CBIZ & Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C.

ABOUT THIS COMPANY:

Joined at the hip

CBIZ and Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. are independent businesses, inextricably linked via an “alternative practice structure.” That means they work jointly to provide services to their clients, and together they’re the No. 7 accounting provider in the U.S. (according to Accounting Today’s 2012 ranking of the largest firms by revenue). Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. (MHM), a CPA firm, benefits from CBIZ’s sprawling national network and wide range of professional service lines; CBIZ, meanwhile, reaps the benefits of MHM’s niche strengths in attest services for government agencies, mid-market companies and nonprofits. Together, MHM and CBIZ offer accounting, tax, and advisory services, as well as litigation support, valuation services, and mergers and acquisitions services. Taken together, CBIZ & Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C.’s revenue typically falls into a near-even pattern: accounting services bring in just under 25 percent of revenue; tax services are responsible for just over 25 percent; and advisory and other services make up about 50 percent. As for Mayer Hoffman McCann’s roots, they go back to Kansas City in 1954 when Ernest D. Mayer broke ground on an accounting firm. By 1998, Mayer’s firm had added more services, more offices, and more named partners. That’s when it decided to spin off its consulting and tax practices in order to focus on core accounting services. Cleveland-based Century Business Services, now known as CBIZ, was then a small regional company that was buying up non-accounting units from regional accounting firms. In 2002, MHM embarked on a similar strategy, adding attest shareholders from companies that had sold their tax and/or consulting practices to CBIZ. As for CBIZ, it’s done business in a number of guises over the years.  In 1995, CBIZ Surety Group merged with Republic Environmental Systems, formerly part of Republic Industries. This tie-up formed International Alliance Services, Inc., a public company that traded on the Nasdaq exchange as IASI. In 1997, IASI adopted the moniker Century Business Services, and in 2005, it went back to its four-letter roots: CBIZ. Today, the combined businesses employ more than 4,000 people, including nearly 420 partners.