Strategic Moves

New York-based Mitchell & Titus is joining Ernst &Young Global to become the organization's second U.S. member firm. Membership is expected to become official in October. The deal is not a merger or acquisition: M&T will keep its name, operate under its current ownership, and maintain

its own billing and fee structure. As the nation's largest minority-owned accounting firm, M&T benefits from joining the Big Four organization through "access to the entire E&Y infrastructure," Bert Mitchell, M&T chairman and CEO, tells IPA. "We'll have access to E&Y's training, platforms, joint marketing, geographic reach, staff exchanges and referrals." In some cases, the two firms will handle engagements jointly. M&T has more than $20 million in FY05 net revenue, 14 partners, 125 total staff and five offices. Approximately 40% of M&T revenue comes from employee benefits audits.

San Francisco's Burr, Pilger & Mayer merged in Brach, Neal, Daney & Spence of San Jose. The deal gives BP&M an additional 25 total staff and adds $5 million in net revenue. The deal completes BND&S's strategic succession plan and transitions clients and staff to one of the leading firms in the Bay Area, said BND&S MP Dennis R. Brach. The deal helps further BP&M's strategic goal to ring the San Francisco Bay, and BND&S's agriculture specialty complements BP&M's wine and vineyard practice, said BP&M MP Stephen D. Mayer. The deal brings BP&M to approximately $30 million in net revenue, 200 employees and four offices.

McKonley & Asbury of Camp Hill, Pa., sold its governmental audit and accounting services group to Pittsburgh-based Maher Duessel.

The government practice was growing, profitable, and had been "a significant part" of M&A's business for 30 years, but the firm made a strategic decision to concentrate its resources in other areas, such as SOX compliance and IT audits, said spokesman Jim Rodgers. M&A Partner Tracey L. Rash becomes a partner at MD, a governmental and not-forprofit specialty firm, as part of the deal. M&A, with $8.7 million in FY05 net revenue, doubled in size - both in terms of people and revenue - during the last three years and is on track to double again in three more years, Rodgers said. FY05 growth was 37%. The firm did no IT audit work three years ago, and today the practice accounts for approximately 20% of revenue and employs seven IT auditors. "You can't manage that kind of growth without being forced to make some tough decisions, and that was the situation with our governmental group," Rodgers told IPA. M&A has seven partners and 94 total staff.

Ernst & Young is capitalizing on booming business in China. The firm projects growth for its merger advisory business in China to grow by 30% in this fiscal year, Bloomberg News reports. The firm plans to employ 25,000 people in China in the next decade, CEO James Turley told the news service. Most employees will be fresh college grads with no experience due to lack of qualified job candidates: China has one certified public accountant for every 10,000 people, compared to one for every 1,000 people in the U.S., according to E&Y China Chairman David Sun.