Writing in Legal Week, the editor of Accountancy Age explains how most accountancy firms which listed 'collapsed and [are] now dissipated, absorbed and fragmented into other firms'. Kevin Reed says that 'their stock exchange listings were absolutely integral to their problems'. One difficulty was that they used the money they raised to expand more rapidly than they would otherwise have done. They overpaid in the deals they bought into and then struggled to bring together the different cultures, businesses and offices that they acquired.

Shareholder needs

The need to publish information as a listed business is difficult for people businesses and can result in 'negative attention [which] makes life a lot tougher on retention and recruitment', writes Mr Reed. Combining the pay practices of a partnership with the compensation needs of shareholders adds another set of potential problems. Source: Legal Week