Mazars Is Growing YUGE
Mazars released its global financial results this week and as is tradition, there is a press release celebrating it. Mazars, the international audit, tax and advisory firm, today releases its global financial results for the 2021/2022 financial year, highlighting double-digit year-on-year growth of 16.4%, reaching €2.45bn in fee income. The increase in revenue comprises strong […]
Mazars and Armanino Just Abruptly Stopped Working For Crypto Clients
Two things to share today. First, Mazars has “paused” crypto work effective immediately. Reports WSJ: Cryptocurrency-trading giant Binance said the accounting firm it uses to reassure customers that their money is safe has paused all of its work for crypto clients, and said the outflows from its platform had swelled to $6 billion. Mazars, a […]
Trump’s Former Accounting Firm Will Finally Hand Over His Financial Records to House Oversight Committee
Announced today, former President Donald Trump and his former accounting firm, Mazars, have officially given up a three-year court battle and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform will finally get to see the financial records they’ve been trying to get since 2019. Mazars will hand over certain financial records and communications from former President Trump […]
For Now, Mazars Seems to Be Staying Put In Russia
You can add Mazars to the list of global accounting firms with offices in both Ukraine and Russia that have denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and pledged to support their colleagues in Ukraine—financially and via other means. But unlike PwC, KPMG, EY, Deloitte, Grant Thornton, and BDO, Mazars doesn’t seem to be planning a move […]
Does Any Blame Lie With Mazars USA In Trump Organization Financial Statement Mess?
The big news that sent shockwaves through the accounting profession on Monday afternoon was Mazars USA breaking up with longtime client Donald Trump and his company on Valentine’s Day, saying in a letter to the Trump Organization, which was included in a court filing, that “the Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump for […]
Lonely Old Man Chides Going Concern Writers For Having a Life on Valentine’s Day
Our curmudgeon-in-chief is feeling a little extra asshatty today: Went to @going_concern’s website today to see if they’d have anything clever to say about the big Mazars story, but if course there is nothing. Of course. — Big4Veteran (@Big4Veteran) February 14, 2022 Here ya go, big guy. We’re about to cut out for the day, […]
Compensation Watch ’22: Mazars Opted to Give Employees a Mid-Year Raise Instead of Another Pizza Party
While our friends over at EY can’t get a sniff of a mid-year salary adjustment, another accounting firm decided to thank its employees with mo’ money instead of free pizza. We got confirmation over the weekend that Mazars USA leadership recently announced mid-year pay bumps for employees. Our source was a little skimpy on the […]
Mazars USA Is Giving Its Employees an Incentive to Get a Sunburn
By now you’ve heard or read about the $250 bonus PwC is paying to employees each time they take a full week’s vacation for the next year. Now Mazars USA is throwing its hat into the “pay your employees to go away” ring. Mazars sent an email to employees late last month explaining its new […]
Mazars’ FY 2020 Global Revenue Wasn’t As Bland As Its New Logo
Last October Mazars made a huge deal about its new brand identity, including a revamped logo that we thought was as bland as paste. Maybe the firm could have added a little orange to it, ya know, in honor of its most famous client in the U.S. Whatever. It is what it is. But while […]
What Do You Guys Think of Mazars’ New Logo and Rebranding?
It’s been a while since a top 25ish accounting firm in the U.S. has rolled out a new logo and rebranding. Baker Tilly is the last one that I recall when it ditched the bird logo in late 2018 and went to a lowercase font for its name with a logo that’s in the shape […]
Mazars U.K. Probably Thinks It Is Better At Auditing Than You
Of the six U.K. firms whose 2019-20 Financial Reporting Council audit quality inspection reports we’ve reviewed over the past couple weeks, none of them got at least 80% of their audits done right. If these were high school test scores, Deloitte would get a C+, PwC a D+, EY a C-, KPMG a D-, BDO […]
Mazars Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Parts II and III
Those swashbucklers at Mazars are at it again, this time raiding KPMG U.K. for new partners in tax and transaction services in Manchester, England. According to media releases seen by Consultancy.uk, Steven Abbott recently joined Mazars after spending his entire 23-year career at the HofK in Manchester, where he progressed up the ranks from corporate […]
Mazars USA Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part I
Our favorite public accounting bandits Mazars USA is at it again, this time raiding PwC for someone to lead its first office in Texas—a new 4,000-square-foot cube farm in Dallas. Brad Leffler will lead the office and has 23 years of experience serving companies in a wide range of industries including retail and consumer products, […]
Let’s Enjoy a New Batch of Disgruntled 1-Star Reviews From Employees of Firms on the Vault Accounting 50 (2021)
On Vault Accounting 50 Day, Caleb used to delight in going through all the one-star employee reviews on Vault and highlighting some of the most cringeworthy, sad, and negative written about accounting firms. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can click here and here. In my article on the 2020 Vault Accounting […]
(CONFIRMED) Rumor Mill: It May Have Been a Black Tuesday At Two Top 40 Accounting Firms
[Updated with additional information.] We got a couple of tips late on Tuesday night about layoffs and pay cuts that occurred at two more accounting firms earlier this week: one is a global accounting firm with U.S. headquarters in New York City, and the second is a prominent firm in the Southeast. Because the tipsters […]
Hey Look, Mazars Had a Decent 2019
I was so caught up last week reading and writing about Mazars USA’s scandalous poaching of three CohnReznick partners that I didn’t realize Mazars released its global revenue results for the financial year that closed on Aug. 31, 2019. It’s your typical revenue growth for a firm of Mazars’ size—up from €1.6 billion in 2018 […]
CohnReznick Has Had It Up to Here with Mazars USA’s Poaching
Last year, three CohnReznick CPAs—two partners and its chief operating officer—started new jobs as partners at Mazars USA. You would have thought Mazars would’ve sent out a press release about its new haul, like it did last September when it poached two people from KPMG, but the firm kept the CohnReznick poaching a secret. No […]
Mazars Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part I
When Mazars USA isn’t getting subpoenaed for Donald Trump’s tax returns, it’s snagging people away from the Big 4, in particular, KPMG. Olga Blyweiss is one of the newest members of Club M, recently joining the firm as a tax partner in its Fort Washington, PA, office. In a previous life, Blyweiss was the managing […]
Mazars USA Subpoenaed for You-Know-Who’s Tax Returns
Has Donald Trump released his tax returns? Nope! But Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat, is trying hard to get his hands on them. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has subpoenaed eight years of President Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns as part of its investigation into hush money payments to two women […]
Mazars Is Going Full ‘Survivor’ with New U.S. Alliance Firms
I hate to admit this but I have a weakness for bad reality television. That used to be a shameful thing but I guess it’s kind of like trypophobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and mild alcoholism, none are all too shameful thanks to meme culture and the magic of the internet that unites us all through […]
Auditor Swap: Mazars Wins Goldman Sachs International Audit Firm Sweepstakes
For weeks, the rags in the U.K. have speculated about which midtier firm would win the battle to audit Goldman Sachs’ London-based European operations, a job PwC has held for what seems like a gazillion years. Would it be Grant Thornton? Would it be BDO, which became the fifth-largest firm in the U.K. earlier this […]
Layoffs Watch ’12: Mazars
The firm regrets to inform five percent of their employees, including "a limited number of partners," that they will soon have a lot of free time on their hands: Mazars could make up to 5% of its workforce redundant, as it begins a consultation process across the firm. Accountancy Age has learned staff were informed this week […]
Accounting News Roundup: Mazars Would Like to See More Competition in the Audit Market; Citi CFO Settles with SEC; Colbert on Tax Cuts | 07.30.10
Auditors don’t know the meaning of ‘competition’ [FT]
In a letter to the Financial Times, David Herbinet, the UK Head of Public Interest Markets for Mazars, takes issue with the notion (he says ‘puzzled’) that there is robust competition in the audit market, “Figures calculated from the most authoritative research available – the Oxera report that first spurred examination of the issue – show that a FTSE 100 auditor can on average expect to remain in place for an eye-watering 48 years and their FTSE 250 counterpart for 36 years. When the research was conducted more than 70 per cent of the FTSE 100 audits had not been subject to tender for at over, 97 per cent of current FTSE 350 audits are held by just four firms. If this represents fierce competition I would not like to see a stagnant market.”
Facebook Said to Put Off IPO Until 2012 to Buy Time for Growth [Bloomberg]
“Facebook Inc. will probably put off its initial public offering until 2012, giving Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, three people familiar with the matter said.
Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing, instead of holding an IPO in 2011 as investors speculated, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Facebook doesn’t discuss share-sale plans. Still, Zuckerberg, who holds board control, could push for a stock sale at any time, they said.”
U.S. Financial System Still at Risk, Says IMF [WSJ]
Get RIGHT out of town. “The International Monetary Fund says the U.S. financial system is “slowly recovering,” but remains vulnerable to crisis, in part because Congress and the administration have failed to streamline a regulatory system marked by turf battles and overlapping responsibilities.
‘We asked many times why bolder action could not be undertaken,’ said the IMF’s Christopher Towe, who oversaw the agency’s first broad review of the U.S. financial sector.”
SEC Charges Citigroup and Two Executives for Misleading Investors About Exposure to Subprime Mortgage Assets [SEC]
That includes former CFO Gary Crittenden who agreed to pay a $100,000 fine.
Colbert on the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts [TaxProf]
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word – Ownership Society | ||||
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Weiser’s Doug Phillips: Combination with Mazars Was the Next Logical Step
Last week Weiser announced that it was joining Mazars Worldwide as a member firm, a move that would alleviate their relationship to one of a joint venture to that of a full combination. Accordi ess release the combined firm will employ 12,500 people worldwide after adding the 650 Weiser professionals to its international network.
Earlier in the week, we were fortunate enough to arrange a chat with Doug Phillips, Managing Partner of Weiser, LLP to discuss the new firm, the challenges of a cross-Atlantic combination, personnel and client reaction to the combination and the plans for future.
A Solid Business Case Made for a Global Strategy
Doug told us the that joint venture between Weiser and Mazars that begun in February 2000 has been great success for both firms, particularly in the last two years. “The business case for us here at Weiser and for Mazars came to a point where it was quite logical to elevate the joint venture to the next logical step of growth and maturity,” he told us. Doug insisted that this was not a “Resistance is Futile” situation for Weiser, because the firms were in fact combining as opposed to a takeover by Mazars.
According to Doug, the business case for the combination was one of primarily of global strategy. Both firms had experienced significant growth in the last 10 years; their clients’ needs became increasingly global in focus. Doug said, “It gives us a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace. Existing clients will receive a higher quality of service and we will enjoy the advantage of proposing to new clients.”
Combining Transatlantic Cultures
With regards to the meshing of the firms’ two cultures, Doug said that navigating the tricky waters of an international combination wasn’t as challenging as you might expect, ” We’ve ‘dated’ for 10 years. We know each other’s strengths. We know each other’s weaknesses. The overarching cultural issue is the quality of service. The firms are identical in that regard.”
And to ensure that the Weiser is well represented at the global level, Doug was elected to the group executive board of the firm. This is committee of five that is responsible for running the global organization. “The importance of the combination is recognized by the fact that I took a seat on that board to ensure the effective integration of the cultures of the cross-atlantic combination,” Doug said.
Communication with Employees, Clients was Ongoing
Communication about the combination was ongoing at Weiser. “Things were business as usual and the only real change is that firm’s brand will change to WeiserMazars,” Doug told us. The same approach was taken with Weiser’s clients, “the communication process was ongoing. It’s been universally well received and applauded as a business step without concerns about what will be impacted because [clients] have the assurance that our people remain in place and our dedication to the quality of service remains unchanged.”
Future Plans
With regards to the future, there are no immediate plans for new offices or mergers with other firms but Doug does expect some new non-attest service opportunities for the firm that could result in the hiring of some new experienced professionals not already in-house, “We look forward to increasing the talent pool to provide higher quality sophisticated services to both our current clients and prospective clients.”
Partners of Mazars, Weiser Approve Merger
Seems like a long time ago when we’re speculating about Mazars merger with Weiser. Oh wait. It was. Busy season had just started.
At the time, it sounded like the deal was all but guaranteed, just a small matter of the partners voting on the merger and shazam! Global 6 Contender!
Accountancy Age reports that “vast majority of partners on both sides agreed to the officially resides in the good old US of A as “WeiserMazars.” The article states that no layoffs will occur as a result of the merger. AA also reports that the new executive board will be meeting next month to discuss “driving growth from the newly combined business.” Whether this includes more mergers in the Western Hemisphere, we can only speculate.
The combined firm has 12,500 employees including 680 partners. According to Mazars’ most recent annual report, the firm had over €773 mil in revenues (just over a $1 bil) while Weiser had just over $135 million in revenues.
WeiserMazars spokeswoman Laura Kucera provided us with the firm’s press release:
Weiser LLP Joins Mazars Group Worldwide to Offer Clients International Services Opportunities
Mazars, an international group specialising in audit and advisory services and Weiser, an audit and advisory firm with a strong presence in the north east region of the U.S., have announced today that their businesses are to combine.
Partners from both entities have voted to incorporate 74 Weiser partners into Mazars’ international integrated partnership. Reflecting this new arrangement, Weiser will become a Mazars member firm and be renamed WeiserMazars LLP.
The deal marks a new stage in the Mazars’ international development, and means that it will have member firm offices in 56 countries, served by 12,500 professionals, including over 680 partners.
Mazars and Weiser, which employs more than 650 professionals and has annual revenues of $ 135m, have maintained a close and fruitful relationship for the last ten years via a joint venture agreement.
Patrick de Cambourg, Chairman and CEO of Mazars says: “We have worked with Weiser for ten years via a joint venture agreement. This combination is the result of our excellent relationship, our shared values and commitment to offering high quality services to our clients. This enhanced relationship is a natural development based on our mutual trust. We are delighted to welcome Weiser into our partnership. They are a first-rate firm with an excellent reputation in the New York area market. It is an important step in Mazars’ development and our clients will benefit from the formal combining of our services in the U.S. market.”
Douglas A. Phillips, Chairman of Weiser, added: “Serving our clients means helping them on a global level, beyond borders. This is why we made the choice to develop an international joint venture with Mazars in 2000. Today, we are happy to develop our relationship with Mazars by fully joining the Mazars international integrated partnership as we know that when like-minded professionals work together, they obtain excellent results.”
A video interview with Patrick de Cambourg and Douglas Phillips, is available. Please contact us if you wish to receive a copy.
Since it’s inception, Weiser has provided quality accounting, audit, tax and consulting services to clients in industries spanning, manufacturing and distribution, real estate, financial services, healthcare, nonprofit, media/entertainment and automotive, as well as to high net worth individuals and their families. The firm is headquartered in New York City.
Wherein We Speculate Wildly on the Merger of Accounting Firms Mazars and Weiser
Last week we told you about the on-going Global 6 talks between Mazars and Weiser. As we mentioned then, the copulation of the two firms would put them in the direct competition with the likes of Grant Thornton, BDO, RSM and hell, they may even snag some Big 4 clients.
Web CPA caught up with this story yesterday and we learned that not only has Mazars done business in the states with Weiser, they’ve also “relied on joint venture agreements with U.S. firms…Moss Adams and BKD.”
Maybe we’re going way out on a limb here, but if Mazars is making a play for Weiser (and it sounds like it’s all but a done deal) are they just trying to make a play on the whole IFRS bonanza that’s being unleashed OR are they looking to get closer to the likes of Moss Adams and BKD to expand their exposure and to become a bigger player in the States? Even if Mazars were to merge with Moss Adams and BKD the combined revenues still would be a drop in the bucket of the Big 4 but it would cement their presence in U.S. and allow them to compete even more directly for potential business here.
If we’re letting the cat out of the bag here, mucho apologies, just kinda thinking out loud.
Are Weiser and Mazars Making a Run for the Global 6?
As you’re aware, we’re obsessed with the notion of the ‘Global 6 Accounting Organization’ moniker. On the one hand it’s a little silly but on the other, many non-Big 4 firms are making a legitimate run to expand their international exposure.
The latest attempt at piercing the Global 6 comes courtesy of a possible merger between the firms Weiser and Mazars. According to Weiser’s website, the two firms currently have an affiliate relationship:
Mazars is an international, integrated, independent organization, ranked fifth largest in Europe. Weiser has established a joint venture with Mazars utilizing its 10,500 professionals in over 50 countries, as needed, to expand the firm’s global reach.
According to the FT, the combined firms will make a push a building their firm around providing IFRS adoption services:
Mazars and Weiser, which have had a joint venture agreement for a decade, decided to merge with the aim of building a new US practice focusing on the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards by US companies, according to sources.
Weiser partners believe they will have an advantage in the US market working with European partners with extensive experience of IFRS.
We have a little secret to share with the Weiser partners: The Big 4 has European partners will extensive experience in IFRS too. They’re drooling for the IFRS adoption business just like you so hope you’re coming with super-secret plan that will give you a real advantage.
We contacted a Mazars spokesperson who confirmed that the talks were on-going but told us that the contract has yet to be finalized and that both partnerships will have to vote on the proposal. The vote is tentatively set for February or March.
Whether this is the “mega-merger” that was predicted back in August or not we don’t know but the combined firms would have total revenues of $1.3 billion, according to the FT. That’s just a fraction of the Big 4 revenues but it could put them in close competition with the likes of Grant Thornton, RSM International, and BDO.
We’ll continue to keep you updated on the progress of the talks as we learn them.
Mazars and Weiser merger talks point to revival of global practices [FT]