Purchase-Price Accounting Close Recovery Leader — Consumer Platforms

The mandate

The group completed a multi-jurisdiction platform acquisition, but customer-relationship, technology, deferred-revenue, tax and contingent-consideration workstreams have not converged into one controlled purchase-price allocation. The acquisition-accounting controller resigned after external audit raised evidence gaps. Measurement-period deadlines and year-end reporting now require executive ownership rather than parallel specialist models with incompatible assumptions.

The interim must start within two weeks for nine months, owning acquisition-accounting close, specialist coordination, audit clearance, first impairment baseline and successor induction. Permanent recruitment begins after the audited year-end package is submitted. Five weeks are protected for overlap; the term will not extend for integration projects, new transactions or disputes over the negotiated purchase price.

Handover requires reconciled consideration and acquired net assets, approved accounting positions, specialist valuations tied to one forecast set, deferred-tax and deferred-revenue consequences, complete measurement-period adjustments, disclosures, control evidence and an auditable impairment baseline. The successor must lead an unseen forecast and contingent-consideration change, with residual data and judgement matters explicitly accepted.

The interim may set the close plan, reject unsupported specialist inputs, post delegated consolidation entries, commission approved work within the €12 million budget and assign temporary evidence owners. The Group Controller and Audit Committee retain policy and external reporting; specialists sign valuation or tax opinions; auditors remain independent. The interim cannot renegotiate price, settle claims, hire permanently or exceed delegation.

Operational integration, target-performance improvement and valuation work performed by appointed specialists are outside scope. The leader may challenge assumptions and require reconciliations but cannot issue an independent valuation, audit or legal opinion. The assignment is bounded to controlled recognition, measurement, disclosure and sustainable ownership of the completed acquisition.

Why this seat is open

Audit challenge exposed that specialist workstreams shared neither one forecast nor one evidence owner, then the controller’s resignation removed the person expected to close them. Statutory deadlines cannot await a standard search. A temporary leader must secure the accounting, clear audit review and induct a permanent successor before the first annual impairment cycle.

What you will own

• Reconcile purchase consideration, closing statements, acquired balances, adjustments, non-controlling interests and resulting goodwill.
• Align customer, technology, brand, deferred-revenue, contingent-liability and other valuation inputs to one approved forecast and perimeter.
• Decide proposed accounting treatments within delegation and escalate policy, materiality and disclosure judgements to authorised approvers.
• Integrate deferred tax, useful lives, amortisation, measurement-period change and contingent-consideration remeasurement into close control.
• Direct audit evidence across management models, specialist reports, source contracts, acquired records and approval histories.
• Establish the Day-One impairment baseline, indicator monitoring and owner responsibilities without prejudging future valuations.
• Transfer the file through audited reporting and successor completion of an unseen forecast and consideration scenario.

Candidate qualifications

• Held executive acquisition-accounting or group-controller authority for material multi-jurisdiction business combinations under IFRS.
• Closed purchase-price allocations involving customer relationships, technology, deferred revenue, tax, contingent consideration and complex goodwill.
• Reconciled valuation-specialist assumptions to management forecasts, accounting policy and acquired source evidence under audit challenge.
• Managed measurement-period adjustments and disclosures without using hindsight to rewrite information available at acquisition date.
• Worked with auditors, tax experts, valuers and counsel while preserving their independence and formal opinion boundaries.
• Handed a complete acquisition file to permanent leadership through reporting and an adversarial remeasurement exercise.

Non-negotiables

• Available within two weeks for exclusive Dublin service through year-end reporting and audit clearance.
• Has personally led a complex IFRS purchase-price allocation; broad deal or valuation exposure alone is insufficient.
• No undisclosed relationship with transaction parties, appointed valuers, external auditors or advisers involved.
• Will preserve specialist and auditor independence even where a faster unsupported assumption would protect reporting dates.

1. 49 words maximum. State your Dublin availability and one purchase-accounting issue you closed after specialists used inconsistent forecasts.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you distinguish a valid measurement-period adjustment from acquisition-date hindsight?
3. 49 words maximum. Which unseen contingent-consideration change would qualify the permanent controller before handover?