Thomson Reuters has inked a deal to acquire Confirmation, the maker of online audit confirmation software operating in 170 countries. Audit automation is at the forefront of accounting technology innovation right now, with artificial intelligence changing the landscape of sampling and analysis. This is just the latest in a series of investments Thomson Reuters has made in this opportunity.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Confirmation was founded in 2001, and reports providing digital confirmation services to more than 16,000 audit firms, 4,000 banks and departments and 5,000 law firms globally.
According to Thomson Reuters, the acquisition will expand on the company’s strategic objective to provide more software and cloud-based offerings; it 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.
“The Confirmation acquisition will strengthen offerings to our core tax, accounting and audit customers,” stated Jim Smith, president and CEO of Thomson Reuters. “We will continue to invest in solutions that help our customers automate tasks in their daily workflow. The Confirmation acquisition fits that objective.”
“The audit industry is changing rapidly, with confirmations being a critical, yet previously challenging part of the process,” added Charlotte Rushton, president of Tax Accounting Professionals at Thomson Reuters. “New technologies and the widespread electronic storage of financial information are now making audit transformation possible. We believe that acquiring Confirmation will enable Thomson Reuters to: Scale Confirmation by leveraging our extensive audit firm relationships and channel to accelerate cross-sell and adoption; better serve the needs of our audit customers, including providing them with additional capabilities as part of our Cloud Audit Suite; expand Confirmation globally, and use our existing customer relationships and capabilities to grow Non-Bank confirmations.”
“Accounting firms, banks and law firms use Confirmation’s technology to improve workflow, increase efficiency and reduce risk,” stated Brian Fox, CPA, president and founder of Confirmation, who will join Thomson Reuters after the closing and continue 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.”
Separately, late last year, Thomson Reuters forged a partnership with Inflo to expand the data ingestion and analytics capabilities of the Thomson Reuters Enterprise Cloud Audit Suite. The companies have been working together to build AI-driven audit capabilities.
For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.