Andersen accounting joins SF firm
Merger with Burr Pilger Mayer spells end of Petaluma office, more hiring
Published: Monday, December 8, 2008 at 4:20 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 8, 2008 at 9:43 a.m.
Andersen & Company, a Santa Rosa-based accounting firm with 35 employees, will announce plans today to merge with a larger Bay Area firm.
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Jim Andersen, Andersen & Company
On Jan. 1, it will combine operations with San Francisco-based Burr Pilger Mayer, the largest local accounting firm in the Bay Area.
Andersen & Company will close its satellite offices in Petaluma and San Francisco, but no employees will be laid off, said founding partner Jim Andersen. It will take the name Burr Pilger Mayer, commonly known as BPM.
The company plans to hire more employees to expand the niche services that Andersen & Company has become known for. Its services will become available at all six BPM offices, including Andersen's current Santa Rosa office and a BPM office opening today in Novato.
"We are not laying off anyone," Andersen said. "We are actively looking for employees. We're hiring."
The Santa Rosa accounting firm has become known for several niche services, Andersen said.
It specializes in helping clients determine the value of a business that is being sold. It also helps companies orchestrate a change of ownership triggered by divorce, a takeover by employees, or a decision to turn the business over to a new generation of family members. Finally, the company has carved out a niche providing accountants to testify as expert witnesses in court.
With the merger, Andersen's specialists will be able to expand their potential client list, Andersen said.
In contrast, BPM aims to be a full-service accounting firm, said Stephen Mayer, its managing partner.
"The merger gives us a tremendous opportunity to grow in the North Bay," Mayer said. "Our firm can do any audit up there in the North Bay."
The merger with Andersen completes BPM's five-year strategy to ring the North Bay with offices. It now plans to begin expanding its services throughout Northern California.
Jim Andersen, a Santa Rosa native, founded his firm in 1981 after he left the accounting firm Carinalli & Andersen, where he had worked since 1974 with real estate investor Clem Carinalli.
Andersen & Company reached $1 million in revenues by 1990, and in 1997 it employed 15 people. This year, the company estimates it will ring up $5.8 million in revenues.
BPM employs about 365 people and generated $65 million in revenue this year, according to the San Francisco company.
No cash traded hands in the merger.
"We basically roll into their practice. It's a merger, not an acquisition," Andersen said.
He and another Andersen & Company partner, Ken Dansie, will become partners in BPM, which already has 40 partners. The other six Andersen partners will become directors in BPM.
You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or nathan.halverson@pressdemocrat.com.
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