Related Posts
More Posts
Anyone from xoomworks here?
Any 1 page resume template recommendations?
Additional Posts in Consulting
How is everyone planning for potential layoffs?
Is PwC SAP team still hiring?
Star Wars or Star Trek? Discuss.
New to Fishbowl?
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Just because firms are doing diligence doesn’t mean they are actually going to do the deal. We diligence a lot of firms and mostly it’s smarter just to pick off the best partners vs buying the firm.
Chief
Either that or boutiques that take PE money to cash out, grow and consolidate.
But yeah... our revenue and margin trends are whatever the opposite of distressed is these days.
This isn’t going to happen. Beyond the “our partners would never sell” mantra, none of those shops could afford the acquisition without taking on significant risk to their balance sheets.
Assume ZS goes for roughly what PWC acquired Booz for - it might be a stretch, but given ZSs historical revenue growth, it’s not clear why partners would take less than $1BN just to acquire and then who knows how much to actually integrate.
McKinsey is the biggest of the 3 and they’re estimated to be $10Bn in annual revenue. But, this year in particular, that revenue has a 5% haircut because of the opioid settlement. PWC is more than 4x bigger than McKinsey in revenue. A bit hard to see how they could afford this, and if they can’t, BCG and Bain surely can’t.
Sure, they could try to finance with debt...but why? Neither MBB nor ZS have significant assets to collateralize a loan, so rates would presumably be pretty high. So then it’s a question of comparing where else growth could come from. Presumably, much smaller shops could generate smaller growth but not require debt and there’s always old fashioned organic growth.
Lastly, Booz presumably sold because they had no vision for how to maintain their growth...but the same isn’t true for ZS. We obviously have a ton of industries we could go after and we’re not even “complete” in healthcare yet. That clear growth story would presumably put a premium relative to Booz that makes this even more out of reach.
Revenue details of ZS
What is ZS?
Rising Star
You’re wrong. ZS is buying all 3 MBB
This is the way
Chief
My ZS colleague here is apparently drunk.
If we got acquired our culture would be gone. We would have to fit in theirs. I’m not down for that. I’d rather leave.
I’ve heard that Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, and Gigi Hadid are looking to acquire me as a boyfriend. You’ll have to trust my sources on this.
Hey OP, you’re embarrassing us
niiiiice
Where are you getting this? I don’t think Bain would buy a company like ZS since it’s quite large relative to Bain (like 1/2 the FTEs of Bain) and Bain would struggle to maintain / enforce culture and op model. Plus, there’s a huge ASP difference between the firms (and thus compensation into management and partnership). But who knows. They obviously don’t invite me to these convos even if they’re happening
For the love of all things holy, if ZS gets acquired by any of these companies I am out. Part of why I am here is I love the culture, I love the people, and I like not being a slave to the road and having a great work life balance (trust me to the ZSers reading this, you have no idea how good you have it).
One of the companies listed here (and others). All they are all great companies, don’t get me wrong - just not for me. And yes we work hard at ZS. But there is a great ability to draw personal boundaries with work, very little travel for most, and a really great culture with the ability to make your own path. I grew up in consulting and would never leave ZS to go to another consulting company.
Rising Star
Yeah and KPMG is buying McKinsey.
Pro
That’s McKPMG to you
Chief
It’s weird to see ZS punching so far outside of their pay grade.
This kind of “greater chance that an asteroid will hit the earth” fever dream is typically Deloitte’s game.
We are happy with our firm being independent and have no intention of being acquired at any price tag by any of mbb or big4s! You can very well keep your superiority complex if that helps you. 😀 And yes that's in our blood - always punch above your weight and knock'em down!
The life sciences expertise would be a massive boon to whomever made the move - for ZSers access to new non-life sciences verticals would be pretty cool
Run- ZS is a sinking ship
Not to be a jerk, but I probably wouldn’t trust the judgment of other firms from someone who actively chose KPMG.
I’m buying zs with dogecoin gains
Pro
McKinsey wouldn’t acquire ZS
Thank goodness!
Rising Star
When I was at Deloitte there was talk of Accenture buying Bain. Then we were taking an outside in look at buying Bain. Then we were trying to figure out how we were positioned versus Accenture post Bain acquisition. I guarantee the other Big4 started looking at Bain because we all do the same crap.
And you know what happened? Nobody bought Bain. I suspect the ZS "acquisition" will be like the Bain "acquisition".
Then leadership at Deloitte has eaten the onion. This has always been a meme. Anyone who knows anything knows that the 90s restructuring made selling Bain a tall task.. I think y’all been hoodwinked by some rumors.
Lol is this real?
Rising Star
No it’s not
Image below shows revenue
@P1 just admit it. You are being acquired!
I'm going to guess 3.0-3.5B in revenue based on 10K employees. Basically $300k to $350k a person. US is probably higher global lower.