Baker Tilly and Moss Adams to merge in deal valued at $7-billion

Baker Tilly and Moss Adams last week announced a planned merger that will create the sixth-largest CPA firm in the United States.

The deal, which is valued at approximately $7-billion, is expected to complete in early June.

The milestone combination arrives a little over a year after private equity firms Hellman & Friedman (H&F) and Valeas Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Baker Tilly.

H&F and Valeas will provide additional equity for the transaction, but Baker Tilly and Moss Adams principals will own a majority of the new firm, which will retain the Baker Tilly brand.

Moss Adams’ audit business will join Baker Tilly US LLP and Moss Adams’ consulting business will join Baker Tilly Advisory Group LP.

The transaction will add 4,800 people across 30 US locations to grow Baker Tilly’s headcount to approximately 11,500 people – including 600 partners from Baker Tilly and 403 partners from Moss Adams.

Baker Tilly will become the second-largest mid-market accounting and consulting firm in the US after RSM, reaching $3-billion+ in revenue in 2024.

“Since we invested in Baker Tilly, we have been focused on building a differentiated firm with the ambition to change the game in the middle-market accounting industry,” said Blake Kleinman, partner at H&F. “This landmark merger between Baker Tilly and Moss Adams is an important step in creating a firm that will be the destination of choice for the industry’s best talent and for firms considering their strategic options in a rapidly evolving sector.”

The transaction will create the largest accounting and consulting firm with partial private equity ownership.

Jeff Ferro, CEO of Baker Tilly, will become CEO of the combined entity. Following his retirement on January 1, 2026, Moss Adams CEO Eric Miles will assume leadership of the firm. Ferro will remain as a board member afterwards.

The combined firm has ambitious growth goals, with a revenue target of $6 billion by 2030. This makes an eventual IPO of the company a likely prospect, Kleinman and Miles told The Wall Street Journal.

“If you think about the scale of this business, approximately $7 billion is at entry. We think we can double or triple that [valuation of the combined firm] over the next three to five years,” Kleinman told the WSJ. “I think that makes an eventual IPO of the business a likely end state in terms of future liquidity path.”

Miles added, “Another private-equity firm probably can’t write a check of that size so it is the most likely outcome.”