The big story this week by a long shot was yesterday’s news that New Mountain Capital has taken a majority stake in Grant Thornton. When I say big I mean HUGE. Having written for this website for 15 years while observing the accounting profession from the sidelines and playfully making fun of Grant Thornton the entire time, I was not expecting that story to blow up the way it did. The last time a GT story had this much interest it was probably the temporary tattoos incident.
BUT ANYWAY. Twitter had quite a lot to say yesterday not necessarily about GT but about private equity. This is a new trend in the profession and as such, it’s difficult to say for sure what effect it will have ten or even five years down the road. But we’ve seen what happens in other industries. See: The Secretive Industry Devouring the U.S. Economy
It’s funny, if you search “private equity bad” of course you find articles like the above piece from The Atlantic but if you search “private equity good” you get…more negative articles. Like this NYT opinion piece. Hmm. Maybe accounting isn’t the only sector filled with unusually negative people.
The Xitter response and buzz around this deal thus compelled me to pose the question to you, dear reader, as this week’s weekend discussion. How do you feel about private equity in the accounting profession? Thoughts, gripes, hopes, predictions, and general curmudgeonry from all perspectives are welcome. It would be especially nice to hear from some of the senior partners who will be bailing out of the plane with a parachute made of private equity money.
Have at it, the floor’s yours.