Technology & Operations Advisor
When CBIZ entered the public markets in 1996, it began an institutional experiment that would eventually make it one of the most unusual organisations in professional services. The listed company developed a commercial platform around independently owned CPA firms, allowing it to provide accounting, tax, advisory, technology and administrative services while the regulated firms retained ... Read…
Five years ago, the central question surrounding private equity investment in US accounting firms was whether the model could work at all. Accounting firms were constrained by professional-ownership rules, built around partnership economics and governed through structures that often made major strategic decisions slow, politically difficult and expensive for the current generation of partners.…
In March 2026, TowerBrook Capital Partners completed a continuation vehicle transaction for its investment in EisnerAmper. Carlyle AlpInvest led the transaction, Hamilton Lane served as co-lead, and TowerBrook continued as sponsor. The transaction provided liquidity to investors in TowerBrook Fund V and to participating EisnerAmper partners, while the firm continued under the same chief executive…
This article builds on Manufacturing Judgment: How Professional Services Build Their Most Valuable Asset, which argued that professional-services firms have always produced two outcomes through client work. Every engagement delivers something visible to the client while quietly contributing to the development of professional judgment inside the firm. The same work that generates today’s revenue…
When EQT acquired an anchor stake in WTS Germany in April 2025, the transaction entered a professional-services market already being reshaped by private capital. Grant Thornton, Baker Tilly, Citrin Cooperman and a growing collection of accounting platforms had established that businesses historically organised around partnerships could attract institutional investors. WTS nevertheless represented…
This article builds on When Expertise Becomes Metered Infrastructure: How AI Is Changing the Economics of Professional Services, which explored how artificial intelligence is changing the economics of expertise. This article examines the next question: how those changing economics affect the way professional-services firms manufacture professional judgment. For more than a century,…
Why Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG and BDO Are Separating Parts of Their Nordic Businesses In July 2026, Deloitte Denmark announced what appeared to be a relatively straightforward strategic transaction. Four regional offices in Aalborg, Silkeborg, Kolding, and Odense, together with selected client portfolios in Copenhagen and Aarhus, would be transferred to Cedra Denmark. Approximately 460 ... Read more…
Tax has long been regarded as one of the great advisory disciplines within professional services. It sits at the intersection of regulation, finance, corporate strategy and governance. That description remains true, but it has become incomplete. Beneath the advisory narrative, the economics of large parts of tax have changed. Many tax practices no longer operate ... Read more Der Beitrag The…
Most discussions about private equity in professional services focus on capital. Firms need funding for acquisitions, technology platforms, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, talent, and growth. Private-equity firms provide that capital. Partnerships receive liquidity and investment capacity. Ownership structures evolve. Transactions occur. The debate then usually turns to valuations,…
For years, accounting looked almost perfectly designed for private-equity consolidation. Thousands of fragmented firms operated across local markets with sticky SME client relationships, recurring revenues, and comparatively resilient demand even during economic downturns. Businesses still needed payroll, bookkeeping, tax filings, accounts preparation, and compliance support regardless of whether…