The M&A team at a Big 5 does… M&A. What kind if deals depends on the firm and geography, but you’d generally find them in the middle-market.

The financial due diligence team is typically called “transaction services” or something along these lines. As others have mentioned, their work is to dig into the accounting details. For example, what goes into revenues, what doesn’t? Which are one-off effects and what does an adjusted EBITDA comprise? What’s the impact of top-line growth on working capital requirements?

As you can see, FDD is accounting-driven. That’s why you need a specialist and often the FDD guys will have a CPA designation or something similar depending on the jurisdiction. The advantage of a Big 4 firm, apart from the reputation, is that they can easily pull in l, say, tax advisors if an acquirer wants that.

As a general lesson, advisors can be hired for different reasons. It could be because they have a certain