News of firm mergers and acquisitions continues to flow -- over the past week, a trio of firms announced deals that were effective as of the start of the New Year.
Top 100 firm Virchow, Krause & Co. has merged in Berc & Fox Ltd., a Minneapolis, Minn.-based competitor that has been involved in the real estate and management service industries since its inception in 1976. The firm has also worked in auditing and income tax return preparation for small business entrepreneurs and limited partnerships investing in commercial and residential real estate.
With the addition of Berc & Fox’s team of about a dozen employees, Virchow Krause will increase its Minneapolis client service team to 226 total professionals, including 31 partners, who will continue serving clients from an existing office in Bloomington, Minn.
Virchow Krause was ranked No. 17 on Accounting Today's 2006 Top 100 Firms survey, with annual revenues of $150 million.
Meanwhile, in another same-city deal, New York boutique tax firm Sanford E. Moore & Co. PC announced that it has merged with the firm ERE LLP. ERE managing partner Ira M. Rubenstein said, in a statement, that both firms have a similar focus on closely held businesses and believe strongly in providing partner-level attention to all clients.
Making the move with be David Codner, now an ERE partner, soon-to-retire partner Frederick Pearl and a professional staff of three. The merger bolsters ERE’s Tax Group, and brings the entire ERE to more than 100, including 19 partners and principals, operating from offices in New York and Valhalla, N.Y.
Finally, the Winston-Salem, N.C., accounting firms of Brown Jenkins & Co. and D.E. Gatewood and Co. announced that they have merged. The combined firm will operate under the Brown Jenkins name from offices in Winston-Salem, as well as a satellite office in Mooresville, N.C.
Charles Jenkins, a founding partner, said that the combined firm -- with addition of a handful of D.E. Gatewood workers -- will employ 13 employees. The merger, which was initiated in June 2006, is now settled in time for the firm to shift its focus to tax season. Although Brown Jenkins had previously bought a book of business from a firm, this is the company’s first merger.
