As PW and C&L tie the knot

Partners at Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse have approved plans to merge the two firms. In the December 1997 issue of Management Consultancy, Peter Davis, director of management consultancy services at Price Waterhouse predicted that partners would approve the merger, based on advanced polls.

Now the soon-to-be consultancy giant will have to wait for regulatory approval; the European regulators are due to make an initial decision in February, within the 30-day deadline.

“Worldwide, partners voted overwhelmingly in favour of the merger,” Davis said. “And we are on timetable: we said that we would file our regulatory submission before the end of December 1997, and we have completed the voting; now we have to wait for regulatory approval. I would be disappointed if we didn’t know before April.”

Davis would not reveal the percentage vote needed for the firm to go ahead. He said that the complex voting procedures in the 100 countries made this impossible to break down.

He did, however, say that the firm would start making top global leadership team appointments in the first half of 1998. The team will be selected by the firm’s global management team.