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Grant Thornton's $5bn all-cash CBIZ acquisition is the accounting sector's biggest deal in a generation

7/29/2026

$5 billion in cash is the figure the accounting industry is now measuring against.

Grant Thornton, the US audit and consulting firm, has agreed to acquire CBIZ, a publicly listed company, in an all-cash transaction the sector has not matched in scale for a generation.

No equity component is attached to the terms. What all-cash means at this scale Writing a $5bn check for a publicly listed company signals a specific kind of balance-sheet commitment.

Selling shareholders receive fixed value at close: no exposure to the combined entity's post-deal performance. The all-cash structure also removes the dilution question that stock-based acquisitions force on acquirers.