Managed services has more active consolidators than any other line in IT services, but no single buyer takes a large share of it. Between 2015 and 2025 we recorded 1,680 acquisitions of managed service providers worldwide, drawn from the Aventis Advisors deal database of more than 125,000 transactions. The buyers are overwhelmingly permanent-hold consolidators, most of them US-based and private equity-backed, buying small founder-owned MSPs and holding them under their own brands. This article ranks the most active acquirers of MSPs and shows how they buy. It is part of our wider ranking of the top strategic acquirers of IT services companies.
If you own an MSP and might sell in the next one to three years, the buyer you should expect is a roll-up platform, not a corporate IT giant. These platforms buy small, buy often, rarely disclose price, and usually keep management in place. That makes for a very different process from selling to a strategic integrator, and it is why recurring-revenue MSPs command the multiples they do. We cover pricing separately in our MSP valuation multiples report.
Who’s buying MSPs: 2015-2025 in numbers
MSP deal activity accelerated sharply through the decade, with a pronounced surge from 2023 as private equity poured capital into the model. Most transactions are small and undisclosed: the typical MSP acquisition is a founder-owned regional provider changing hands quietly. The consolidators at the top of the table below are the most visible buyers, but the market is not concentrated. Measured by the share of all deals in a service line taken by its ten busiest buyers, managed services runs at about 8 percent, against about 26 percent in SAP services and about 10 percent among value-added resellers. The fastest run in this table is Evergreen’s 23 deals across 2023 to 2025, roughly eight a year, and no buyer here has sustained anything close to a deal a month.
The most active buyers of MSPs at a glance
Deal counts cover announced acquisitions of MSPs from 2015 to 2025, corporate families consolidated. Executech is an Evergreen Services Group company, so its eight deals are counted inside Evergreen rather than as a separate buyer. “Type” marks whether the buyer is a strategic/operating consolidator or a private equity fund. Prices are almost never disclosed in this line, so no average deal size column is shown.
| # | Buyer | Type | 2015-2019 | 2020-2022 | 2023-2025 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evergreen Services Group (incl. Executech) | Strategic | 4 | 8 | 23 | 35 |
| 2 |  Twenty (20 LLC) |
Strategic | 0 | 7 | 17 | 24 |
| 3 |  Thrive |
Strategic | 5 | 6 | 8 | 19 |
| 4 |  NuMSP |
Strategic | 12 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| 5 |  Advania |
Strategic | 2 | 8 | 2 | 12 |
| 6 |  Ntiva |
Strategic | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 7 |  Logically |
Strategic | 4 | 5 | 0 | 9 |
| 8 |  Sourcepass |
Strategic | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| 9 |  Calligo |
Strategic | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
Other active MSP consolidators
A few PE-backed platforms are among the busiest MSP buyers but sit just outside the table above because their deals spread across several service lines rather than concentrating in managed services. New Charter Technologies, Dataprise, Coretelligent, and Integris each pair managed services with security and cloud add-ons; counted on managed-services deals alone they rank just outside the ranking above, but as multi-line roll-ups they are firmly in the active-buyer set.
1) Evergreen Services Group
Overview: A San Francisco-based permanent-capital platform, backed by Alpine Investors, that buys and holds MSPs under their own brands. The most active MSP acquirer in our data. Its group includes Executech, the Utah-based consolidator of regional managed IT firms in the western United States and western Canada, whose eight deals are counted here rather than separately.
Acquisition pace: 35 MSP deals including Executech’s, accelerating sharply in 2023-2025 as the platform scaled into Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
Typical target: Founder-owned MSPs and adjacent IT services firms, retained rather than integrated, with management kept in place.
Select transactions: Blackbird IT (Australia, 2025), DataGroup Technologies (US, 2025), and Next7 IT (US, 2025). Through Executech: Pact-One Solutions (US, 2020) and Dyrand Systems (Canada, 2021).
A note on permanent capital: Evergreen buys to hold rather than to flip in three to five years, which is a genuine difference from a standard buyout fund. It is not the same as there being no liquidity event. Evergreen is itself Alpine Investors-backed, so if you are rolling equity into the platform rather than taking all cash, ask what the liquidity path for the rolled stake is, who decides when it happens, and on what timing.
2) Twenty (20 LLC)
Overview: A US MSP roll-up that has grown rapidly through a high-frequency acquisition program aimed at small managed IT providers.
Acquisition pace: 24 MSP deals, essentially all since 2022, one of the fastest ramps in the sector.
Typical target: Small US-based managed IT and computer services firms, acquired outright.
Select transactions: Mid-Atlantic Computer Solutions (US, 2025), the iCoreIT division of iCoreConnect (US, 2024), and Sublime Computer Services (US, 2024).
3) Thrive
Overview: A US managed security and IT services provider pursuing a sustained buy-and-build across cyber-led managed services.
Acquisition pace: 19 MSP deals spread evenly across the period.
Typical target: Regional US MSPs and managed security providers that add scale and security capability.
Select transactions: Worksighted (US, 2025), VitalCore (US, 2025), and Baroan Technologies (US, 2025).
4) NuMSP
Overview: A US managed services platform that assembled its footprint through an early, front-loaded acquisition burst.
Acquisition pace: 13 MSP deals, 12 of them in 2015-2019.
Typical target: Small US managed IT providers serving local business markets.
Select transactions: Business Network Solutions (US, 2021), NTConnections (US, 2019), and J & J Technical Services (US, 2019).
5) Advania
Overview: A Nordic IT services group consolidating managed services and infrastructure providers across the Nordics, the UK, and beyond.
Acquisition pace: 12 MSP deals, concentrated in 2020-2022.
Typical target: Nordic and UK managed services and IT infrastructure firms.
Select transactions: Caperio Holding (Sweden, ~$12m, 2017) and CCS Media (UK, 2024).
6) Ntiva
Overview: A US managed services provider, headquartered in Virginia, that has built a national footprint by acquiring regional managed IT firms and folding them into a single Ntiva brand.
Acquisition pace: 10 MSP deals, front-loaded with five in 2015-2019, three in 2020-2022, and two in 2023-2025.
Typical target: Small and mid-sized US managed IT providers that extend its geographic reach and service depth, acquired outright.
Select transactions: 3Points (US, 2019), Navakai (US, 2021), and Versent Group (US, 2024).
7) Logically
Overview: A US managed services and security provider that grows through the acquisition of regional MSPs, consolidating them under one brand.
Acquisition pace: 9 MSP deals, four in 2015-2019 and five in 2020-2022, with none recorded since.
Typical target: Small US managed IT and security firms that add scale and customer density.
Select transactions: Carolinas IT (US, 2019), Halski Systems (US, 2021), and Cornerstone IT (US, 2022).
8) Sourcepass
Overview: A New York-based US managed services provider that has expanded quickly by acquiring smaller MSPs and integrating them under its own brand.
Acquisition pace: 8 MSP deals, split evenly with four in 2020-2022 and four in 2023-2025, and none before 2020.
Typical target: Founder-owned US managed IT firms with recurring-revenue client bases.
Select transactions: Contemporary Computer Services (US, 2022), Proxios (US, 2023), and Big Green IT (US, 2024).
9) Calligo
Overview: A Jersey-based cloud and managed data services provider that has grown by acquiring managed services and data specialists across the British Isles and Canada.
Acquisition pace: 8 MSP deals, four in 2015-2019 and four in 2020-2022, with none recorded since.
Typical target: MSPs and cloud or data-focused firms in Ireland, the UK, the Channel Islands, and Canada that broaden its managed and data capability.
Select transactions: AMS Systems PSF (Luxembourg, 2017), Connected Technologies (Canada, 2019), and Network Integrity Services (UK, 2020).
Active private equity investors in MSPs
Private equity sits behind most of the platforms above, but the funds also do their own MSP buyouts. The sponsors with repeat MSP buyouts in our data are Shore Capital Partners (5), TAC Partners (4), Madison Dearborn (3), Charlesbank (3), KKR (3), and Cinven (3). Shore Capital in particular is a recent, fast-moving entrant, with all its MSP buyouts since 2023. For the full financial-buyer picture, see our ranking of the top private equity investors in IT services.
What this means if you’re selling an MSP
Expect a roll-up platform, not a corporate acquirer. The most likely buyer for a founder-owned MSP is one of the permanent-hold consolidators above or a mid-market sponsor building one. They typically retain management, keep your brand, and buy for recurring revenue and customer density, which rewards clean contracts and low churn. The trade-off against selling to a large strategic is brand and team continuity in exchange for a buyer that is a disciplined, repeat acquirer. Our note on strategic versus financial buyers unpacks the difference, and running a process that puts several of these platforms in competition is the single biggest lever on price.
Thinking about selling your MSP?
Aventis Advisors advises IT services founders on M&A. We help you understand which consolidators and sponsors are the realistic buyers, position the business, and run a competitive process. Talk to our team.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the most active buyer of MSPs?
Evergreen Services Group, backed by Alpine Investors, with 35 MSP acquisitions between 2015 and 2025 in our database once its Executech business is counted inside the group, ahead of Twenty (20 LLC) at 24 and Thrive at 19. All three are permanent-hold consolidators rather than corporate strategics.
Why is private equity buying so many MSPs?
Managed services offer sticky, recurring, multi-year revenue with high switching costs, in a market of thousands of small founder-led providers ripe for consolidation. That combination suits the buy-and-build model, so sponsors back a platform and add regional MSPs to it. See our ranking of the top private equity investors in IT services.
What are MSPs selling for?
Multiples depend heavily on recurring revenue quality, scale, and security mix. We cover current ranges in our MSP valuation multiples report; prices are disclosed on very few MSP deals, so public averages skew to the largest platform transactions.
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.
