Private equity’s consolidation of small accounting firms has continued into 2025. Thirteen accounting and financial services firms, backed by capital from private equity fund DFW Capital Partners, have merged into one larger entity known as Sorren.

Sorren could potentially be one of the nation’s 50 largest accounting firms. The 13 firms bring in a combined $170 million in revenue, around as much as the nation’s 47th-largest firm, Doeren Mayhew.

Sorren will employ more than 1,000 people across 20 offices nationwide, and will also have offices in India, the Philippines, and St. Lucia. The firm will use an alternative practice structure, with one branch, Sorren CPAs, handling attest services, and the other, Sorren Inc., performing other nonattest services such as consulting.

Most of the firms that merged were members of the BDO Alliance and were familiar with one another before the combination took place, according to Accounting Today. “There was a level of comfort,” Josh Tyree, who will be president of Sorren, told the magazine. “We knew all of our firms and our people and what we do and how we do it because we’d shared so much information over the years.”

Click here for more on the new firm.—CV

If Wall Street has recently had a mild tariff headache, the shipping industry is confronting a looming supply chain migraine.

In late April, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka told the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners that shipping container traffic would drop 35% by early May at one of the busiest ports in the US. About 17% of all US imports and exports pass through LA, and another 14% goes through the nearby Port of Long Beach.

“Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,” Seroka said in the board meeting on April 24. Shipments from China make up about 45% of the Port of LA’s business. Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, echoed Seroka’s sentiment, telling LAist that “there’s been a pause on shipping orders from China.”

Without that cargo, Cordero said “the port is expecting an estimated 30% drop in cargo volume in the second quarter. For the second half of the year, as much as a 20% reduction.” In the last week of April, 38% fewer vessels arrived at The Port of Long Beach compared to the week before.

Day late, dollar short. Both consumers and workers will see impacts due to the decrease in shipments. An entire industry has popped up over the last few decades to support the constant influx of goods from overseas: dockhands to load and unload, truck drivers to move the inventory around the US, and warehouse workers to store the items. Fewer shipments means less work, and could lead to layoffs across logistics and retail, Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, an investment firm, told the New York Times.

For more on the import slowdown, click here.—JK

It’s all well and good that the youths think better of accounting. But that doesn’t do much if they all think fondly of accountants while working somewhere—anywhere—else.

According to a new Center for Audit Quality survey of nearly 3,500 US high school students and recent graduates, a growing number of young people see accounting as a good career path and an asset to companies, compared to a similar survey a few years ago.

“It’s encouraging to see growing interest among students,” Julie Bell Lindsay, CEO of CAQ, said in a statement. “This is proof that when we listen, learn, and adapt, we can positively impact the talent pipeline.”

But as the results show, a better perception of accounting doesn’t necessarily translate to more people pursuing it as a career.

The survey showed mixed results in students’ openness to jobs in accounting. Researchers called particular attention to an unchanged level of interest among Black students, “despite maintaining relatively high openness to the field,” and a continued gender gap—fewer women than men express interest in the profession.

Keep reading here.—AZ