Pricewaterhouse to buy consulting firm Booz
New York City (AFP) - Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers said Wednesday it has reached a deal to buy business consultancy Booz & Company.
PwC did not reveal the financial terms of the acquisition, which will boost its advisory business.
Dennis Nally, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers International, said the merger would give chief executives around the world "the opportunity to work with a global consulting team that could provide services from strategy development right through to execution."
PwC, headquartered in London, focuses on audit and assurance, tax and consulting services.
Booz partners are set to vote on the proposed deal in December. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, but a source familiar with the situation said no major hurdle was expected.
The announcement did not provide details on how the combination would be structured.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the world's most powerful audit and consultancy companies, employing more than 180,000 people in 157 countries.
It posted $32.1 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, up 4 percent from the previous year.
The private Booz & Company employs more than 3,000 people in 57 offices worldwide. Its 2012 revenue was estimated at $1.4 billion by research firm Kennedy Information.
In 2008 Booz became an independent company, separating itself from Booz Allen Hamilton, a listed company that provides consulting to governments. The company's name is based on founding partner Edwin Booz, who established the first management consulting business in 1914.
"This potential combination would not only deliver on this innovative value proposition but would also help reinvent management consulting for the next century," said Booz chief executive Cesare Mainard.
PwC's roots trace back to the middle of the 19th century in Britain, where Samuel Lowell Price and William Cooper launched separate companies. A series of mergers led to the creation of the current company in 1998.
The proposed merger would bolster PwC's consultancy business. The company sold PwC Consulting to US technology giant IBM for about $3.5 billion in 2002. Since then it has been beefing up the business with a series of acquisitions, including PRTM in 2011.
"One of the real strengths of PwC is the scope and quality of our services, giving us the ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders to build trust and solve important problems," said Nally.
"Today's proposed merger would only add to that strength."
