5 Accounting Firm M&A Predictions for 2026

If you thought 2025 was a rollercoaster for the accounting industry, you might want to fasten your seatbelt a little tighter. We are just getting started.

Last year, I wrote extensively about the impending wave of Private Equity entering the space, but even I didn't fully anticipate the sheer velocity of capital deployment we witnessed. The headline-grabber, of course, was the massive Baker Tilly and Moss Adams merger announced in April 2025. That $7 billion deal didn't just create a new mega-firm; it signaled to the entire market that scale is no longer optional—it’s a survival strategy.

But beyond the mega-mergers, 2025 was defined by the realization that the traditional partnership model is cracking under the weight of succession issues and technology costs. We saw valuations shift, the "talent shortage" force creative acquisition strategies, and the line between "accounting firm" and "tech company" blur significantly.

At Firmlever, I’ve been analyzing the deal flow data from Q4 2024 through the end of 2025. The patterns are clear. We are moving away from simple book-of-business acquisitions toward strategic ecosystem plays.

The 2026 predictions I'm about to share are NOT investment advice. So please take them with a grain of salt and use your own judgment.

Here are my 5 bold M&A predictions for 2026.

1. The "SaaS-ification" of Valuations: Multiples detach from revenue

For decades, accounting firm valuations were predictably boring: roughly 1x to 1.2x gross revenue. In 2025, we started seeing a fracture in this model, but in 2026, I predict a complete decoupling for firms with proprietary technology.

Acquirers—specifically PE-backed platforms—are no longer looking just for cash flow; they are looking for IP. They want firms that have productized their services. If you have built a proprietary workflow tool, a client-facing dashboard, or an AI-driven audit layer, you are no longer valued like a service firm; you are valued closer to a SaaS (Software as a Service) company.

The Scenario

A mid-sized regional firm ($15M revenue) is struggling with partner capacity but has developed a proprietary AI tool for automating real estate cost segregation studies. A Top 20 firm acquires them not for their tax compliance clients, but specifically to strip out that IP and deploy it across their national client base. The valuation hits 2.5x revenue—unheard of for a traditional firm—because the acquirer views the "accounting" side as a loss leader for the "tech" side.

The Takeaway: In 2026, your code is worth more than your timesheets.

2. The "Micro-PE" Invasion of the Downstream Market

Until now, Private Equity has largely been trophy hunting—chasing the Top 100 firms like the EisnerAmper or Citrin Cooperman deals of the past. But the top of the market is becoming saturated. There are only so many multi-billion dollar platforms to buy.

In 2026, we will see the rise of "Micro-PE" and search funds targeting the $5M to $20M revenue firms. These investors aren't looking to create a national brand immediately; they are looking to solve the succession crisis for Baby Boomer partners who are too small for the big PE players but too expensive for internal partner buyouts.

The Scenario

A boutique PE fund raises $50M specifically to roll up 10 firms in the Pacific Northwest, each with $3M-$5M in revenue. They aren't merging them into a single office; they are keeping the local brands but gutting the back office, installing a unified tech stack, and hiring a non-accountant CEO to run the collective. This provides a liquidity event for retiring partners that internal managers simply couldn't afford.

The Takeaway: You don't need to be a Top 100 firm to get a PE check anymore. The money is flowing downstream.

3. The "Vertical-Only" Rollup Strategy

Generalist firms are dying a slow death. The market knows this. In 2026, M&A activity will pivot aggressively toward hyper-specialization. We will see the formation of massive firms that do only one thing, created by rolling up dozens of small, niche practitioners.

Investors have realized that a firm specializing in, say, dental practices or crypto-assets, commands higher margins, stickier clients, and better advisory fees than a generalist firm doing 1040s for everyone in town.

The Scenario

Look for a "Dental CPA Alliance" style deal. An aggregator acquires 15 independent accounting practices across the US that specialize exclusively in dentistry. They rebrand as a national vertical service provider. By consolidating data from thousands of dental practices, they create a benchmarking dataset that is valuable enough to sell back to the dental industry suppliers. The accounting becomes the wedge; the data becomes the product.

The Takeaway: The riches are in the niches, and M&A is finally putting a premium price tag on that rhyme.

4. Cross-Border "Workforce Mergers"

Offshoring is old news. In 2025, we saw firms struggling to simply "hire" overseas talent due to competition. In 2026, US firms will stop trying to hire individual remote workers and start acquiring boutique firms in the UK, Australia, India, and the Philippines outright.

This isn't just about labor arbitrage anymore; it's about acquiring functioning teams and management structures. With the talent shortage continuing to plague the profession, buying a 50-person firm in Manila or a 30-person advisory shop in London is faster and less risky than trying to build a remote team from scratch.

The Scenario

A Top 50 US firm acquires a mid-tier firm in the UK, not to gain UK clients, but to acquire their 100 staff members to work on US audit engagements during the US night shift. This creates a true "follow-the-sun" workflow. The deal is structured as a merger, giving the UK partners equity in the US entity, aligning incentives far better than a traditional BPO vendor relationship.

The Takeaway: M&A becomes the primary recruiting strategy for 2026.

5. The Non-CPA "Acqui-hire" Boom

As firms desperately try to pivot to advisory services (a trend we've watched for years), they are hitting a wall: Accountants aren't always great at selling high-end consulting. The solution? Buy the consultants.

In 2026, we will see a spike in accounting firms acquiring non-accounting businesses—specifically in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), Cybersecurity, and HR consulting. We saw hints of this with recent tech-centric deals in 2025, but it will accelerate.

The Scenario

A regional CPA firm acquires a boutique Cybersecurity agency. They don't want the agency's brand; they want the 15 certified ethical hackers and security consultants. The CPA firm immediately cross-sells "Cyber-Audit" packages to their existing 2,000 business clients. The acquisition pays for itself in 18 months through cross-selling, something organic growth could never achieve.

The Takeaway: The definition of an "accounting firm" will be stretched to the limit as firms buy capabilities they cannot build.

What does this all mean for accountants in 2026?

If you are a firm owner, the market is telling you something loud and clear: Specialization and Technology are the drivers of value.

The days of building a generalist practice, grinding out billable hours, and hoping a junior partner will buy you out for 1x revenue are largely over. The capital entering our space is sophisticated, demanding, and impatient.

For the staff and non-equity partners, these shifts are actually good news. The injection of PE capital and the shift toward "SaaS" valuations means better technology budgets, more competitive salaries, and a move away from the grind culture that has plagued the industry for decades.

The Baker Tilly/Moss Adams merger was the earthquake of 2025. In 2026, we deal with the aftershocks—and for the prepared firm, those aftershocks look a lot like opportunity.