Top 10 Firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP announced today that it has merged in Glendora, Calif.-based Vicenti, Lloyd & Stutzman LLP.
The 63-year-old Vicenti has approximately 60 employees, and provides a wide range of accounting, tax, fraud investigation and other business consulting services to individuals and organizations, including governmental institutions and nonprofits.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Vicenti will assume the CLA name, and continue to serve clients out of its offices in Glendora and Los Angeles.
“We decided to join CLA so that we could offer our clients deeper knowledge and expanded capabilities when they need it, while retaining the personal service and approach we have today,” said Vicenti managing partner and CEO Linda Saddlemire in a statement. “We believe this is the right next step for our clients, our employees, and our firm in general as we continue to grow and evolve.”
Saddlemire will continue to manage the Glendora office, and will help Randy Wells, the CLA managing principal of Los Angeles, to grow the combined firm’s presence in the region. The other eight Vicenti partners will join CLA as principals or directors. In addition, Vicenti director David Wall has been named a principal in CLA’s forensic services practice.
“We are confident that while we are joining a large national firm, our clients will continue to receive the same personal touch they always have from their Vicenti team. CLA professionals pride themselves on meaningful client experiences and that completely aligns with the high standards of service to which Vicenti has always aspired,” Saddlemire continued. “Likewise, CLA’s purpose mirrors Vicenti’s to ‘make a positive difference in our world.’ Together we will continue to advance that purpose.”
“There is tremendous synergy between the Vicenti and CLA teams,” said Wells in a statement. “Together, we remain committed to serving clients large and small, from individuals to the education, government, nonprofit, and commercial business sectors. We believe that when we offer deep industry knowledge and integrated capabilities, we can exceed our clients’ expectations. When we do this, we deliver on the CLA Promise — to know you and help you.”
CLA, which ranked No. 9 on Accounting Today’s 2017 list of the Top 100 Firms, with $755 million in net revenue, has been on something of a merger tear over the past few years – though it has slowed somewhat this year. Prior to the Vicenti deal, its most recent mergers were in January, when it added firms in Oregon and Nevada (see “
“This is a great example of CLA’s commitment to industry specialization and its targeted approach to mergers,” said Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, who advised both firms on the merger. “Vicenti is a major market leader in the area of serving the educational, governmental, and nonprofit niches. Together both firms felt they could grow these niches throughout a much broader geography, and at the same time provide tremendous growth opportunities for the Vicenti team.”
“Vicenti explored merging with a larger firm as part of its strategic planning process and selected CLA from a half dozen or so national, mega-regional, and regional firms,” he explained. “Simply stated, they felt the CLA platform, culture, and ability to be on the ‘ground floor’ of growing California (and the Southwest) in their areas of specialization made for the perfect combination.”
