Norwich CPA firm Marien + Company has agreed to a merger with New York accounting and consulting firm O’Connor Davies LLP.
Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but the merger became effective Jan. 1, said Marcia Marien, a former partner at Marien + Company. She is now a partner at O’Connor Davies. Marien said her firm’s Norwich office will stay open, but O’Connor Davies is also opening a new location in Wethersfield that will house the firm’s auditing unit.
O’Connor Davies is based out of New York and has offices in New Jersey and Stamford. The Wethersfield office will give the firm its first foray into the Greater Hartford market.
O’Connor Davies managing partner Kevin J. Keane did not return a call seeking comment on the deal.
The merger represents another example of an accounting firm merger wave that has hit Connecticut in recent months and likely won’t recede any time soon, industry experts say.
Intense competition for talent, an aging partner base and a desire for organic growth are factors driving the merger rush, and now firms with or without a Connecticut presence have their sights set on the Nutmeg State and the rest of New England.
In the last six months several major deals have surfaced in the state. New York-based J.H. Cohn LLP acquired Kostin, Ruffkess & Co. in Farmington, a significant deal that will make J.H. Cohn a dominant regional firm with 105 CPAs and 225 total staff in Greater Hartford.
Chicago-based Grant Thornton, one of the largest U.S. accounting firms previously without a Connecticut presence, acquired CCR LLP in Glastonbury.
Marien said her firm has been contemplating a merger for the last few years, in part because it has been difficult to find the talent to grow her own 15 member practice. The merger also serves as a good succession planning strategy since Marien said she will no longer have to look for someone to take over the firm once she retires.
“We knew this was going to be an exit strategy for a number of years,” Marien said.
