BDO and Grant Thornton decide against merger
It was only a few weeks ago I was blogging about the the potential merger in Canada of BDO Dunwoody and Grant Thornton. They announced that they were in talks and conducting the necessary due diligence procedures to see if a merger would be good for the two firms and their clients.
They announced today that the merger talks are off.
BDO Dunwoody LLP and Grant Thornton LLP announce today that their respective Boards have agreed to discontinue merger discussions. No specific reason led to the decision to cease discussions; however, both firms recognized that despite the potential of the union, a merger of this nature also presented significant challenges.
First and foremost I’d say the fact they belong to their respective international networks and one of the two firms would’ve had to dissolve in Canada and the merged firm continue as the remaining firm. That’s a lot of brand value up in smoke for either one of them. I’m not sure the merger’s potential benefits would’ve been great enough to overcome even that sole stumbling block.
So Grant Thornton merges with RSM Robson Rhodes in the UK, and the Grant Thornton merger with BDO in Canada is kaput. Who’s next?
It’s surprising how quickly the merger was cancelled. I wonder why. Lack of support from the parent orgs is very possible, but I would expect that BDO and GT would have obtained a green light from the before engaging in the merger talks. Maybe Bottom Line will have more to tell about this next issue
The discussions were announced April 13, and the announcement that they ended came May 11.
Originally the discussions were supposed to come to a vote at the beginning of July.
So the whole thing took one month of an initially planned 2 and a half, and of course never ended up being put to the partners.
I am with you in hoping more details come out in the future.
[…] on the heels of their announcement that the merger discussions with Grant Thornton were called off, BDO Dunwoody’s insolvency practice BDO Dunwoody Ltd. has joined forces in Nova Scotia with […]