- Thomson Reuters recently announced it closed the acquisition of Confirmation. These are the details behind the deal.
This week, Thomson Reuters announced it closed the acquisition of Confirmation — which is a leading provider of secure audit confirmation services. The announcement about the definitive agreement was announced on June 21 with completion of the acquisition subject to specified regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
“With the acquisition of Confirmation, we continue to fortify Thomson Reuters leadership in the tax, accounting and audit industry. The integration of Confirmation will enhance the capabilities of our Cloud Audit Suite, the most comprehensive cloud solution on the market which delivers integrated know-how and complete workflow management for audit professionals,” said Thomson Reuters president of the Tax & Accounting Professionals division Charlotte Rushton in a statement.
What does Confirmation do? The company provides digital confirmation services to more than 16,000 audit firms, 4,000 banks and departments, and 5,000 law firms across 170 countries. And it is now part of the Tax & Accounting Professionals segment of Thomson Reuters.
“The Confirmation acquisition will strengthen offerings to our core tax, accounting and audit customers,” explained Thomson Reuters CEO and president Jim Smith at the time of the definitive agreement. “We will continue to invest in solutions that help our customers automate tasks in their daily workflow. The Confirmation acquisition fits that objective.”
Thomson Reuters has been focused on providing customers with solutions that help them generate more efficiencies, lower costs, improve accuracy, and reduce risk — all of which help it get closer to its clients and grow its businesses. And this acquisition will expand on the company’s strategic objective to provide more software and cloud-based offerings and will meet a growing market need for accounting professionals globally, aligning with Thomson Reuters focus on its core offerings in legal, tax, compliance, and risk.
“Accounting firms, banks, and law firms use Confirmation’s technology to improve workflow, increase efficiency and reduce risk,” noted Brian Fox, CPA — the president and founder of Confirmation — who is joining Thomson Reuters in an executive role. “We are extremely excited to expand our global footprint and leverage Thomson Reuters network to support and serve customers giving them access to world-class integrated workflow automation products and tools.”
Confirmation is also known for inventing electronic confirmations nearly 20 years ago — which reshaped the audit confirmation process. Now Confirmation helps 1.5 million users across 170 countries confirm more than $1 trillion in financial data every year.
“This transaction is a testament to what Brian, Chris and the team at Confirmation have built as they transformed an idea into a critically important technology platform for the global accounting industry,” commented Matthew Vettel at the time of the acquisition — who is a Managing Partner at Great Hill Partners (the lead investors in Confirmation).
