Yet another Mississippi corporate titan sold its birthright. Accounting Today reported:
Top 10 Firm BDO USA has announced that it is merging in Mississippi-based Top 100 Firm Horne LLP, in a deal that is expected to close Nov. 1. "I think this deal is No. 95 for us, and it's going to be the largest expansion in our history," BDO CEO Wayne Berson told Accounting Today. The combination will greatly expand BDO's presence in the Southeast, and give it much greater capabilities in disaster recovery and government services. Once the deal is complete, BDO expects to leverage Horne's expertise in those areas to create a wholly owned subsidiary, BDO Government Services LLC. Founded in 1962, Horne has offices in seven states across the Southeast, as well as in Puerto Rico. "Certainly Florida for us is a very big state, but if you look at Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana — those states are not really big BDO states," said Berson. "Once you get across to Texas, obviously that's big and we wanted to expand there. We saw the opportunity with a lot of the work in the government services sector that Horne does, and they have a tremendous reputation in this sector. We do some work there, but clearly not as much as them and we saw this as an opportunity where — and you've heard me say this before — one plus one equals three." Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Horne is expected to add 44 partners and over 1,300 employees to the combination. It ranked No. 31 on Accounting Today's 2025 list of the Top 100 Firms, while BDO ranked No. 6, with $2.885 billion in revenue, 874 partners, and 12,200 employees.
18 comments:
This is literally what everyone does. The company that I currently work for has everyone stretched thin but is constantly buying out competitors. Everyone knows they are just trying to bait a big fish to come buy us so the owner can retire a multi-billionaire. longer did it too.
Jxn Water already has a hotline and
self reporting. You'd think he would
talk to Jxn Water.
No matter what they say, and how strenuously they say it, there will be synergies and Mississippians will end up out of work.
9:23 here
that last line should be: Bomgar did it too.
@9:51... The writing was on the wall, and it has already started..
I don't agree with the sentiment of most of these posts. Its a service business. You can't service Mississippi clients cheaper by getting rid of the Mississippi CPAs and giving the work to Atlanta or Dallas CPAs. If anything, the local offices will probably get busier.
I'm curious as to the headline. Did Horne really sell out? Or did they just merge with a larger, more successful company in a normal business transaction? Many companies have the ultimate goal of being purchased or brought under a larger umbrella. That is not "selling out" to me, that is success. They reached their goal. Did Horne go against some principle or something just for monetary gain? That would be "selling out" to me. Did they say "we will always be a Mississippi company" then dipped at the first check waved at them? An example that comes to mind would be Pearl Jam doing an endorsement for SeatGeek after denouncing Ticketmaster for decades. Selling out their core values and stated position for a mere cash grab. Y'all enlighten me, please. I'm curious.
Public accounting is headed the direction of PE or M&A. Sink or swim time for the profession. Good for them! And great answer for employees with an ESOP.
Yep. The culture here is to exit to bigger capital and sell our state away to outside money in the process. Go to places like Madison, Wi and you see the opposite. Could be an interesting model city for Jackson. Also has lakes in its downtown area. A multi-billion dollar corporation, Epic is nearby. But they have not sold out.
Horne was acquired. Your parsing is superfluous.
Mississippi jobs will be lost.
@9:23 - I left there after the it acquired Beyondtrust and they let good people go because "duplicating roles" after merging the companies together.
Bomgar was a great experience while it lasted.
@1:52
Yep and half the planet still uses Bomgar and it still looks and functions exactly the same after almost 20 years. Anyone in IT know when they see a Bongar remote access page, even if it doesnt say Bomgar.
The firm's neighbors on I-55 will be delighted when the signage comes down and all the highway traffic stops that incessant blowing.
There is a truckload of activity buying/selling CPA firms right now. PE is getting involved and many second- and third-tier firms have been bought and consolidated. Apollo Global invested in BDO in 2023, so they are looking to grow it. Horne will be a good buy for them. It is true that in the short-term BDO will need to keep most/all of the resources at Horne in order to serve Horne's clients. However, most mid-size and large firms have been offshoring a lot of their low-level work (and Horne has likely been doing the same). Over time, more and more of that work will go offshore or be automated by AI, so some of the domestic jobs were going to evaporate with or without an acquisition.
Service companies such as Horne hired a lot of staff and made money managing the Covid and recovery federal grant funds. Unless the deadlines are extended, these funds will be exhaust or expire in the fall of 2026; the company will either have to expand its customer base or cut expenses (people).
@6:42 am... Government services is their largest portion of business, really got kicked off with Katrina and has grown since that time. Alot of their workers are contract for that certain service, the CPAs go around the country based on where the need is. There will always be natural disasters, a couple big hurricanes and they will be at the same staffing.
Do a Jambalaya search, plus a google search, and see how many times this bunch has been on the shady side of the law.
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