Top 50 US Firm HBK Completes McDirmit Davis Merger

HBK, a Top 50 US accounting firm, merged with Orlando-based McDirmit Davis effective November 2, an HBK CPA acquisition that adds 23 professionals and the firm’s first Orlando office.

HBK, based in Canfield, Ohio, announced the combination on November 10. Financial terms were not disclosed. HBK has not published revenue or client numbers for McDirmit Davis.

The deal is HBK’s third in 2026 and its second since H.I.G. Capital announced a strategic growth investment in the firm on August 25. For finance professionals the pattern matters more than the single transaction. A mid-tier firm with outside capital is now buying a regional practice roughly every few months, and the same buyers are competing for the same Florida talent and clients.

HBK CPA acquisition brings a first Orlando office

McDirmit Davis was founded in 1984 and offers accounting, audit, tax and financial services to individuals and businesses across Florida. The team will keep serving clients from its office at 1800 Pembrook Drive in Orlando.

Troy Olson, CPA, is the firm’s managing partner. HBK said the McDirmit Davis partners bring more than 100 years of combined public accounting experience.

The announcement does not say whether the McDirmit Davis name will be retained.

“McDirmit Davis brings deep roots in Central Florida and specialized experience with government contractors.” Tom Angelo, Chief Executive, HBK

Olson framed the deal as a matter of capacity for the firm’s clients and staff.

“Joining HBK gives our clients more resources as they grow and gives our people more paths to build their careers.” Troy Olson, Managing Partner, McDirmit Davis

What the HBK CPA acquisition adds in government work

The specialisms are the point. McDirmit Davis serves government contractors, simulation contractors, local governments, employee benefit plans and family-owned businesses.

Employee benefit plan audits and local government work are both regulated, recurring engagements. They are also work that smaller firms often find hard to staff, which is one reason such practices attract buyers.

Central Florida also carries a concentration of simulation and defence contracting. An HBK CPA acquisition in Orlando gives the firm a team already placed in that client base rather than one it would need to build from scratch.

McDirmit Davis clients gain access to HBK’s Industry Solution Groups and its advisory services. They also gain HBKS Wealth Advisors, the firm’s wealth management arm, and Vertilocity, its technology advisory practice.

For a 23-person firm, access to a wealth arm and a technology practice is a cross-selling opportunity for the buyer and a retention argument for the seller. Whether clients take up those services is the test of the deal, and neither firm has put a number on it.

Florida footprint after the HBK CPA acquisition

HBK said the Orlando deal and the addition of Gary Sanders in Naples strengthen a Florida footprint that already included a Tampa office. Sanders, CPA, founded Gary Sanders CPA PC and has served Naples-area individuals and businesses for more than 40 years. He joined HBK’s Naples office effective November 1.

The Tampa office came from the May combination with Brimmer, Burek and Keelan, a Tampa CPA firm. Orlando is the third Florida location named in the announcement.

Across the group, HBK operates 27 offices in seven states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Florida and North Carolina, and in India. Orlando sits between Tampa and the south-east coast, and the Florida offices now run along the state’s Gulf side and its central corridor.

HBK said the moves support a strategic plan built on geographic expansion and strategic combinations.

Private equity and the HBK CPA acquisition spree

H.I.G. Capital, an alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management, described its stake as a strategic growth investment. HBK’s partners will continue to lead the firm, and H.I.G. becomes its first institutional partner.

The investment covers HBK CPAs and Consultants, HBKS Wealth Advisors and Vertilocity. H.I.G. said the transaction was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.

Before closing, HBK will adopt an alternative practice structure, a model common in the profession. Attest services stay with its CPA firm, Hill, Barth and King LLC, which remains CPA-owned. Other services continue under their current entities.

That structure is how private equity money enters firms that perform audits. It is covered in detail in Accountio’s analysis of how private equity is reshaping accounting, and the buyers’ later exits are the subject of its report on firms reaching second ownership cycles.

HBK’s August announcement was its first outside capital. The McDirmit Davis deal is the second HBK CPA acquisition to follow it, after the Curchin Group in Red Bank, New Jersey, effective October 16. Curchin, founded in 1955, serves construction, credit union, manufacturing and nonprofit clients. HBK said the deal expands its Northeast expertise.

Where the HBK CPA acquisition sits in 2026 deals

HBK is not alone in buying Florida practices. Doeren Mayhew announced the acquisition of Berman Hopkins in March. Berman Hopkins operates in Orlando and Melbourne, Florida, and the deal added nearly 100 employees and nine principals. Doeren Mayhew said it targeted construction and other complementary sectors.

In the Mid-Atlantic, Sorren added Zinman and Company and Alta CPA Group in September. The common thread is a mid-tier firm buying a regional practice with a defined specialism, usually one that adds a geography.

The scale gap is visible. McDirmit Davis, at 23 professionals, is about a quarter the size of the Berman Hopkins team that Doeren Mayhew bought in Orlando six months earlier. It is the kind of practice that smaller-firm acquirers such as Numica also target, which keeps pressure on pricing for sub-50 person firms.

For partners weighing their own exit, the buyer list now includes private equity-backed regionals, national platforms and mid-tier firms looking to fill gaps on a map. A realistic view of price starts with the firm’s own numbers, and Accountio’s CPA firm valuation and sale pack sets out the inputs buyers ask for.

The deal also fits a wider shift toward client accounting services and advisory work, where firms try to sell more than compliance to each client. HBK’s mix of wealth management and technology advisory around its tax and audit core follows that logic.

Deal terms, revenue and McDirmit Davis’s client count remain undisclosed. H.I.G.’s investment in HBK is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2026, and the next test of the strategy is whether HBK announces a fourth deal before the year ends.