The IBM channel consolidated before most people noticed. We traced 46 acquisitions of IBM-focused firms between 2015 and 2025, and they include some of the largest disclosed transactions in our partner research, sitting in three different markets: CDW paid $2.5B for the reseller Sirius, H.I.G. took the consolidator Converge private at about $1B and merged it with Mainline into Pellera, and Rocket Software paid $2.275B for OpenText’s application modernization software business. Most of that buying ran quietly, deal by deal, while the attention stayed on the cloud ecosystems.
This market breaks the pattern of every other page in our series. The IBM channel is four separate markets that share a vendor: the infrastructure resellers, the Maximo asset-management specialists, the IBM i and mainframe software firms, and the analytics and Red Hat boutiques. Each was consolidated by its own buyers, on its own economics, and the buyers stayed inside their lanes, with one exception this page names. For an owner, that means the question is never who buys IBM partners. It is who buys firms in your lane.
Four Markets, One Vendor
The chart is the article in one picture: the reseller consolidation was the biggest and is finished, the Maximo market is mid-consolidation with two dedicated buyers, the IBM i world trades as software rather than services, and the analytics lane still waits for a serial buyer.
The Infrastructure VARs: An Endgame Already Run
The top of IBM’s North American reseller channel changed hands between 2017 and 2025, and the consolidation is essentially complete. Converge Technology Solutions built itself out of 14 IBM-relevant purchases between 2017 and 2022 and then became a target itself, and the two firms H.I.G. combined into Pellera Technologies now span the lane at around $4B in revenue. Converge is also the one buyer on this page that crossed lanes, its purchases reaching from resale into analytics. What remains independent, Meridian IT and Evolving Solutions among them, operates in a channel whose consolidators have largely finished buying, and what they buy now, they buy for fit. Select transactions include the following:
- Converge Technology Solutions made 14 IBM-relevant purchases between 2017 and 2022, Corus360, Vicom Infinity and Newcomp among them
- CDW bought Sirius Computer Solutions for $2.5B (2021)
- Data Storage Corporation bought Flagship Solutions Group, an IBM solutions provider (2021)
- H.I.G. bought Mainline Information Systems (2023)
- H.I.G. took Converge private for about $1B and formed Pellera (2025)
Maximo: The One Live Roll-Up Market
IBM Maximo, the asset-management platform, is the one lane still consolidating, and it carries two dedicated programs. Cohesive, built by Bentley Systems, made five purchases between 2020 and 2022, and Galanthus Partners assembled six through 2024. The market still holds independents, Interloc, an IBM Platinum partner among them, so this is the one lane where a seller today meets buyers mid-program. Select transactions include the following:
- Bentley’s Cohesive bought Vetasi, a Maximo specialist across Europe and South Africa (2022)
- Galanthus bought Projetech, the Maximo software-as-a-service provider (2022)
- Galanthus bought EAM Swiss (2024)
- TRM bought Aquitas Solutions, a Maximo consultancy (2025)
IBM i and the Mainframe: Software Buyers, Software Prices
The IBM i and mainframe world consolidated as a software market rather than a services one. Private equity assembled tool vendors: American Pacific Group behind Fresche Solutions, which had built itself on the Quadrant Group purchase, Centerbridge behind Precisely, which folded in Vision Solutions, Cilasoft and Enforcive, and Bain Capital behind Rocket Software. The services layer traded once at scale. Owners here sell IP and recurring maintenance, and the prices follow software logic rather than services logic. Select transactions include the following:
- Fresche bought Abacus Solutions, an IBM i infrastructure and cloud firm (2021)
- Rocket Software bought ASG Technologies (2021)
- Rocket Software bought OpenText’s application modernization business for $2.275B (2024)
- LightEdge bought Connectria, the flagship IBM i hosting provider (2024)
Analytics and Red Hat: The Lane Still Waiting
The Cognos, Planning Analytics and Red Hat boutiques never found a dedicated consolidator, and the deals here are scattered, a buyer arriving once every few years, most recently Arctiq, which bought the Red Hat specialist Shadow-Soft in March 2026. Independents from Revelwood to Cornerstone still populate the lane. A market with certified specialists and one buyer arriving at a time is early on the curve our partner ecosystem lifecycle research describes, even inside the oldest channel we cover. Select transactions include the following:
- QueBIT bought Applied Analytix (2016)
- Logicalis bought Lantares, a Spanish analytics firm (2019)
- Rotation Digital bought QueBIT, an IBM Platinum analytics partner (2025)
What the Deals Fetched
Three transactions put large numbers in public, and they mark three different markets: $2.5B for Sirius, a reseller at scale; about $1B for Converge, a consolidator taken private mid-flight; and $2.275B for OpenText’s application modernization business, a software estate. The populations behind them are too different to average, so this page publishes no median, and the honest reference depends on the lane. A services firm in this channel reads against our IT services valuation multiples research, 1,051 deals at a median of 1.1x revenue and 10.4x EBITDA, a reseller reads against the value-added reseller subsector inside it, and an IBM i tool vendor reads against our software valuation multiples research. Recurring maintenance, hosting and managed services revenue moves a firm up every one of those ranges.
Who Buys Next
The lanes above say who bought. The names below are our judgment about who buys next in each lane, formed from four signals: the pace of a buyer’s recent deals, the date its sponsor invested, the plans it has stated, and the capabilities it still lacks. These are the buyers showing those signals in mid-2026.
| Buyer | Why next | What they would buy |
|---|---|---|
 Galanthus Partners |
six Maximo purchases through 2024, the steadiest program in the channel | Maximo consultancies and products across new geographies |
 Cohesive (Bentley) |
five purchases to 2022 building an asset-management arm inside a listed vendor | Maximo capability that extends Bentley’s infrastructure reach |
 Pellera (H.I.G.) |
assembled from Converge and Mainline in 2025, a platform at the start of its hold | infrastructure and hybrid-cloud capability for the platform |
 Rotation Digital |
QueBIT in July 2025, alongside its entry into the Workday ecosystem | analytics and HR-tech consultancies with IBM certifications |
 Fresche (American Pacific) |
a built-by-acquisition IBM i vendor with sponsor backing since 2020 | IBM i tools and modernization capability |
 Rocket Software (Bain) |
ASG in 2021 and the $2.275B OpenText estate in 2024 | mainframe modernization software at scale |
The list is up to date as of the time of writing.
What This Means for Sellers
Your lane is your market. A reseller owner sells into a finished consolidation, where the realistic buyers are the platforms that already won, and fit matters more than scarcity. A Maximo owner holds the channel’s scarcest position, two funded consolidators buying and independents thinning. An IBM i owner sells IP economics to software buyers, so the preparation work is product work: maintenance base, code ownership, roadmap. An analytics or Red Hat owner meets buyers one at a time, which argues for patience and positioning rather than an auction. The IBM channel shows where every ecosystem eventually goes, and it rewards the owners who read their lane’s clock correctly.
Thinking about selling an IBM-channel business? The four lanes on this page price differently, and the preparation that moves value in one lane wastes time in another.
Get in touch to discuss what your business could be worth and how a process would run. Our guide to selling an IT services business sets out the steps.
Method and Sources
This page counts differently from every sibling in the series, and says so. The IBM channel appears in deal databases almost entirely untagged: our own database records a fraction of these transactions under generic IT labels, so this page is built web-first. We traced 46 acquisitions of IBM-focused businesses announced or completed between 2015 and 2025, verified against acquirer announcements and financial media, and grouped them into the four lanes described above: 20 infrastructure reseller transactions, 12 in Maximo and enterprise asset management, 11 in IBM i and mainframe software and services, and 3 in analytics and Red Hat services. The count is a floor rather than a census, and the Red Hat lane is the most likely undercount. Counts group corporate families under today’s owner: Converge’s 14 purchases sit inside the Pellera lineage, Sirius includes its Forsythe heritage, and Fresche’s platform includes the Quadrant Group companies. Arctiq’s March 2026 purchase of Shadow-Soft is listed as context and sits outside the count. Company descriptors and locations follow the acquirers’ announcements. Three transactions carry large public prices, stated above in US dollars throughout; Converge’s take-private closed at C$1.3B, about $1B. We publish no median across the four lanes. The Who Buys Next section is our judgment from the signals named there, not a count from a database, and it is up to date as of the time of writing.
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. We publish our own research on IT services valuation multiples, systems integration valuation multiples, who is buying IT consulting firms and who is buying systems integrators, on how software partner ecosystems consolidate, and on how to sell an IT services business. Get in touch to discuss your own situation.
