So says The Business Online:

No risk for Kroll leaving shadows

Rupert Steiner - City Editor
December 11, 2005
The Business Online

One of the few industries to benefit from Sarbanes-Oxley and the myriad of tighter regulations plaguing America’s Fortune 500 companies are the corporate detectives. The growth in corporate governance red tape serves as a coming of age for firms such as Kroll and Control Risks, who for years have carved a living out of analysing risk and restructuring businesses.

But still they hide in the shadows of big merger and acquisition deals to conduct their due diligence and data verification, despite being de rigueur among the entourage of lawyers, publicists and ­corporate financiers who follow around acquisitive chief executives.

Their work is a far cry from the old-fashioned gumshoe image that those working for purer professions still afford them. The change in laws and technology have made risk ­consulting companies a sophisticated and rapidly growing business.

Kroll is about to make a bid for IBAS Holdings, a Norwegian company valued on the Oslo stock market at £28m (E41.6m, $49m). It specialises in data recovery and computer forensic work. Risk businesses should use transactions like these as a turning point to be more open about the work they do. Customers should share what they unearth. This is important for corporate detectives who are finally becoming accepted and trusted in the business world.

Interesting. While it is true that corporate investigators are regularly called upon to assist in dealmaking decisions, I'd argue that Sarbox in specific has been a much greater boon to the big business consulting companies, which have turned SOX compliance into an nice little industry for themeselves.

If you want a front-line view of how investigators most often intersect with SOX protocols, check out last week's post from Caveat's own Thea Bournazian.

The original Business Online article appears here.

-- MDT

Labels: Kroll