Value-added resellers and IT distributors are consolidating steadily. Between 2015 and 2025 we recorded roughly 770 transactions in the broader reselling, distribution and hardware-maintenance line, using proprietary counts from the Aventis Advisors deal database of more than 125,000 transactions. This is a lower-margin, lower-multiple line than the services businesses, but with real and repeat buyers: solution providers building scale and geography, broadline distributors extending their footprint, and value-added distributors buying vendor coverage. This article ranks the most active buyers and is part of our ranking of the top strategic acquirers of IT services companies.
If you own a reseller, distributor, or maintenance business, the buyer you should expect is a consolidator adding vendor coverage, buying power, and geographic reach, not a strategic paying a premium for scarce talent. Recurring maintenance or managed-services revenue, where you have it, is what separates a routine tuck-in from a more competitive sale.
Who’s buying VARs: 2015-2025 in numbers
The ranking below applies a stricter test than that headline count. It counts a deal only when the target’s own primary business is a value-added reseller, a solution provider, a value-added distributor, or a broadline distributor. Hardware maintenance firms, hosting and domain providers, software vendors and pure services businesses are excluded, as are minority stakes and internal reorganizations. That test moves several well-known acquirers out of this line and brings in North American and German buyers that a looser count misses.
Reseller and distribution M&A has been steadier and less cyclical than the services lines, driven by consolidators building scale and vendor coverage rather than by a race for talent. Activity concentrates at the top: Converge Technology Solutions alone accounts for 15 of the acquisitions we recorded, with Bechtle and Sesa close behind, and the field below them is a set of distributors and value-added distributors clustered at three to ten deals each. Private equity is less prominent here than in the higher-margin services lines, with 88 of the roughly 770 deals structured as buyouts. Prices are rarely disclosed, and where they are they point to lower multiples than in managed services or consulting.
Hardware maintenance and hosting are separate markets
Two adjacent lines are often counted as reselling and should not be. Third-party maintenance firms sell support contracts on equipment that is already installed; they do not resell new product into new deployments. Web hosting and domain providers sell capacity, not vendor product. Both have their own buyers, their own economics, and their own consolidators.
Third-party maintenance is the larger of the two and has a credible ranking of its own, led by Park Place Technologies with 17 maintenance acquisitions and Evernex with 9, with CentricsIT, NorthSmart and Curvature among the named assets. In hosting, dogado has consolidated German and Swiss hosting and domain businesses. If you run a maintenance or hosting business these are your buyers, and both the multiples and the diligence questions differ from the reseller market ranked below.
The most active buyers of VARs at a glance
Deal counts cover announced acquisitions of value-added resellers, solution providers and distributors from 2015 to 2025, families consolidated. All twelve are strategic buyers. Software product vendors buying their own channel are excluded, as are third-party maintenance and hosting consolidators.
| # | Buyer | Type | Total 2015-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Converge Technology Solutions | Strategic | 15 |
| 2 | Bechtle | Strategic | 12 |
| 3 | Sesa / VAR Group | Strategic | 11 |
| 4 |  ALSO Holding |
Strategic | 10 |
| 5 | TD SYNNEX | Strategic | 8 |
| 5 |  Exclusive Networks |
Strategic | 8 |
| 5 |  Nuvias / Infinigate |
Strategic | 8 |
| 8 |  Ingram Micro |
Strategic | 5 |
| 9 | Computacenter | Strategic | 4 |
| 10 | Insight Enterprises | Strategic | 3 |
| 10 |  ELOVADE |
Strategic | 3 |
| 12 | CDW | Strategic | 2 |
1) Converge Technology Solutions
Overview: Converge Technology Solutions is a North American hybrid IT provider, headquartered in Toronto, built almost entirely by buying resellers and solution providers across the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Acquisition pace: The most active buyer in this line with 15 acquisitions, seven before 2020 and eight across 2020 to 2022. Our record shows no further reseller acquisitions after 2022, so treat the recent pace as unconfirmed rather than as evidence the group has stopped.
Typical target: Regional solution providers with a strong vendor practice, usually IBM, Cisco or HPE, selling hardware and software with services attached. Deals are small enough that terms were rarely disclosed.
Select transactions: Key Information Systems (USA, 2018), Vicom Infinity (USA, 2021), and Stone Technologies (UK, 2022), all undisclosed.
2) Bechtle
Overview: Bechtle is a German IT provider and one of Europe’s largest resellers, growing by acquiring IT system houses and running them inside a federated group structure.
Acquisition pace: 12 acquisitions spread evenly across the period: four before 2020, four across 2020 to 2022, and four in 2023 to 2025.
Typical target: Most of what Bechtle buys is German, Swiss and Austrian system houses, which are hardware and software resale businesses with services attached. The buying program extends into France, the UK, the Netherlands and Italy where Bechtle wants a country platform.
Select transactions: Inmac Wstore (France, 2018), DPS Software (Austria, 2020), the largest European SolidWorks reseller, and Apixit (France, 2023), all undisclosed.
3) Sesa / VAR Group
Overview: Sesa is an Italian technology group whose VAR Group arm consolidates Italian and European resellers and channel partners.
Acquisition pace: 11 acquisitions weighted to the second half of the period: one before 2020, five across 2020 to 2022, and five in 2023 to 2025.
Typical target: Italian and German channel businesses. The clearest pattern is a CAD and ECAD software-reseller roll-up built across four countries, five of the eleven deals: Cadlog (Italy), PBU CAD-Systeme (Germany), Cimtec (Germany), TRIAS Mikroelektronik (Germany) and Innofour (Netherlands). The rest are SAP, analytics and infrastructure resellers.
If you are an Italian owner, the structure matters as much as the buyer. Italian acquirers, Sesa included, typically take 51 to 60 percent rather than 100 percent. A Sesa deal often leaves the founder with a minority stake and a second step later, which changes what you receive at signing and ties part of your outcome to the group’s performance.
Select transactions: PBU CAD-Systeme (Germany, 2019, 60 percent), Cadlog Group (Italy, 2021, 60 percent), and Innofour (Netherlands, 2025, 60 percent), all undisclosed.
4) ALSO Holding
Overview: ALSO Holding is a Swiss IT distribution group that consolidates resellers and distributors across Europe.
Acquisition pace: 10 acquisitions: five before 2020, three across 2020 to 2022, and two in 2023 to 2025.
Typical target: Regional IT and security distributors across Europe, including Slovenia, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Austria, Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Select transactions: DISS (~$16m, 2018), Five 4 U (~$14m, 2017), and the UK, Ireland and France operations of Westcoast (2024), the largest privately held British broadline distributor.
5) TD SYNNEX
Overview: TD SYNNEX is the global broadline distributor formed by the 2021 merger of SYNNEX and Tech Data, and it made the largest deals in this ranking.
Acquisition pace: 8 acquisitions across the combined group: four before 2020, two across 2020 to 2022, and two in 2023 to 2025.
Typical target: Distribution businesses spanning the US, Asia, Europe and Australia, from broadline platforms to specialist cybersecurity distributors.
Select transactions: Avnet Technology Solutions (~$2.6bn, 2016), DLT Solutions (~$210m, 2019), and Innovix Distribution (~$52m, 2020).
5) Exclusive Networks
Overview: Exclusive Networks is a French cybersecurity-focused distribution group that buys specialist security and infrastructure distributors.
Acquisition pace: 8 acquisitions: four before 2020, three across 2020 to 2022, and one in 2023 to 2025.
Typical target: Value-added security distributors across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Select transactions: Veracomp (Poland, 2020), Ignition Technology (UK, 2021), and NextGen Distribution (2018), all undisclosed.
5) Nuvias / Infinigate
Overview: Nuvias and Infinigate, now run as one group, form a European value-added distribution platform consolidating specialist security, networking and unified-communications distributors.
Acquisition pace: 8 acquisitions across the combined family: four before 2020, three across 2020 to 2022, and one in 2023 to 2025.
Typical target: Specialist networking, security and cloud distributors in the UK, continental Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
Select transactions: Cloud Distribution (~$16m, 2021), Siphon Networks (UK, 2016), and StarLink (UAE, 2022).
8) Ingram Micro
Overview: Ingram Micro is a global IT distribution giant that buys regional distributors to extend its geographic reach.
Acquisition pace: 5 confirmed acquisitions, all of them before 2020. Its more recent buying has gone into platform and automation assets rather than distribution businesses.
Typical target: Regional broadline and value-added distributors, notably in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and France.
Select transactions: Grupo ACAO (~$77m, 2015), the CEE division of the RRC Group (~$47m, 2016), and Cloud Harmonics (USA, 2017).
9) Computacenter
Overview: Computacenter is a UK-listed technology provider that has used acquisitions to enter new geographies rather than to consolidate its home market.
Acquisition pace: 4 acquisitions: two before 2020 and two across 2020 to 2022.
Typical target: Established resellers and solution providers that give Computacenter a country platform, particularly in North America and the Netherlands.
Select transactions: FusionStorm (USA, 2018), its US market entry, Misco Solutions (Netherlands, 2018), and Pivot Technology Solutions (North America, 2020).
10) Insight Enterprises
Overview: Insight Enterprises is a US solution provider that buys resellers to add scale and cloud-platform capability.
Acquisition pace: 3 acquisitions in this line, spaced across the period: one in 2016, one in 2019, and one in 2023.
Typical target: Large US resellers and cloud licensing businesses. Insight has also bought a series of consultancies, which sit outside this line.
Select transactions: Datalink (USA, 2016), PCM (USA, 2019), and SADA (USA, 2023), North America’s largest Google Cloud reseller.
10) ELOVADE
Overview: ELOVADE is a German value-added security distributor consolidating IT security distribution.
Acquisition pace: 3 confirmed acquisitions concentrated in the latest years: one in 2022 and two in 2024 to 2025.
Typical target: Specialist IT security and MSP-focused distributors across Germany, the UK, Italy, and the Nordics.
Select transactions: Achab (Italy, 2022), Inuit (Sweden, 2024), and Brigantia Partners (UK, 2025), all undisclosed.
12) CDW
Overview: CDW is one of the largest IT resellers in the world. It acquires rarely, but at a scale no one else in this ranking matches.
Acquisition pace: 2 confirmed acquisitions, in 2019 and 2021.
Typical target: Top-tier solution providers bought to add a capability or a country, not regional tuck-ins.
Select transactions: Sirius Computer Solutions (~$2.5bn, 2021), CDW’s largest deal and a top-tier US IBM-centric solution provider, and Scalar Decisions (Canada, 2019).
Two of the biggest resellers in the world do not appear in this table at all. SHI International made a single acquisition over the eleven years, Locuz in India in 2024. Softcat made one, and it was a data consultancy. Their absence reflects how rarely they buy, not a gap in the data.
What VARs are worth
Reselling trades at lower multiples than the services lines because gross margins are thinner and revenue is less recurring. Across the transactions we track, the median VAR changes hands at around 0.5x revenue and 8.1x EBITDA. The revenue multiple means little on its own in this line, since a reseller booking product revenue gross looks very different from one booking it net. See our full analysis of VAR valuation multiples.
Active private equity investors in VARs
Repeat PE buyers in this line are Norvestor, Rigby Private Equity, Perwyn, and H.I.G. Capital (two buyouts each). Private equity plays a smaller role here than in the services lines, since reselling and distribution carry thinner margins and less recurring revenue. See our ranking of the top private equity investors in IT services.
What this means if you’re selling a VAR
Buyers value scale, vendor relationships, and geographic coverage more than margin, so expect solution-provider consolidators and distribution groups rather than premium strategic bids. Multiples are lower than in services lines, which makes recurring maintenance or managed-services revenue, where you have it, the key differentiator. Structure varies by buyer: North American consolidators and German groups typically buy 100 percent, while Italian buyers usually take a controlling 51 to 60 percent and come back for the rest later. Running a process that puts several of these consolidators in competition, and understanding the strategic versus financial buyer trade-off, is what lifts the outcome.
Thinking about selling your reseller or distribution business?
Aventis Advisors advises IT services founders on M&A. We help you identify 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 IT resellers?
Converge Technology Solutions, with 15 acquisitions of resellers and solution providers between 2015 and 2025 in our database, ahead of Bechtle (12) and Sesa / VAR Group (11).
Who buys hardware maintenance businesses?
A different set of buyers. Third-party maintenance is consolidated by specialists such as Park Place Technologies, with 17 maintenance acquisitions over the period, and Evernex with 9. They buy installed-base support contracts and field-service capability rather than reselling relationships.
What are VARs worth compared with services firms?
Lower. Reselling is lower-margin than managed services or consulting, so multiples are lower; recurring maintenance or managed-services revenue lifts value. See our IT services valuation multiples report.
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.
