Top 50 firm Doeren Mayhew acquired Houston-based Sowers & Co. in late July, explicitly to strengthen tax and outsourced accounting services. Two days earlier it had acquired McMillan, Whiteman & Associates in Florida — its third Florida transaction of the year.
A serial acquirer's rhythm
Two deals in a week, three in one state in a year, is not opportunism. It is a programme: a defined target profile, a repeatable diligence process, and an integration playbook that runs often enough to have been debugged.
Firms that acquire this frequently develop a real institutional advantage over firms that do a deal every few years. They know what they will pay, what they will not buy, and how long integration takes — and sellers notice that a process runs smoothly.
The detail worth noticing
The Sowers rationale names tax and outsourced accounting services specifically. That is a deliberate capability target, not just a geographic one.
Outsourced accounting — client accounting services, controller-level support, ongoing compliance — is attractive to acquirers for a reason that has nothing to do with geography: the revenue is recurring and predictable, unlike the seasonal spike of a pure tax practice. A firm valued on a revenue multiple gets a materially better multiple on recurring work.
What this tells independent firms about their own value
If your firm is heavily weighted toward seasonal 1040 work, and you are wondering why acquirer interest has been lukewarm, this is the reason. The market prizes recurring revenue.
The route to more of it is not mysterious, but it requires something most firms do not have in March: time. Building advisory and client accounting relationships means partner hours spent with clients rather than in preparation.
That is the trade at the centre of almost every one of these stories. Firms that free their senior people from mechanical preparation work can build the recurring revenue that raises their value. Firms that cannot, stay seasonal — and stay priced accordingly.
Whether or not you ever sell, the more valuable firm is also the more pleasant one to own.
