CONNECTICUT
Connecticut accounting firms combine
Details: Kreinik & Co. LLC, of Southbury, and Fiorita Kornhaas & Co. PC, of Danbury, have merged. The combination went into effect on Sept. 1, 2012.
Kreinik & Co. provides accounting, tax preparation, and business advisory services to individuals and owner-managed business clients. Fiorita Kornhaas & Co. also provides accounting services to individuals, as well as closely held and family-owned companies, entrepreneurs and not-for-profit organizations.
The two have agreed to operate under the name Fiorita Kornhaas & Co. PC.
Guilmartin, DiPiro & Sokolowski adds Rick Morin's practice
Details: Connecticut-based accounting firm Guilmartin, DiPiro & Sokolowski merged with Rick Morin & Associates, expanding its tax capabilities throughout Middletown, Conn.
Rick Morin, who was the sole practitioner at his firm, has over 25 years of experience in public accounting, including more than 15 years with a large regional accounting and business consulting firm.GDS was founded in 1972 by Welles R. Guilmartin. The firm serves clients throughout Connecticut with a wide range of accounting and tax specialties.
FLORIDA
Skoda Minotti acquires Baumann Raymondo
Details: Skoda Minotti branched out of Ohio and into Central Florida with the completed acquisition of Tampa-based accounting firm Baumann, Raymondo & Co. PA.
Deal terms were undisclosed.
Baumann Raymondo, which has been providing accounting, tax and consulting services in Central Florida since 1978, was deemed an ideal match as Skoda Minotti continues to strategically grow the firm. "We have a significant client base in Florida, and numerous employees have roots there," Skoda Minotti chairman Greg Skoda said in a statement.
The Tampa office will be led by partner-in-charge Alex White, who joined Baumann Raymondo in 2008 from Deloitte.
The addition of Baumann Raymondo marks the fifth deal for Skoda Minotti this year.
MARYLAND
Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman acquires pieces of Greystone Advisory
Details: Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman CPAs has acquired the litigation support and forensic accounting practices of Greystone Advisory Group LLC.
As a result of the recent deal, Greystone Advisory is left with due diligence and internal corporate and forensic accounting investigation services. It also offers fraud risk assessment, insurance investigation, and expert and fact witness testimony, as well as business intelligence services. Richard Potocek, who founded Greystone Advisory in 2009, was not immediately available to comment on what will happen to the remainder of Greystone Advisory.
Potocek will join the Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman team as a forensic and dispute principal. He will work alongside the firm's director of tax and business valuation, Walter Deyhle. Carly Stallard, who has worked with Potocek since 2009, will also join the firm as a financial analyst.
MICHIGAN
Yeo & Yeo merges with Hauswirth+Moncrief
Details: Yeo & Yeo has merged in Hauswirth+Moncrief, expanding the Michigan firm's footprint in the Detroit area. The merger will add approximately $1.5 million in revenue to Yeo & Yeo, which last year earned just under $30 million, according to chief executive officer John Kunitzer. As part of the deal, two partners and four staff members from Hauswirth+Moncrief will be joining Yeo & Yeo. The merger took effect on Sept. 1, 2012.
Hauswirth+Moncrief's Auburn Hills office in the Detroit and Oakland County area will be Yeo & Yeo's eighth office. Kunitzer plans to expand it further.
"We have a fair amount of clients that we already service in the Detroit market, but we didn't have an office there," he said. "We were looking for a firm that we could start building and adding to the clients that we have, so we picked up Hauswirth+Moncrief."
Kunitzer plans to expand the number of people in the Auburn Hills office, and also hopes to expand his firm's presence further in Michigan, although he said he is not in active discussions with other merger candidates at the moment.
"One of our goals over the next few years is to add one in the Grand Rapids market in Michigan, and now that we've got our foothold in the Detroit market, we would look to be able to add some other Detroit firms," he said.
MISSOURI
AMD merges with Barnes Sports Group
Details: See our
NEW MEXICO
ACG acquires ASM
Details: Accounting & Consulting Group has acquired the Roswell, N.M.-based firm of Andrews Smith Lowery & Co. for an undisclosed sum, expanding its agricultural client base.
Albuquerque-based ACG has seven offices, mostly added through acquisitions. With the acquisition of Andrews Smith Lowery, ACG will bring over three new partners and 11 employees to its Roswell office once the office space is expanded in November, according to marketing coordinator Marla Gorena. Five of them are CPAs and two others are CPAs from Mexico who received their U.S. citizenship about a month ago and are now working on attaining their CPA designations in the U.S. The acquisition became official on Aug. 15, 2012.
"We're actually working on another merger that we're hoping to finalize by the end of this year in Albuquerque," said Gorena. "We're always on the lookout for new opportunities."
ACG has been working with Andrews Smith & Lowery since November 2005 and talking with the partners about a merger. "We knew they would be a good match for us with their quality control and their culture," said Gorena. "Ray Roberts, our managing partner, is very active in the peer review area of the practice. That's how we find most of our acquisitions. He peer reviews them first, and if their quality control is on par with ours, we start talking with them and seeing if they're interested in merging with us."
NORTH DAKOTA
Eide Bailly merges in two firms
Details: Top 100 Firm Eide Bailly has merged with Schmitt, Griffiths, Smith & Co. The combination will increase Eide Bailly's total staff to nearly 1,200, including 165 partners. The Fargo, N.D.-based firm's total revenues for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2012, were $158 million, and SGS is expected to add another $6 million in revenue to the firm.
The merger is part of Eide Bailly's growth strategy to connect contiguous geographies. "Bringing SGS into the Eide Bailly family will connect our Phoenix, Denver, Boise and Billings practice areas," said Eide Bailly managing partner Jerry Topp in a statement.
Schmitt, Griffiths, Smith & Co. has been previously affiliated with Eide Bailly through Practicewise, an association of small to midsized CPA firms across the nation, since 2005.
SGS president Stuart Tholen will serve as partner-in-charge of the Utah practice. Other SGS partners joining Eide Bailly include Dan Milne, Nikki Thon, Ken Jeppesen, Eric Johnson and Brett Dagley.
The firm has also been expanding into new niches. In early September, it acquired the Minneapolis-based cost segregation firm Cost Seg Associates LLC for an undisclosed amount. Rod Axtell, managing partner at Cost Seg, will join Eide Bailly as a partner. Four other staff members from Cost Seg will also join the firm. Robert Lehmann will serve as a business development senior manager, while Kris Peacock, Travis Mlodzik and Joe Sawatske will join as construction engineers.
