• Andersen Consulting was once one of the top names in professional services.
• The firm rebranded to Accenture in 2000, and its parent company went bust following the Enron scandal.
• Now Andersen Consulting is making a comeback, The Financial Times reported.

One of the leading consulting brands of the 1990s, whose parent company was brought down in the Enron scandal, is making a comeback.

Andersen Consulting, which was one of the "Big Eight" consulting firms, will relaunch next month, unnamed sources told The Financial Times.

The firm's comeback has been orchestrated by Andersen, a tax business founded in 2002 by former employees from Arthur Andersen, the once-prestigious accounting firm and the parent company of Andersen Consulting. It acquired rights to the Arthur Andersen name in 2014 and renamed itself Andersen in 2019.

Andersen has mostly focused on tax and legal work but has been steadily building a consulting division under the guidance of George Shaheen, a former CEO of Andersen Consulting in its heyday. Shaheen joined the group as a special advisor in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In the past six months, the company has added 20 member firms focused on consulting from the US and other countries, several of which have connections to the old Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen, the FT reported.

"Six months ago, we began building Andersen Consulting, and already we have 108 offices in 66 countries with nearly 3000 employees," Mark Vorsatz, Andersen's CEO, said in a statement sent to Business Insider.

"We're seeing incredibly fast growth. Our goal in three years is to reach a billion dollars in revenue, which I think is very realistic."

"Our global firm has a massive competitive advantage and this scale creates a unique consulting experience that is unrivaled in the crowded consulting space," he added.

The resurrection of Andersen Consulting marks a major comeback for what was once a leading name in professional services.

"Andersen Consulting was the Coca-Cola of professional services," Vorsatz told the FT. "If you are over 40 in business, you know Andersen Consulting."

The original Andersen Consulting split from its parent company, Arthur Andersen, in 2000 and rebranded as Accenture.

One year later, the Andersen name was tarnished when Arthur Andersen became embroiled in the Enron scandal. Executives at Enron, one of the largest energy providers in the US, were found to have hidden billions of dollars in debt by manipulating financial models and lying to investors.

Enron filed for bankruptcy, and thousands of employees lost their jobs and retirement savings.

Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditor, was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding its client's auditing documents as the government started its investigation.

The fallout led to Arthur Andersen's collapse in 2002, reducing the "Big Five" global accounting firms to four. It is one of the most dramatic corporate collapses in US history — one year earlier, the firm had reported roughly $9 billion in global revenue.

The rebooted version of Andersen Consulting would not try to compete with Accenture as an outsourcing services provider, Vorsatz told the FT.

• Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said she looks for candidates who love to learn new things.
• Sweet said in a podcast interview that she would ask people what they have learned recently.
• The former lawyer said it didn't matter even if people just said they learned how to bake a cake.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said there's one key question she poses to people who want to work for her.

"There's one question that we ask everyone, regardless of you're a consultant or you're working in technology or whatever you do," Sweet said in an interview with Norges Bank Investment Management CEO Nicolai Tangen on his "In Good Company" podcast, which aired Wednesday.

"We say, 'What have you learned in the last six months?'" she added.

Asking this question, Sweet told Tangen, is a practical way for her to determine if candidates are interested in learning new things.

"If someone can't answer that question, and by the way, we don't care if it's 'I learned to bake a cake,' if they can't answer that question, then we know that they're not a learner," Sweet said.

This wouldn't be the first time Sweet has talked about her expectations for new hires at Accenture. The consulting firm said on its website that it employs around 799,000 employees and operates in more than 200 cities.

The former lawyer said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times that she looks for candidates who demonstrate two main traits.

"The first is curiosity. The new normal is continuous learning, and we look for people who demonstrate lots of different interests and really demonstrate curiosity," Sweet told The Times.

"The second piece is leadership. I don't care what level you are, there is the need to offer straight talk when you're working with clients. You have to have the courage to deliver tough messages," she added.

Representatives for Sweet at Accenture did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Sweet isn't the only C-suite executive who places a premium on learning.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that students should devote their time to learning and reading, and less time on social-media platforms like TikTok and Facebook.

Dimon was speaking at the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy's annual Financial Markets Quality Conference in September when he was asked if he had any advice for the students in attendance.

"My advice to students: Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. If you're Democrat, read the Republican opinion, the good ones. If you're Republican, read the Democrat ones," Dimon said.

"Read history books. You can't make it up. Nelson Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Sam Walton. You only learn by reading and talking to other people. There's no other way," he continued.

• Ad industry M&A activity is expected to surge in 2025.
• Key areas of interest include retail media, streaming TV, influencer marketing, and AI.
• Insiders think companies like Accenture, AppLovin, and The Trade Desk could be active acquirers.

Bankers and M&A advisors say advertising and marketing acquisition deal flow picked up in the second half of 2024 after a slow start, and they're expecting a flurry of activity in the new year.

"It feels like the tide has turned," said William Ritchie, the managing director of the M&A advisory firm WY Partners.

Some in the industry told Business Insider they thought Omnicom's planned $13.25 billion deal to buy Interpublic Group would be a lightning rod for further ad industry M&A in 2025.

Key areas of buyer interest include the fast-growing retail media and streaming TV sectors, influencer marketing, and the implementation of data and AI. Industry insiders said private-equity buyers would also most likely remain active.

"Everyone is looking for the glue that ties together some of the components," said Charles Ping, a managing director of the Winterberry Group management consultancy.

BI talked to about a dozen advertising, marketing, and adtech industry executives, investors, bankers, and advisors, who speculated about the deals they think could happen in 2025 and beyond. Some of the people were granted anonymity to protect business relationships; their identities are known to BI.

Accenture could go revenge shopping

Matt Lacey, a partner at the M&A advisory group Waypoint Partners, said the combination of Omnicom and IPG may leave Accenture feeling vulnerable. Its Accenture Song creative marketing group could look to acquire a new asset in areas like data and media, "where it has limited capabilities," he said.

Brian Wieser, an analyst at Madison and Wall, wrote in a recent note to clients that Accenture Song was arguably the "world's largest marketing services business" — at least until Omnicom and IPG come together. Wieser noted that it marked "high single-digit growth" in its most recent quarter, faster growth than its agency-holding-company peers.

Accenture has been a consistently active acquirer of advertising and marketing businesses in recent years. In April it acquired the customer-engagement agency Unlimited to boost its customer-relationship-management offering. In June it bought the Brazilian creative agency Soko.

Another area of interest for Accenture Song is experiential marketing, a person familiar with its strategy told BI.

"Experiential is going to be hot in 2025," this person said. "The sheer fact that people are coming out and younger generations don't just want to be in a digital world, they want social connections. You can do a significant amount of innovation in the integration between tech and real-world settings."

AppLovin could swoop in for deals while its stock is riding high

"Everyone is looking at AppLovin," said Alex Iosilevich, a partner at Alignment Growth, which invests in media and entertainment companies. "The expectation is they'll be acquisitive."

AppLovin's stock has been soaring, and it's been trading at a market value above $100 billion. Investors have been wowed by its move into e-commerce, which has opened up a new and lucrative pool of advertisers beyond its mobile-gaming roots.

While AppLovin's executives have said M&A isn't part of the company's near-term growth strategy, that hasn't stopped industry insiders from speculating about its next move.

"I think they should buy someone like Snapchat and get a foothold in the social space," said Alex Merutka, a former early AppLovin employee who's now the CEO of the adtech company Craftsman+.

Other ad industry insiders said AppLovin could further expand into connected TV, adding to its 2022 acquisition of Wurl, a company that helps publishers distribute and monetize their video content on TV screens.

Connected TV presents a "massive area to unlock SMB budgets to play in TV ads," said Tom Triscari, the CEO of the programmatic-advertising advisory firm Lemonade Projects.

Criteo could be bought or go shopping itself — or both

Criteo has long been the subject of takeover speculation. Reuters reported in early 2023 that the company had appointed the investment bank Evercore to explore its strategic options.

News that Criteo's CEO, Megan Clarken, plans to exit the company next year also fueled rumors that a sale could be in the cards. Digiday listed The Trade Desk, Microsoft, Walmart, Publicis Groupe, and WPP's GroupM as logical suitors.

Triscari said it could be equally possible that Criteo itself makes a transformative acquisition.

"Criteo has retail media, the second-best shopper dataset to Amazon, and better adtech than Amazon," Triscari said. "All they need is an access point to CTV inventory. Very doable with some creative options out there."

Criteo might also want to double down on retail-media tech. Digiday reported this summer that Criteo had been in talks to acquire Skai, a marketing platform that specializes in retail search advertising, among other things. The Israeli news site Calcalist reported this month that Skai recently laid off 80 employees, which could signal that the company is preparing for a sale.

Havas listing could spur deals

The French advertising group Havas listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam this month, separating from its parent company, Vivendi.

Havas has said it will continue taking a "disciplined approach to acquisitions," with a plan to target high-growth markets and areas like data analytics, digital transformation, and AI.

"They look at everything right now," Ritchie, of WY Partners, said.

Havas had a busy 2024 with the acquisitions of the data firm DMPG, the B2B marketing company Ledger Bennett, the Australian media agency Hotglue, and the social-media agency Wilderness, among others.

IAS could get taken private

BI reported last month that KKR and other private-equity buyers were weighing a deal to acquire the publicly traded ad-verification firm Integral Ad Science. KKR and IAS declined to comment at the time.

Bloomberg first reported that IAS had appointed the investment bank Jefferies to explore its options after receiving inbound takeover interest.

A take-private deal could help IAS grow further without the quarterly Wall Street scrutiny.

Speaking generally about the adtech industry, Ping, of Winterberry, said, "There are many companies that don't have access to the capital that they imagined they would when they listed, and it's hampering their growth, particularly if they have a global outlook."

He added that take-private deals could unlock new capital while offering some value back to shareholders. Ping pointed to Mediaocean's $500 million acquisition of the CTV advertising and analytics firm Innovid and to the advanced-TV ad company Cadent's $324 million acquisition of the performance marketing company AdTheorent as recent examples of this trend.

PE-backed independent agency groups could make big moves

Jay Pattisall, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, said the consolidation of Omnicom and IPG could open up more opportunities for private-equity-backed independent ad agencies like Dept, Horizon Media, PMG, Tinuiti, and Wpromote.

"Anticipate more growth in independents' innovation investments and more focus in their proposition to compete with the global consolidation of marketing scale at Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP," Pattisall wrote in a recent blog post.

According to the advisory firm SI Partners, private-equity and private-equity-backed transactions were responsible for about a third of deal volume in the agencies, consultancies, and technology-service-provider sectors in the year to mid-November.

Some might seek new investors, given where they are in their private-equity investment life cycles.

Dept, which sold a majority stake to Carlyle Group in 2020, is expected to be in the market for a new investor next year, industry sources told BI.

The US media agency Horizon Media could also be in play, since Temasek, the investment firm that bought a minority share in 2021, will want an exit at some point, said Dave Morgan, the executive chairman of the TV-ad-buying company Simulmedia. Last month Horizon added a full-service creative agency to its ranks, hinting at ambitions to become a bigger global network.

Talent agencies like CAA, Wasserman, and UTA will be jockeying for influencer experts

M&A insiders said talent agencies were gearing up to make deals to broaden their offerings beyond traditional talent management.

Influencer specialists are at the top of their shopping lists, these people said.

"You have this melding — where does influencer live in the context of things like TikTok Shop or Instagram?" said Bob Morris, a managing partner of the M&A advisory firm Bravery Group. "We hear over and over that talent agencies are looking for different models and sets of mechanics."

Talent agencies are also looking to become more data-centric to identify which influencers drive sales, Morris said. Adobe Analytics said influencers and other affiliate marketers drove about 20% of US Cyber Monday e-commerce revenue this year.

There are plenty of interesting targets on the market. In 2024, 17 creator-focused startups raised at least $10 million in new funding, totaling over $900 million.

Could The Trade Desk buy Roku?

The Trade Desk this year announced a coming connected-TV operating system called Ventura, which it said was designed to make the buying and selling of streaming TV ads more efficient.

Ahead of the launch, The Trade Desk's CEO, Jeff Green, batted off speculation that it planned to rival Roku, saying it wanted to continue to partner and not compete with the TV platform.

In separate notes to investors, analysts at Guggenheim and Needham said they thought it was likely that The Trade Desk could eventually acquire Roku to advance its TV ambitions.

"It's almost impossible to build these" TV platforms now, the Needham analyst Laura Martin said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. Roku has 85 million homes watching four hours of TV a day on average, which would open up a large engaged audience and lots of first-party data to The Trade Desk's advertisers.

All eyes are on WPP's next move

WPP was already licking its wounds after Publicis Groupe hired Snoop Dogg to help promote that it had become the world's largest advertising holding company. The coming together of the third- and fourth-biggest firms, Omnicom and IPG, is set to push WPP further down the pile.

"It will put even more pressure on Mark Read," WPP's CEO, said David Jones, the CEO of a rival ad firm, The Brandtech Group. "And it will bring renewed interest from the investor community."

WPP insiders and observers had speculated for more than a year that the company might be taken private by a private-equity firm or that it might announce its own merger with another holding company.

But some industry insiders now think it's more likely that divestitures are in the cards.

"I think WPP is too big of a buy to go private, but I think they will have a divestiture plan that they are going to execute on in areas that are not high performing and not sexy enough for the public markets," said Andreas Roell, the CEO of Evros Group, which advises on media deals. Case in point: WPP in August sold its majority stake in FGS Global to the private-equity firm KKR in a deal that valued the public-affairs and communications group at $1.7 billion.

AdAge reported that in a recent memo to employees, Read described the Omnicom-IPG deal as "good news" for WPP, adding that WPP would double down on its strategy around creativity, data, AI, and tech "while our peers are distracted and turning inward."

• AWS recently laid out growth plans for 2025 in internal documents.
• One of the initiatives is focused on working more with consulting firms.
• Accenture was among several consulting firms mentioned by AWS.

Amazon Web Services wants to work more with consulting firms, including Accenture, part of a broader plan to spur growth in 2025, according to an internal planning document obtained by Business Insider.

AWS is looking to expand work with external partners that can sell its cloud services to hundreds of their existing customers. AWS sees an untapped market worth $250 billion and thousands of contracts up for renewal, the document explained.

Beyond Accenture, AWS mentioned Tata Consultancy, DXC Technology, and Atos as partners in the planning document.

AWS will prioritize these partners' existing customers and proactively reach out to them before contract-renewal time, and help the partners become "cloud-first," the document explained.

AWS pioneered cloud computing and still leads this huge and growing market. Over the years, the company has done a lot of work with customers through in-house cloud advisers. So the plan to expand its relationships with outside consulting firms is notable.

Ruba Borno is the VP leading the initiative, which will "review and prioritize partner's incumbent customers based on workloads and relationship," the document also stated.

Borno is a Cisco veteran who joined AWS a few years go to run its global channels and alliances operation, which works with more than 100,000 partners, including consulting firms and systems integrators and software vendors.

These plans are part of new AWS growth initiatives that include a focus on healthcare, business applications, generative AI, and the Middle East region, BI reported last week.

These are part of the AWS sales team's priorities for next year and Amazon refers to them internally as "AGIs," short for "AWS growth initiatives," one of the internal documents shows.

A spokesman for Tata Consultancy declined to comment. Spokespeople at Accenture did not respond to a request for comment.