Aprio enters cannabis industry

Aprio will acquire Phoenix-based accounting and advisory firm Price Kong, effective June 1.

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The deal expands the Top 20 Firm's Arizona presence and adds accounting, audit and advisory services to Aprio Legal's existing footprint. It also marks the firm's entry into the cannabis industry. 

Aprio CEO and managing partner Richard Kopelman
Aprio CEO and managing partner Richard Kopelman
Scott Areman

"Bringing our capabilities — accounting, advisory, audit, wealth, and legal — together in one market is a landmark moment for Aprio. Our goal is to be the firm that Arizona's most ambitious entrepreneurs and business leaders turn to when navigating a growth opportunity, a complex transaction, managing regulatory risk, or building toward an exit," Richard Kopelman, CEO of Aprio, said in a statement.

Price Kong, founded in 1967, serves entrepreneurs and business leaders across industries like construction, dental, healthcare, real estate and technology. The firm adds five partners, including managing partner Ross Dietrich, and 40 professionals to the Aprio team. 

"Our team has spent decades building deep experience in complex and fast-moving industries, and by joining Aprio, we are able to pair that specialization with broader capabilities and deeper resources," Dietrich said in a statement. "I'm incredibly proud of what this team has built, and I'm excited about what we will accomplish together as part of Aprio."

Aprio, based in Atlanta, ranks No. 20 on Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 Firms list. It reported $616 million in revenue, with 294 partners and over 3,100 total employees across 37 offices. The firm received a private equity investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners in July 2024.

The following year, it launched Aprio Legal — part of a growing trend of accounting firms taking advantage of an Arizona law to create "alternative business structure" law firms.

Aprio has completed over 20 deals since 2017. Most recently, it added two Oregon firms, Delap and Hoffman, Stewart & Schmidt, in January. In 2025, it added Mize CPAs and Prism Financial Group, RSM US's Professional Services+ practice, JMS Advisory Group in Atlanta, and AI accounting assistant platform TimeCredit. In previous years, it acquired Ridout Barrett & Co. CPAs & Advisors, Antares Group, Culotta, Scroggins, Hendricks & Gillespie, Aronson, Salver & Cook, Gomerdinger & Associates, Tobin & Collins, Squire + Lemkin, LBA Haynes Strand, Leaf Saltzman, RINA and Tarlow and Co.


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Practice management M&A Marijuana industry Arizona
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