The year 2008 was momentous—if not identity-altering—for Andersen & Company LLP. Not only was the company named Best Accounting Firm by NorthBay biz readers, it also completed a successful merger with Burr Pilger Mayer in San Francisco that will provide clients with new growth opportunities and a multitude of enhanced services unavailable anywhere else in the North Bay.
“I’m obviously touched to have been chosen with this exciting merger taking place,” says Jim Andersen, founder of Andersen & Company LLP and now partner at Burr Pilger Mayer. “It’s something that everyone at our firm will cherish.”
Andersen formed the company in 1981 and has since been involved in more than 700 business valuations and litigation assignments, ranging from merger and acquisition transactions to marital dissolutions to estate and gift tax actions. Over the years, the firm has grown from three employees to 35 at the time of the merger. “We grew both organically from within and by merging smaller accounting practices into our own,” he says. In time, it became the only full-service accounting and business consulting firm in the North Bay with a complete business valuation and litigation practice. It’s also routinely named one of the best places to work in the North Bay.
“Everything we do is about the people we work for,” Andersen says. “Our mission is to give great service in a confident manner so our clients have total faith in the advice we’re giving them—and to do so in a responsible, timely fashion. It’s about building relationships and maintaining them on a daily basis. That’s what differentiates us from our competitors.”
The merger with Burr Pilger Mayer, effective January 1, 2009, was just the latest step in Andersen’s evolution. Combined, the new entity will have almost 400 employees, more than $65 million in revenue and offices around the Bay Area (Santa Rosa, Novato, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Walnut Creek and San Jose). “We chose to merge based on how I envisioned growth over the next decade,” Andersen explains. “I was looking for something that would provide a better platform to deliver services to our existing clients and let us compete for the best and brightest employees in the market.
“Burr Pilger Mayer is the largest non-national accounting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the fit was outstanding,” he says. “The cultures of the two companies are very similar. We both treat our people very well, we’re both very service-oriented and we build our relationships with our clients every day. That was a critical consideration.”
Today, the companies are working through a transition period that Andersen hopes will be completed by mid-summer. “The process goes in both directions,” he says. “They have a large assurance staff that will help us on the front end, and our firm brings valuation, litigation support and succession planning expertise that’s among the best in California. Together that makes for a very strong combination.”
www.aandco.com; www.bpmllp.com
