If you run a data and analytics firm, your likely buyers are global IT majors such as Accenture and Capgemini, specialists such as Artefact, and consulting and IT firms, led by Deloitte, that offer data as part of a wider service line. They are adding data engineering, BI and AI capability. Funds and the platforms they back made 54 of the 108 deals in 2025. Since 2020 the pace has been about 100 deals a year, up from about 57 a year in 2015 to 2019.
Firms like yours have sold at a median of 1.9 times revenue (42 deals from 2015 to 2025) and 16.0 times EBITDA (17 deals), against 1.1 times revenue and 10.3 times EBITDA across IT services. Companies that sell data as a product rather than as a service are bought by a separate pool of acquirers and fall outside this ranking.
Accenture has bought more of these firms than anyone else, yet 658 of the 737 buyers we recorded bought only once. The firm that writes to you first is seldom the only one that could use your team. A buyer with a gap today may have filled it in a year.
Data and analytics M&A: 2015-2025 in numbers
There were over 80 percent more data and analytics deals a year in 2023 to 2025 than in 2015 to 2019. Across IT services as a whole the rise was 43 percent.
Where data and analytics firms are acquired
North America is the largest single market, but Europe’s regions together see more deals. A third of the deals in our database crossed a border (298 of 884), so the buyer for your firm could come from abroad.
Why firms like yours are being bought
What a buyer pays for in a data and analytics firm is mostly what its team can do. About one in four deals in our database states a reason (203 of 884), and 191 of them give a business reason. Of those 191, four in five say the buyer wanted a capability or service it lacked, against two in three across IT services. One in five names a country.
So a buyer looks at how deep your team is, whether it will stay, and its standing with the vendors whose software you work on. It will ask who your senior engineers and data scientists are and how long they have been with you. If your firm is a Snowflake or Databricks partner, our reports on the Snowflake ecosystem and the Databricks ecosystem show who is buying partner firms. If most of your work is AI, see who is buying AI consultancies.
The most active buyers of data & analytics firms at a glance
The buying is spread across hundreds of firms. Even the buyers that made three or more of these deals in a period took, between them, only 7 to 10 percent of that period’s deals.
| # | Buyer | Type and owner today | 2015-2019 | 2020-2022 | 2023-2025 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Accenture | Global IT services and consulting; listed | 7 | 11 | 6 | 24 |
| 2 |  Deloitte | Professional services network; member firms owned by their partners | 0 | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| 3 |  Artefact | Data and AI consultancy, France; Ardian; Cinven entered exclusive talks for a majority in July 2025 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
| 4 |  Cognizant, incl. 3Cloud | IT services, US; listed | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 |  Devoteam | IT consultancy, France; founders with KKR | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| 6 |  ExlService | Analytics and operations, US; listed | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 |  Dataciders | Data and AI consultancy, Germany; Rivean Capital | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 |  Dentsu | Marketing and advertising group, Japan; listed | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 9 |  Atos | IT services, France; listed | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 |  Capgemini | IT services, France; listed | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 9 |  Jakala | Data and marketing consultancy, Italy | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 9 |  KPMG | Professional services network; member firms owned by their partners | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 |  Sesa, incl. Var Group | IT group, Italy; listed | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
Each total includes the deals of the businesses the buyer owns today. Sesa’s includes Var Group, Accenture’s includes Accenture Federal Services, Cognizant’s includes 3Cloud, and Deloitte’s and KPMG’s include their member firms. This list is one part of our ranking of the top strategic acquirers of IT services companies.
Three Kinds of Buyers and What Each Means for You
The thirteen buyers in the table are global IT majors, data and analytics specialists, and consulting and IT firms adding data to a wider service line. Two of the specialists are owned by funds. All three kinds buy for the skills of your team. Which one fits depends mostly on where your firm is based and whom it serves.
Global IT Majors
Accenture stands apart. It made 24 of the 905 data and analytics acquisitions we recorded. Its targets are data engineering, BI or AI consultancies worldwide, from the US and Europe to Japan, Australia, India and Brazil.
Capgemini bought in Europe until 2022 and then in the US in 2024. Cognizant’s own four purchases were in Europe and Australia. The other three were made by 3Cloud, a US Microsoft data partner that a fund built up and Cognizant bought in January 2026. Atos has not bought a data and analytics firm since 2021.
A global major buys your team for its skills and folds it into a much larger data business, so the depth of your people carries the most weight with it.
Data and Analytics Specialists
Artefact, a French data and AI consultancy, has eight of these deals in our data. It buys across Europe, and as far away as Chile and South Africa. Artefact grows by entering new countries, so a firm in a country it has yet to enter fits it well.
Dataciders, which buys in Germany and Austria, is owned by a fund, as Artefact is. A fund-backed specialist buys your firm as an add-on, and the fund that owns it is likely to sell the whole group later, your firm with it.
Jakala, an Italian data and marketing consultancy, has bought in Spain and France as well as at home. ExlService, the US-listed analytics and digital operations firm, stays at home. Four of its six US purchases came before 2020, one in 2021 and one in 2024.
Consulting and IT Firms Adding Data
Five of the thirteen, Deloitte, KPMG, Devoteam, Sesa and the advertising group Dentsu, add data to a broader offer. Deloitte’s member firms have bought nine since 2021, in Canada, the US, China, Australia, Japan and Israel, while KPMG’s firms bought all four of theirs in 2018 and 2019. Devoteam, the French IT consultancy, has often taken a majority first, in Spain, France and Denmark. Its last data and analytics purchase was in 2023. Sesa, the listed Italian IT group, bought all four of its data firms in Italy, through Var Group. Dentsu bought five marketing analytics firms between 2016 and 2019. For all five, data is one service among many. After closing, your firm runs as one unit of a larger group.
Outside the table, Bain has also bought three data and AI teams since 2021, and McKinsey one, in 2022.
Active private equity investors in data & analytics
Funds and the platforms they back made 42 percent of these deals in 2023 to 2025, up from 22 percent in 2015 to 2019. Some of them buy through platforms, data consultancies that a fund owns and grows by adding firms like yours.
| Platform | Backed by | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Dataciders | Rivean Capital, since January 2024 | Data and AI consultancies in Germany and Austria |
| Artefact | Ardian since 2021; Cinven entered exclusive talks for a majority in July 2025 | Data and AI consultancies in Europe, Latin America and Africa |
| Datatonic | Perwyn, since March 2023 | Google Cloud data and AI consultancies in Europe and Canada |
| 3Cloud | Gryphon Investors, until Cognizant bought it in January 2026 | Bought Microsoft data and AI consultancies in the US |
A fund that writes to you wants your firm either as an add-on to a platform like these or as the base of a new one. Ask the fund how long it has owned the platform it wants to add you to, and when it expects to sell it. A fund’s exit can come quickly: Gryphon Investors sold 3Cloud to Cognizant in January 2026, months after 3Cloud’s latest add-on. Our comparison of strategic versus financial buyers sets out how a fund’s offer differs from a trade buyer’s. Our ranking of the top private equity investors in IT services goes beyond data and analytics.
What data and analytics firms sell for
Data and analytics firms sold for more than IT services firms as a whole at every quartile, and the range is wide.
| Business | Multiple | Deals with a multiple | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data and analytics | EV/Revenue | 42 | 0.9x | 1.9x | 2.8x |
| Data and analytics | EV/EBITDA | 17 | 7.9x | 16.0x | 25.5x |
| All IT services | EV/Revenue | 1,081 | 0.6x | 1.1x | 1.9x |
| All IT services | EV/EBITDA | 491 | 6.7x | 10.3x | 15.7x |
Among the segments in our IT services valuation multiples research with ten or more reported EBITDA multiples, the 16.0x median is the highest. It rests on 17 deals. Only 42 of the 905 deals reported a revenue multiple. Half of the 165 deals with a disclosed value were below $14M. If a buyer supports its price with a multiple, ask which deals it has in mind and which year’s EBITDA it is multiplying.
For the factors that move the multiple and recent deals, see our data and analytics valuation multiples analysis.
What you receive and how it is paid
Most owners of data and analytics firms sell the whole company at once. Of the 403 private deals in our database with a known stake, 88 percent were for all or nearly all of the shares.
Majority deals, where the sellers keep the rest of their shares for now, are most common in Southern Europe (10 of 36 deals with a known stake), then France and Benelux (7 of 46), among regions with at least 30 such deals. In North America only 2 of 100 were majority deals. Devoteam and Sesa have often bought this way, and Jakala took a majority of the Italian data firm Quantyca in 2025. If a buyer proposes a majority deal, settle how the price of your remaining shares will be set before you sign.
A buyer can take all your shares and still hold back part of the price. In its 2025 Universal Registration Document, Capgemini describes earn-outs “comprising conditions of presence”, which pay only if the sellers stay. Accenture’s Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 names retention payments among the costs of its acquisitions.
Ask every buyer how much it pays at closing, and compare offers on the cash you get then plus whatever does not depend on you staying. Our guide to earn-outs in M&A explains how these payments are set.
Who is buying next
Each of these buyers bought a data and analytics firm in 2025 or 2026.
| Buyer | What it has bought lately | What it looks for |
|---|---|---|
| Accenture | Five data and AI consultancies in 2025 and 2026, among them Faculty, a UK AI firm, in 2026 | Data and AI consultancies, recently mostly in Europe |
| Artefact | Five purchases in 2023 to 2025, and it has kept buying in 2026 | Data and AI consultancies in Europe, Latin America and Africa |
| Cognizant | 3Cloud, a US Azure data and AI partner, in January 2026 | Data and AI consultancies in the US, Europe and Australia |
| Dataciders | Three purchases in 2023 to 2025, the latest in 2025 | Data, AI and SAP analytics consultancies in Germany and Austria |
| Deloitte | The business of a US data consultancy in 2026 | Data and AI consultancies, bought through its member firms |
| Jakala | A majority of an Italian data firm in 2025 | Data and marketing consultancies in Italy, Spain and France |
| ExlService | iMerit, an AI data services firm, in 2026 | Analytics and AI services firms |
Some buyers in the ranking have slowed or stopped. Atos has turned to selling businesses, and Devoteam’s purchases in 2025 and 2026 were SAP and ServiceNow firms. In our data, Dentsu and KPMG have bought no data and analytics firm since 2019.
What this means if you’re selling a data & analytics firm
With buying this spread out, the buyer that has written to you is one of many that could use your team. The way to the best price is to put your firm in front of every buyer with a reason to want it, global IT majors, specialists, consulting firms and funds, and have them compete.
The time to do it is while these buyers are active and the fund platforms that want firms like yours are still being built.
Thinking about selling your data and analytics firm?
We run a competitive process among the global IT majors, data and analytics specialists, consulting and IT firms and funds that have a real reason to want your firm, so you choose between the best offers and get the best price. The same senior people work on it from the first conversation to closing. Send us your revenue, growth, gross margin and EBITDA margin, and we will give you our view within two working days, in confidence.
If a buyer has already written to you, talk to us in confidence before you reply.
About Aventis Advisors
Aventis Advisors is an M&A advisory firm focused on technology and IT services companies. We advise founders and owners on company sales, growth capital, and strategic transactions, combining sector focus with proprietary deal data such as the database behind this article. To discuss your options, get in touch.
Methodology
We count acquisitions announced worldwide from 2015 to 2025 of companies whose main business is data and analytics services, such as data engineering, business intelligence, data science and applied AI consulting. Companies that sell data or software as a product are left out. The figures come from our deal database, built from Mergermarket and public sources such as news articles, company press releases and annual reports. Of the 905 deals, 884 come from our database and 21 we verified from buyers’ announcements.
Each buyer is counted under today’s owner, together with the businesses it owns. Funds and the platforms they back are counted as financial buyers. Multiples come from the deals that reported one; EV is enterprise value, the price for the whole business with debt included.
A firm that sits in two segments, such as an AI consultancy, may also appear on our page on who is buying AI consultancies. Our data and analytics valuation multiples analysis counts the whole segment, 887 deals, including three duplicate records left out here, and shows the same multiples.
