1616 ET - Private equity investment in accounting firms could cause profitability to outweigh audit quality as an incentive of the firms over time, George Botic, acting chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, said at a conference at Washington, D.C. Since 2021, more than two dozen of the 100 largest U.S. accounting firms have either sold an ownership stake to private-equity or been acquired by a firm that has done so. Private-equity firms are focusing on accelerating growth and looking ahead to selling their interest to another buyer, Botic says. "Consolidation, driven by private equity roll-ups, may reduce the number of accounting firms performing public-company audits by concentrating market power and potentially leaving smaller public companies with far fewer auditors competing to provide them with audits," he says.(mark.maurer@wsj.com; @markgmaurer)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2025 16:16 ET (21:16 GMT)

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