NSBN in Century City will be absorbed Jan. 1 by Minneapolis-based CliftonLarsonAllen, according to the local accounting firm’s Managing Partner Ken Miles.
NSBN, which ranked No. 23 on the Business Journal’s 2017 list of local accounting firms, will become the Los Angeles office of CliftonLarsonAllen, known as CLA.
Miles said that NSBN equity partners would become equity partners at the new firm. The firms did not disclose any other financial details of the transaction.
NSBN spent the last 18-months planning the move after partners decided the firm needed to offer its clients a more comprehensive package of services.
“Even at our size of 90 or so, we didn’t feel we had all the resources to serve clients completely,” Miles said. “So we asked ourselves, ‘what do we do?’ The answer was to either build internally – that takes a lot of time and money – or do an upstream merger with a firm that already has these practice areas in place.”
The latter option was ultimately what NSBN decided to do and CLA quickly became the preferred place to land, according to Miles. He said the firm’s absence in the L.A. area was a big factor in the decision, but that a cultural fit was also important.
The move to a bigger firm also addresses another key issue many professional service firms are facing these days: data security and technology.
“Technology already plays a significant role in our profession and will continue to become a bigger part of it,” Miles said. “CLA is the eighth largest accounting firm in the country and merging with them helps address the issue. It’s hard to keep up as a smaller or even midsized firm like us.”
NSBN is not alone in this. Consolidation in the professional services industry has been rampant lately, with smaller accounting, law and investment firms looking for merger opportunities. In addition to tech and data security concerns, firms are mindful of transition plans with partners aging, and understand consolidation of back-end operations can increase profit.
Millennial Money
Millennials have been called many things, but rarely is responsible an adjective used to describe the demographic.
But a new study released by Merrill Edge and Bank of America Corp. found them to be just that — at least when it comes to the subset of the millennial cohort doing well enough to make significant investments.
That’s according to Joseph Santos, a Merrill Edge Southern California regional manager, who said data showed the 18 to 34 demographic – particularly in the Southland – was much more concerned than older Americans with saving, and willing to forgo vacations and big ticket expenditures in order to sock money away.
“Millennials are focused on doing it themselves,” Santos said. “They see what their parents went through (in the Great Recession) and they’re coming out of college with student loan debt, so they’re more vested in financial planning.
“The day-to-day strategy is to play it safe,” he added.
Santos said that while millennials are more optimistic about the future, they also are more likely to believe there will be financial trouble in the next five years.
“It really has to do with a larger concern about the future,” he said. “Millennials think there will be a downturn.”
Shamrock Takes Stake
Shamrock Capital Advisors of Westwood took a “large” minority stake in Phoenix-based digital advertiser Branded Cities Networks, according to the company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Branded Cities has a large portfolio of outdoor digital signs, with advertising space throughout the U.S. and Canada. Shamrock Partner Steve Royer said in a statement that the investment firm felt the company’s growth made the invest a solid one.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with (Founder and Chief Executive) Steve Ellman and the entire Branded Cities team,” Royer said. “They have built an uncomparable (sic), premium out-of-home advertising company with iconic digital boards in the most desired locations. Their growth over the years has far outpaced the industry and we are looking forward to furthering that growth with our investment.”
A team of Century City and Los Angeles-based lawyers from Latham & Watkins advised Shamrock on the deal, with partners Robert Haymer and David Zaheer leading. Rothschild & Co., led by David Baron, served as Branded Cities’ financial advisor with Ropes & Gray acting as legal counsel.
Have a deal tip? Henry Meier can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 556-8321.
