If Thrive has been in touch about buying your managed services business, you are talking to one of the most active consolidators of managed service providers anywhere. Thrive ranks third among buyers of MSPs in our records and ninth among all strategic acquirers of IT services companies. It has made 27 acquisitions since 2016, five of them in 2025, and in October 2025 its chief executive said the company is “doubling down on M&A.”
Thrive provides managed IT, cloud and cybersecurity services from Massachusetts and is owned by two private equity firms, Court Square Capital Partners and Berkshire Partners. Its revenue was approaching $400M in 2025, and it aims to become a $1bn company by the end of 2029. In this post we look at what Thrive buys, where it buys, what MSPs sell for, how it structures a deal and what happens to a business once it joins.
Volume, strategy and criteria come from Thrive’s releases, its page for owners and interviews with its management. The breakdowns rest on the 27 acquisitions announced from 2016 to 2025 in our deal database, sourced from Mergermarket, which match Thrive’s own count.
In our view Thrive is a credible buyer for a regional MSP with recurring revenue and depth in security, and it buys to integrate: your company becomes part of Thrive. Its prices stay private, so the value of its offer gets tested only when a second bidder is in the room.
Who Owns Thrive: Ownership and Structure
Thrive started in 2000 as an IT services firm in Concord, Massachusetts, and belonged to the telecom provider MetTel until December 2016. That month M/C Partners bought it together with Corporate IT Solutions, a managed services provider in Norwood, Massachusetts, and combined the two under the Thrive name, based in Foxborough, with Rob Stephenson as chief executive. Court Square took a majority in a recapitalization in January 2021, with a substantial stake for the senior management team, and in January 2025 Berkshire Partners invested alongside Court Square as M/C Partners exited. Every owner has kept the buying going:
| Owner at the time of the deal | Period | Acquisitions |
|---|---|---|
| M/C Partners | December 2016 to January 2021 | 8 |
| Court Square Capital Partners (majority) | January 2021 to January 2025 | 14 |
| Berkshire Partners and Court Square | From January 2025 | 5 |
Thrive runs as one company under one brand, with acquired businesses folded into its regions and service divisions. Under Stephenson, who led it for nearly a decade, it grew at a compound rate above 30 percent a year, and by 2025 it had about 1,600 employees, according to The Deal. Its offices run along the US East Coast from Maine to Miami and into Texas, Tennessee and California, with more in Toronto and Ottawa, the UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Bill McLaughlin, who joined as president in 2021 after senior roles at Kaseya, became chief executive in February 2025, and Stephenson stayed on the leadership team to focus on M&A strategy. In October 2025 Thrive hired Kirti Gavri, who had run corporate development at Milestone Technologies, as its head of corporate development, and in 2026 it appointed a new chief financial officer and a new chief revenue officer.
Acquisitions are a key pillar of Thrive’s growth plan, in its own words. Going from about $400M of revenue in 2025 to $1bn by the end of 2029 takes growth of about 26 percent a year, by our arithmetic. In 2025 its headcount rose 15 percent and its customer count 10 percent, from organic growth and acquisitions combined.
How Many Companies Thrive Has Acquired
Thrive puts its count at 27 acquisitions since its founding, the latest of them Worksighted, a Michigan MSP, in November 2025. The same 27 are in our records, from the 2016 combination with Corporate IT Solutions onward, and the partial counts Thrive has published along the way match them too: its 26th deal in September 2025 and five deals in 2025.
The pace rose under Court Square: seven acquisitions came from 2016 to 2020 and 20 from 2021 to 2025, four a year, with a peak of six in 2022, its first full year as owner. McLaughlin told The Deal in October 2025 that Thrive does four or five a year and has “a very healthy pipeline of targets that we’re actively engaged with.”
As a private company Thrive keeps its prices and its spending on acquisitions private, so the count is the clearest measure of its appetite. The most recent acquisition it has announced is still Worksighted.
What Size of Company Thrive Buys
McLaughlin told The Deal that candidates run from $1.5M to $3M of EBITDA at the low end up to $5M to $15M, that Thrive has looked at businesses with more than $20M of EBITDA, and that the companies it buys range from 30 to 50 employees up to 250 to 300.
The targets whose size we know sit at the lower end of that range. Seven of the 27 carry a headcount in our company database, between 24 and 74 employees, and the deal records put two targets from 2019 and 2021 at about 40 and 50 employees. A partner at one of the 2021 acquisitions describes it on Thrive’s own page as a 30-person MSP.
By our arithmetic, at the median of 10.7x EBITDA for MSP deals in our valuation research, Thrive’s stated range spans enterprise values of roughly $16M to $160M. Thrive describes its targets by EBITDA, so EBITDA is the number to anchor on: a 40-person MSP with strong margins can sit higher in its range than a larger business with thin ones.
What Thrive Buys: Acquisition Strategy
Managed service providers are the core, at 20 of the 27 acquisitions in our records, 74 percent.
| Service line | Acquisitions |
|---|---|
| Managed service providers | 20 |
| Systems integration | 2 |
| Data and analytics | 1 |
| Cybersecurity and compliance | 1 |
| Other IT services | 3 |
The two systems integrators brought Microsoft 365 collaboration and infrastructure work, the data business is a data assurance company, and the three others are IT services firms that our company enrichment also classifies as MSPs. Within that core, Thrive has bought for capability. Three deals up to 2021 were MSPs specializing in financial services firms, from hedge funds to private equity; others added backup and disaster recovery, data center and colocation capacity, including a 19,000 square foot data center north of London, and, in 2025, governance, risk and compliance services.
Security is where the mix is heading. Thrive now describes its services as running “from AI and cybersecurity to cloud, compliance, and traditional MSP/MSSP solutions,” delivered from a 24x7x365 security operations center and network operations center, and its 2021 recapitalization was framed around a cloud, cybersecurity and ServiceNow-powered managed services platform. Its page for owners names its tests as culture fit, customer alignment and operational maturity.
The release for each deal names the gap it filled: entry into a new state, knowledge of a vertical such as healthcare or government, or a capability Thrive lacked. Work out which gap your business fills before the first conversation.
Where Thrive Buys
Thrive has bought in three countries: 24 acquisitions in the United States, two in the United Kingdom and one in Canada. In the US its deals span 13 states, led by Florida with five, then Massachusetts and New York with three each.
New England and New York came first, from 2016 to 2019, then Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic from late 2019, the UK from 2021, when the chief executive of the acquired British MSP became head of Thrive’s European operations, Florida and Alabama in 2022, Canada and Texas in 2023, and the Midwest from 2024. Thrive said in December 2025 that its Michigan and Ohio deals of that year took it further west.
All 27 acquisitions sit in the US, the UK and Canada, while Thrive also runs offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, where it hired two regional vice presidents in 2025. McLaughlin has said that cities with NFL teams are attractive markets and that Thrive would like to grow in Chicago. An MSP in a large metropolitan area where Thrive has a thin presence fits the stated pattern; where Thrive already has a team, the case rests on a capability or a vertical.
What Thrive Pays: Acquisition Multiples
Thrive and the businesses it bought have kept the price of all 27 acquisitions private. The useful reference is the market it buys in, which our IT services valuation research covers across more than a thousand private deals.
Across IT services deals from 2015 to mid-2026, the median price was 10.4x EBITDA and 1.1x revenue. MSPs sit at the same level, 10.7x EBITDA across 83 deals and 1.1x revenue across 143, while cybersecurity services firms sold at a median of 16.1x EBITDA and 2.1x revenue. Size moves the number as well: the median rises from 6.7x EBITDA for deals under $5M to 10.0x between $20M and $50M and 12.7x above $500M.
Prices have come down from their peak. The IT services median fell to 9.5x EBITDA for deals in 2025, from 12.7x in 2023 and 12.2x in 2024, while the first half of 2026 shows a median of 1.3x revenue across 22 deals, up from 1.0x in 2025, an early indication.
Set side by side, the two MSP medians imply an EBITDA margin of about 10 percent, though they come from different sets of deals. The revenue median of 1.1x equals 11.0x EBITDA at a 10 percent margin, 7.3x at 15 percent and 5.5x at 20 percent. Turned the other way, 10.7x EBITDA equals 1.6x revenue at a 15 percent margin and 2.1x at 20 percent. A high-margin MSP should anchor on the EBITDA multiple and treat a revenue multiple as a floor.
The size ladder is the economics of a roll-up. A platform buying an MSP with $2M of EBITDA is buying in the bands where medians run from 7.9x to 10.0x, while larger businesses, such as the platforms themselves, sell in the bands above, at 11.3x to 12.7x. In our view part of that gap is what a competitive process can move to the seller. The security mix moves the number too: the more of your revenue that comes from managed security and compliance, the stronger the case for a price above the MSP median.
Have an offer from Thrive?
If you have an offer from Thrive on your desk, talk to us before you answer it. Thrive is a serious buyer: 27 acquisitions since 2016, five in 2025, owners backing a plan to reach $1bn of revenue, and, by its own figures, 95 percent of acquired employees still in place a year after closing. It also keeps every price private, and it has done this 27 times, while you are selling once. Our job is to find the buyers who will compete with it, including other MSP platforms and buyers that pay for security capability, and to settle the cash at closing, any deferred payment and any equity before you commit. Call us before you sign a letter of intent.
How Thrive Structures a Deal
Every deal in our records with a stated stake, 16 of the 27, all of them since 2022, was for 100 percent of the company. The other terms stay private: the split between cash at closing and deferred payments, any earn-out and any equity in Thrive are undisclosed on all 27.
Thrive’s page for owners invites them to email the chief executive directly and offers a downloadable overview of its process, and behind it sit a head of corporate development hired in 2025 and a former chief executive whose role is now M&A strategy. On Thrive’s side of the table, the same law firm appears on 19 of the 27 deals in our records.
The money comes from its owners and its lenders. Court Square’s majority recapitalization in 2021 came with debt financing, the 2025 investment brought in Berkshire Partners, and Thrive’s senior management holds a substantial stake. If an offer includes equity in Thrive, that equity pays out at Thrive’s next sale. Court Square has held its majority since January 2021, close to six years, and Berkshire since January 2025, so a rollover makes you a shareholder in a business whose next exit its owners will time. Ask how much equity is on offer, what it ranks behind, and what the owners expect.
The same applies to any deferred payment. Ask which measure it tracks, who controls the inputs after integration, and what happens if Thrive moves your clients onto its own platform before the period ends. A sale of the whole business into an integrated company makes the terms that govern the years after closing as important as the headline number.
What Happens After Closing
Thrive’s page for owners promises to “integrate and provide expanded services” for each acquired company’s customers, calls the mission “one team, #OneThrive,” and lists an integration team, its technology platform, its sales engine and career paths as what it brings. The 2016 combination took the Thrive name.
The releases show where acquired businesses end up. One became the technical operations center for Thrive’s Northern New England region, one its alternative investment hosting division, and one its Microsoft collaboration division. Their leaders took Thrive titles: one former president became an executive vice president running his division, and the chief executive of the British MSP Thrive bought in 2021 became chief executive of its European operations. A name can also survive inside Thrive: the compliance firm bought in July 2025 lends its name to Abacode Compliance Services, a governance, risk and compliance portfolio Thrive launched in April 2026.
Thrive reports that 95 percent of employees from acquired companies remain a year after closing, and that more than 500 people have been promoted inside Thrive since 2021. Acquired clients gain access to its NextGen platform, which reached version 3.0 in October 2026 with an AI layer, and to its service desk and its security and network operations centers.
For a founder, that means a role inside a larger company, with your business becoming a Thrive region or division. Ask for the founders of earlier acquisitions as references, and agree your title, the scope you will run and the team you will keep before you sign.
Thrive’s Competitive Position
Thrive is one of a small group of private equity-backed consolidators at the top of a fragmented market. Of 1,680 MSP acquisitions worldwide from 2015 to 2025 in our records, the three most active buyers made 78: Evergreen Services Group 35, Twenty 24 and Thrive 19, with New Charter Technologies, Dataprise, Coretelligent and Integris among the other active platforms. The full field is in our ranking of MSP buyers, and our ranking of IT services acquirers places Thrive ninth overall.
We see Thrive’s distinctive features as its reach beyond the US and its integrated model under one brand, with security and compliance as its growth line. Thrive Holdings, an investment firm with a similar name, has invested in Shield Technology Partners, an AI-enabled managed IT services platform, in 2025 and 2026. It is a different company.
Is This a Good Time to Sell to Thrive?
On Thrive’s side, the signs point to continued buying. Its revenue target depends on acquisitions, and its chief executive calls the pipeline very healthy; five acquisitions in 2025 matched the pace he described. Its 2026 announcements to mid-October concern its platform and senior hires, so its next deal will show whether the pace of 2025 continues.
The wider market is mixed. The IT services median fell to 9.5x EBITDA in 2025, and private valuations follow public markets with a lag. In our November 2025 webinar on IT services in the AI era, we noted that our index of IT services companies has traded around 10x EBITDA for years and that, as long as profitability holds, we consider that multiple fair, and we pointed to cybersecurity among the niches getting attention and funding.
The case for selling now is strongest for an MSP with high recurring revenue, solid margins and real security capability, in a metropolitan area Thrive wants to enter. Our MSP research found more buyers than sellers for US MSPs with more than $1M of EBITDA, and Thrive’s growth target depends on deals like yours. An MSP with a large share of hardware resale sits nearer the value-added reseller median of 7.8x EBITDA in our research and should expect less. For an owner whose business is growing and who can carry the risk, keeping the company is a good option too. The latest figures are in our IT services valuation multiples research and our MSP valuation multiples analysis.
Why You Need an M&A Advisor When Thrive Approaches You
Thrive has closed 27 acquisitions and keeps a head of corporate development and a former chief executive working on M&A. The owner across the table is selling one business, once, and in our records a financial advisor sat on the seller’s side in seven of the 27 deals.
Establish what the business is worth before the first offer. That means comparable transactions in your service line and size band, and an honest account of the EBITDA a buyer will price on: recurring revenue, client concentration, contract terms, margin and the share of revenue from security.
Then bring in other buyers. Evergreen, Twenty and the other MSP platforms buy the same kind of business, and private equity firms look for platforms of their own. A second credible bid tests Thrive’s price and gives you a choice of owner, which matters when the buyer integrates your business and part of your price may depend on the years after closing.
Negotiate the terms as hard as the price: cash at closing, any deferred or contingent payment and its measure, any equity in Thrive and its exit, and your role and your team’s. The figures on this page describe a market; your company will be priced in a negotiation.
That is the work we do for owners of IT services businesses while they keep running the company, and running it well through the process matters, because how the business performs ends up in the price. For how an approach fits into a wider sale, see how to sell an IT services business and strategic versus financial buyers.
About Aventis Advisors
Aventis Advisors is an M&A advisor for technology and IT services companies. We believe the world would be better off with fewer but better quality M&A deals, done at the right moment for the company and its owners. Our goal is to provide honest, insight-driven advice that lays out all the options clearly, including the option to keep the status quo.
Get in touch to discuss what your business could be worth and how the process works.
