This past summer, the second biggest news around the virtual watercooler of professional services (after the EY split) was that Elliott Davis and Whitley Penn would be combining forces to become — *dramatic flourish here* — Elliott Penn. “By proactively bringing these two firms together, Elliott Penn leverages the strengths of both firms and establishes a footprint predominantly positioned in the fastest growing markets in the country,” read the press release.
The “merger of equals” was expected to close November 1, 2022 “subject to customary closing conditions.”
Everyone promptly forgot about it because who cares.
Well, everyone forgot about it until now. This arrived in our tipbox last week:
I heard a rumor that the Whitley Penn and Elliot Davis merger was cancelled and kind of swept under the rug. Any info if this is true? and if so, why? Rumor is that during each firm’s diligence something was found that someone did not like.
Oh right, that was supposed to happen.
Elliottpenn.com was created on April 26, 2022 and is registered to Whitley Penn according to the Whois but there’s nothing there, just a blank page. A Google search for “Elliott Penn” spits out June news coverage of the merger announcement and not much else. The site was last updated on October 10.
The URLs for each firm’s press release announcing the merger are also dead:
Side note: Elliott Davis has the superior 404 page. Just sayin.
We’ve contacted both firms to ask if the merger is still on, no one’s gotten back to us. If you have info, hit us up.
Update:Â We received confirmation from someone in the know who asked not to be named that the Elliott Penn merger is not happening. They did not provide any additional information.
I work at one of the firms and was told the cultures didn’t match. It was weird. Just a simple email went out to the firm saying the merger was called off. No explanation