Roland Berger future and rumors
Do you have any information on how the company is doing after they turned down the offer to merge with PwC/Deloitte/EY?
Some rumors below heard in the market:
1. Allegedly many partners decided to leave over the last 6 months.
2. There is a general problem with profitability, both in mature markets and Asia.
3. Performance improvement program is indeed a cost-cutting measure to weather the storm, that has also a negative influence on bonuses and salary levels.
4. There is a lot of tension between different countries within the firm, esp. the French part seems to show interest in spinning off from the HQ.
5. The company might have to face serious financial problems in near future and is still looking for potential partners/buyers although officially they ended any negotiations.
I've heard that the RBG partners voted to be acquired (collectively, as RBG), but that Mr. Berger himself put his foot down and axed the plans. What is one to do when one's firm is going downhill but the boss-man won't let you cut your losses?
According to Roland Berger themselves the majority of the 250 partners agreed to stay independent and end discussions with potential acquirers. But what's officially communicated doesn't need to be the true picture of course...
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20131219-701170.html
I know they were being shopped (2-3 months ago), and two firms I know passed on them because their balance sheet is an absolute mess and any price above $1 would be unjustifiable.
Absolute crap. No breakup envisioned at all since a good year now - and even back then, there was in fact little ground beneath this.
RB, under very specific circumstances that I do not want to disclose here, considered offers that were almost too good to refuse from both PwC and Deloitte,...then turned them down when they quantified precisely how much business they'd lose due to conflict of interests issues (spoiler : a lot).
Also when they solved the main reason for rumors of breakup, which I won't disclose here - but which does not relate to balance sheet.
Some partners left, true - I'd guess less than 10%. Vast majority of them were actually kicked off. As part of the general effort to restore higher profitability, which preceded the talks with Big 4 in order to maximize valuation.
In terms of full pay - at least in the countries I know about (Western Europe), RB is actually at pretty competitive at all levels since a few years - (except senior partners, perhaps - I don't know much about them). Which suggests relatively healthy financials.
Now - some things have been a bit shaky, true. But I guess competitors are delighted to spread the most dreadful rumors - well helped by the extremely poor PR & communication departments RB has in most geographies.
Were they being shopped by someone outside of the Big 4? Was this happening this year?
That would confirm that they just moved back to the quiet phase of seeking an outside investor.
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