EisnerAmper adds Krost CPAs

EisnerAmper, a Top 25 Firm based in New York, is adding the partners and colleagues of Krost CPAs, a Top 100 Firm based in the Los Angeles area, in a combination expected to close in September 2024.

Krost was founded in 1939 and has eight partners and a staff of more than 100 professionals across offices in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills and its Pasadena headquarters. The accounting, tax, and business consulting firm focuses on the hospitality, technology, financial services, manufacturing, real estate, sports and entertainment, nonprofit, and other sectors.

"It's strategically critical that we expand our presence in America's second largest city," said Jay Weinstein, EisnerAmper vice chair of industries and markets, in a statement. "And I can't think of a better partner than Krost, which has maintained a standard of excellence for more than eight decades. We warmly welcome them to the EisnerAmper family." 

"I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together, building the firm into a highly respected regional institution with an 85-year history," said Krost CEO Jason Melillo in a statement Tuesday. "I'm also very excited for us to join the fastest growing firm in the nation and to expand and enhance our service offerings and client capabilities." 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. EisnerAmper and its Eisner Advisory Group ranked No. 17 on Accounting Today's 2024 list of the Top 100 Firms, with annual revenue of $849 million. EisnerAmper has 450 partners and 4,500 staff. Krost ranked No. 82, with annual revenue of $70.87 million, and has eight partners and 100 staff members.

"The profession is evolving," said Paren Knadjian, principal of M&A and capital markets at Krost, in a statement "To stay relevant and, more importantly, to continue to provide a wide array of evolving services to our clients, we need the additional expertise and capital that a firm like EisnerAmper can provide. We believe they are the ideal partner to help us achieve that goal."

EisnerAmper has been busy on the M&A front since it received private equity funding in 2021 from TowerBrook Capital Partners, setting the stage for other accounting firms to follow its lead. The firm split into an alternative practice structure with Eisner Advisory Group LLC providing nonattest services and EisnerAmper LLP offering attest services to clients. 

In May, it announced it was adding Edelstein & Co. LLP, a Regional Leader based in Boston, in a combination expected to close in June. In March, EisnerAmper announced it was adding the Tidwell Group, a tax, assurance, advisory and real estate consulting firm based in Birmingham, Alabama, effective May 1. Last year, it merged in Spielman Koenigsberg & Parker in New York, Morrison & Morrison in Chicago, and Top 100 Firm Postlethwaite & Netterville in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 2022, EisnerAmper added Lindsay & Brownell in La Jolla, California, Hoffman Group in Baltimore, Lurie in Minnesota and Florida, and Top 100 Firm Raich Ende Malter  and Popper & Co. in New York.