger clients and gain access to better technology platforms.” — Russell Shapiro
• “The market is very active and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There are many reasons for this activity but the main ones include: succession; large firms seeking to enter new marketplaces; large firms who recently did enter a new marketplace now looking into tuck-ins; talent grabs; and establishing cross-selling opportunities by merging in niches and the like including nontraditional accounting and tax firms.” — Joel Sinkin
• “One of the big changes going on is that the acquirers have essentially expanded from the Top 100 Firms to include the Top 500 firms (firms with revenues of $7 million or greater).” — Allan Koltin

For the complete article, read “The State of the M&A Market.”

From Accounting Today, February 3, 2016, www.accountingtoday.com.