This has to be at least the third or fourth article I’ve seen about Grant Thornton UK being courted by multiple private equity suitors. Sounds to me like they’re having trouble getting one of them to commit, not that they’ve got their pick of dates.
Several private equity firms are considering offers for a stake in Grant Thornton’s UK business, in a competitive bidding process aimed at securing a valuation of up to £1.5bn for the mid-tier accountant.
Carlyle, Blackstone, Permira, CVC Capital Partners and Bridgepoint are among buyout firms weighing potential offers for Grant Thornton UK ahead of a deadline in September for formal expressions of interest, according to people familiar with the situation.
London-based Cinven is also seen as a potential bidder by industry executives, while New Mountain Capital, which took a majority stake in Grant Thornton’s US business earlier this year, is exploring an offer as part of a plan to merge the UK, Ireland and US operations, the Financial Times has reported.
The Times published a similar article — headline and all — a week ago.
Just sign it already, then. Or can’t you?
ICYMI: Over the weekend, #53 firm Doeren Mayhew announced they’ve entered into an arrangement with private equity firm Audax. Comments are rolling in and there’s a lively r/accounting discussion here. Anyone inside DM who feels some type of way about this deal is welcome, nay encouraged, to get in touch and talk about it (anonymously). Text the tipline at 202-505-8885 or shoot me an email.
Business Insider says “America’s most boring job is on the brink of extinction.” Oh the AICPA is going to be fuming for a while about that headline.
For most of his youth, Bryan wanted to be an astrophysicist.
He was obsessed with the Hubble telescope, and his bedroom ceiling was dotted with plastic glow-in-the-dark stars. When the Scholastic Book Fair came to his library, he’d beg his parents for cash to buy NASA photo books. To him, space science seemed the pinnacle of innovation, excitement, and existentialism.
So when, as a sophomore in college, he told his parents he was going to major in accounting, they gave him what Bryan (which isn’t his real name) could describe only as “a look.”
“An accountant?” he remembers his mother saying. “Why would you want to be an accountant?”
Certified public accountants have long been cast as penny-pinching list checkers with vanilla personalities and a zeal for taxes, but that stereotype seems to turn off Gen Z more than any previous generation. That perception plus the industry’s actual hurdles and pitfalls have compounded in the past several years to create a nationwide accountant shortage.
Nothing unique here but there’s this:
There are some signs that some firms are responding to calls for salary changes. Margaret Burke, the talent acquisition and development leader at PwC, said in a written statement that the firm has increased entry-level salaries for audit and tax associates “over the last several years,” but declined to say by how much. She also pointed out that PwC gives performance-based raises and bonuses “at all levels.”
Does it beat inflation at least?
Related: Just How Much Have Accounting Salaries Increased in the Last Five Years?
Outsourced staff in the Philippines are getting better amenities:
An accounting outsourcing provider is actively expanding its workforce, seeking to hire more accountants, bookkeepers and other professionals as it launches its second office in Cebu IT Park.
In a statement, TOA Global announced that its new office in the Skyrise 3B Tower covers over 5,000 square meters across five floors and can accommodate 940 employees.
Employees may work in-office, fully remote or on a flexible arrangement.
For a better in-office experience, the company said it invested in various amenities to support the team’s productivity, learning and well-being. These include an open-plan production area with natural light, training rooms, chillout rooms, a clinic, massage chairs, table tennis and billiards equipment and a karaoke or KTV room.
Regulators are “hitting auditors hard,” says CFO.com in this report of a report:
Horne got data breached:
On August 20, 2024, nationwide accounting firm Horne, LLP filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of Massachusetts. In this notice, Horne explains that the incident resulted in an unauthorized party being able to access consumers’ sensitive information. Upon completing its investigation, Horne began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the recent data security incident.
The Horne data breach was only recently announced, and more information is expected in the near future. However, Horne’s filing with the Attorney General of Massachusetts provides some important information on what led up to the breach. According to this source, in December 2021, Horne detected suspicious activity within portions of its computer network. In response, Horne secured its network and then launched an investigation to determine what happened and what, if any, consumer information may have been compromised as a result.
Through this investigation, Horne learned that an unauthorized party had gained access to portions of its IT network between December 8, 2021, and December 13, 2021. While the investigation was able to confirm that certain systems were accessed, Horne was not able to confirm what information within those systems was actually accessed. Thus, Horne conducted a detailed review of the information contained within the compromised portions of its network. Horne recently completed this review.
JD Supra said publicly available data breach letters don’t mention what exactly may have been breached but individual letters sent out to potentially affected persons do.
CPA Ontario got around to punishing BF Borgers. Poor Ben F Vonesh.
CPA Ontario, the regulatory body responsible for the licensing and oversight of Chartered Professional Accountants and accounting firms in Ontario, has prosecuted BF Borgers CPA PC and Ben Borgers, of Lakewood, Colorado, for offences under the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario Act, 2017, and the Public Accounting Act, 2004.
Borgers and the Firm pleaded guilty to engaging in public accounting work in Ontario, including performing the audit of a reporting issuer, without registering with CPA Ontario or holding a Public Accounting License in Ontario.
“We continue to take action against accounting firms and CPAs who fail to comply with our requirements to practice in the province, in accordance with our mandate to protect the public and uphold the high standards of the CPA profession,” said Janet Gillies, CPA, CA, executive vice-president, Regulatory and Standards, CPA Ontario. “Unregistered and unlicensed firms and CPAs operating in Ontario bypass essential regulatory oversight, undermining public protection and confidence in public accounting.”
Bloomberg Tax reported a couple days ago that Ben Borgers is probably going to lose his Colorado CPA license.
Earlier: The SEC Just Charged Trump Media’s Spelling-Challenged Auditor with “Massive Fraud”
Business Insider published an as-told-to essay: I was fired from Deloitte after 18 months. Here are the mistakes I made as a new grad.
I wasn’t a great student in high school — I had a 2.4 GPA. Even my guidance counselor told me that community college would probably be my best option.
Yet I managed to land a job at Deloitte after college. Eighteen months later, though, I was fired.
He barely got the opportunity to get fired.
Throughout college, I tried hard to make money — I resold my classmates used textbooks and worked multiple part-time retail and service jobs.
I knew other people who got internships, but I didn’t manage to land any despite going to many Meet the Firms events, attending presentations, doing mock interviews, and submitting applications.
I remember thinking I crushed my first Meet the Firms event since I’d met many people and had gotten a stack of business cards. I was excited to follow up. Then my professor, the head of accounting, pulled me aside and told me that one of the Big Four firm’s employees had mentioned that I needed to clean up, shave my beard, and be more presentable.
At another event, I remember one of the Big Four recruiters telling me, “I’m not even going to take a look at your résumé because your GPA isn’t high enough.”
Worth a read maybe. TLDR He missed deadlines, told his senior manager he was going through some shit and she said “Hey, I know you’re going through a lot, but everybody goes through stuff in their life, but they all end up figuring out how to get things done on time.” LOL
I think that’s enough for now. Not hearing a whole lot of buzz at the moment which hopefully means you all are enjoying what’s left of your summer. Whispers of a beloved top 20 firm shopping itself out to private equity are getting louder, stg if this firm gets in bed with private equity I will give up all hope on the future of this profession. Not naming names but iykyk. If you hear anything let us know.
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Have a wonderful week and be well.
