CLA acquires Richards, Witt & Charles

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, a Top 10 Firm, has acquired Richards, Witt & Charles LLP, a firm based in Long Island, effective Sept. 18, increasing CLA's presence in New York.

RWC dates back to 1979 and specializes in serving small and midsized automobile dealerships and restaurants. CLA plans to maintain RWC's current offices in Garden City, New York.

"RWC is an excellent fit with CLA's focus and experience across numerous industries," said CLA chief geographic officer Scott Engelbrecht, in a statement. "As we expand our services in the areas of transportation, food, agribusiness and more, aligning the talent and expertise the RWC team brings to CLA only makes our overall offering to clients even more robust. Sharing a common vision and similar client promise, we are eager to build on our collective vision together."

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CLA's Irvine office

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. CLA's annual revenue is $2 billion and the firm has over 1,200 principals and signing directors and a total of more than 9,000 people. It ranked No. 8 on Accounting Today's 2023 list of the Top 100 Firms and has more than 130 locations across the U.S. 

RWC's annual revenue is $6.4 million and the firm has 18 employees.

"RWC is well known across the country for our experience and deep connection to the automobile dealership industry, and for our focus on serving restaurants of all sizes," said RWC managing partner Paul Charles in a statement. "We are deeply connected to our clients and understand their needs inside and out, just the way CLA is connected to its clients. The synergies between our firms help to make this transition easy for our clients and for our people. Together, we bring together a broad array of talent and scope of service that will impact our clients' businesses."

Last month, CLA acquired Frost & Co., a firm based in Tacoma, Washington, and in January, it merged in Gilmore Jasion Mahler, a firm in Toledo and Findlay, Ohio. Last year, CLA did a number of mergers and acquisitions, including with Hayashi Wayland in Salinas, California, Concannon Miller in Florida and Pennsylvania, and Price CPAs in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Practice management M&A
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