Have you heard the phrase “What a year this week has been?” It’s one of our favorites for those weeks when the headlines start coming and they don’t stop coming.
This year has already had more than a few of those weeks, we realized, as we reflected on the last six months while plucking out new gray hairs. To spare you the whiplash of revisiting that timeline, CFO Brew has recapped some of the biggest finance stories of the year so far.
Gobble gobble. Private equity took control of its largest accounting firms yet in the first half of the year, taking advantage of the firms’ need for capital to invest in new tech and, the Wall Street Journal reports, “to attract and retain workers during an accountant shortage.” In February, a pair of PE firms cracked the top 10 of Inside Public Accounting’s rankings with their investment in Baker Tilly, with the Financial Times reporting it was a majority stake.
Weeks later, Grant Thornton announced that New Mountain Capital was investing in the firm, the seventh largest. The FT reported in June that four firms in the top 30 were discussing potential investments: Armanino (No. 19), Carr Riggs & Ingram (24), PKF O’Connor Davies (27), and Aprio (28).
Over rules. It’s been an uneven six months for potential new rules of the road for finance and accounting. The Securities and Exchange Commission put its climate rule on ice in April—figurative ice, thankfully, because who knows how long real ice will be around—and the Treasury Department is arguing in court over its new requirement for companies to report who owns them. On the talent side, we’ll know by July 3 whether a judge will allow the Federal Trade Commission to start enforcing its ban on noncompete clauses in September. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has had more success, pushing through major changes to standards for auditor independence and quality control and updates to rules on “technology-assisted analysis” and auditor liability.
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Ruh-roh. New Year’s-style resolutions for the second half of 2024 may be in order for organizations that made high-profile mistakes in their earnings releases. (Hi, Lyft!) Resolutions may be a good idea in general, though, because the headline-grabbers aren’t the only ones goofing up.
[Evil laugh.] Our dear, sweet summer children, did you really think you were going to get an article on the biggest stories of the year without an appearance from generative AI? The tech continued its ascent into the mainstream, with ChatGPT gaining a foothold in the Big Four and a survey finding that CFOs have become less afraid that the tech could replace them. More money has been pouring into generative AI, including massive sums from Big Tech, while the hardware, materials, and energy needed to fuel AI’s growth “propels a potentially historic capital expenditure cycle,” according to Jay Jacobs, BlackRock’s US lead on thematic and active ETFs. Amid the gold rush, the SEC has started going after alleged unsavory behavior—a trend that experts believe will only pick up steam, Bloomberg reported.