Who is buying MSPs?
Three groups, and the first one probably already emails you.
PE-backed platforms running roll-ups — the source of most of the cold outreach MSP owners receive. They are professional buyers executing a playbook, and their first offer is priced for a seller without alternatives. Larger MSPs buy geography, verticals and bench. IT services strategics buy recurring revenue and customer relationships. The consolidation logic is the same one running through IT services M&A broadly.
What is my MSP worth?
Priced on adjusted EBITDA, then repriced on revenue quality:
- True MRR. Contractual managed-services revenue, separated from projects and hardware. Buyers pay for the first and discount the rest.
- Contract terms. Length, auto-renewal, assignability on a change of control.
- Concentration. Any client above a meaningful share of MRR becomes structure — an earnout or a holdback — unless addressed before market.
- Owner dependence. If client relationships and escalations run through you personally, buyers price the risk that revenue walks when you do.
- Security posture. Post-incident, MSP diligence treats your own stack and certifications as a valuation item.
How do I sell my MSP?
Rebuild the P&L to separate recurring from non-recurring revenue; document contracts, concentration and the org chart; then run confidential outreach across the platforms and strategics actually acquiring in managed services — in parallel, so they bid against each other. Structured first-round bids, management meetings, final bids, exclusivity, close. The sequence is at how we run a sale.
If a platform has already approached you
Unsolicited approaches are how consolidators buy cheaply — the entire playbook depends on you not testing the market. Do not send financials, do not name a number, and read what to do when you receive an offer before the next call. Then decide, with real information, whether this is the moment to run a process. Request a confidential valuation or contact the firm.
Windsor Drake is an independent sell-side M&A advisory firm headquartered in Toronto, advising founder-led technology and tech-enabled services companies. Updated August 2026.