I want to share my experience with DealPipe and, especially, with David Marcheschi, who assisted me in selling my software business. It was a months-long process that David managed superbly, guiding and assisting me every step of the way through multiple buyer calls, demos, and negotiations. In the end we found a buyer who was ready to close without any third-party financing, which really sped things up. I can only imagine how hard David was working behind the scenes, vetting potential buyers and letting me focus on the important things. I could not have handled this on my own, and I heartily recommend David as a top-notch broker who will have your interests at heart.
Sell Your MSP Business
MSP Business Brokers & M&A Advisors
When you sell your MSP business, the buyer is really acquiring a promise: that the monthly agreements, the client relationships and the technicians who keep those clients’ systems running will all still be there after closing. Every question in diligence comes back to how reliable that promise looks.
DealPipe’s MSP business brokers and M&A advisors represent owners of managed IT service providers, co-managed IT and help desk firms, managed security providers, IT consultancies with a growing recurring base, and vertical specialists that support medical offices, law firms, manufacturers or other regulated clients. We separate recurring revenue from project work and hardware resale, organize contracts and client data, and introduce the company to screened buyers under strict confidentiality.
Wondering what a platform or strategic buyer could pay for your MSP? Start with a free, confidential valuation.
Why Sell Your MSP Business Through a Broker
Most MSP owners do not have to look for buyers. Private equity-backed platforms, larger regional providers and security firms send emails and LinkedIn messages every month. The trouble is that each approach arrives with its own valuation method, its own definition of recurring revenue and its own earn-out terms, and the buyer controls the conversation from the start.
We reverse that. Before anyone sees the company, we rebuild your income statement around what buyers care about: managed services revenue under contract, project revenue, and hardware and license resale shown separately with their own margins. We adjust for owner compensation, one-time costs and personal expenses, and prepare a client schedule with monthly recurring revenue, agreement terms, seats or endpoints and tenure for each account.
Then we bring several qualified buyers into one confidential process, so your MSP is priced on comparable terms. Advisors such as Dipen Mengar, whose background is IT engineering and technology M&A, help you read the fine print in each offer. Before committing to any firm, it helps to know how to choose a business broker.
MSP Valuation: How Buyers Price Recurring IT Revenue
Owner-operated MSPs are commonly priced as a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings, or SDE, while providers with a management team and a larger client base are usually priced on a multiple of EBITDA. Some buyers also look at a multiple of recurring revenue as a cross-check. What moves the multiple is the quality of that recurring revenue. For the math behind earnings multiples, see the income-based approach to business valuation.
Factors that tend to raise MSP valuation multiples:
- A high share of revenue from managed services agreements rather than break-fix or projects
- Multi-year agreements with automatic renewal and clear termination terms
- Low client churn and no single client carrying an outsized share of MRR
- Security services such as endpoint protection, backup and monitoring bundled into every agreement
- A standardized tool stack and clean ticketing, billing and asset data
- A service manager and senior engineers who handle escalations without the owner
- Expertise in a vertical with compliance needs, which makes clients less likely to switch
Valuations come under pressure when hardware resale inflates revenue, agreements run month to month, the owner is still the lead engineer, each client runs a different stack, or past security incidents are poorly documented.
MSP and IT Services Businesses We Sell
We represent owners across managed IT and IT services, including:
- Managed service providers. Firms that support small and midsize businesses on flat-fee, per-user or per-device agreements.
- Co-managed IT and help desk providers. Teams that work alongside a client’s internal IT staff or run outsourced service desks.
- Managed security service providers (MSSPs). Providers of monitoring, detection and response, vulnerability management and compliance support.
- IT consulting and project firms. Network, infrastructure and Microsoft-focused consultancies building a recurring support base.
- Vertical MSPs. Providers that specialize in healthcare, legal, financial services, manufacturing or government contractors.
- Backup, disaster recovery and voice add-ons. Businesses where these services are part of a wider managed IT offering.
This page covers service-led IT companies. If you own a subscription software product, our SaaS business brokers are the better fit, and hardware or patented technology firms should see how we sell a technology company. Hosting-led providers can read about selling a web hosting company, while cloud infrastructure and migration specialists can turn to our cloud M&A advisors. Owners whose revenue comes mainly from hosted voice, SIP trunking or cabling can learn how to sell a telecom business.
What Is Your MSP Business Worth?
Enter your yearly revenue and owner earnings to get a quick, indicative value range for your MSP. No sign-up is needed, and your numbers stay private.
Your numbers
We value on your trailing twelve months, because that is what buyers underwrite. The prior full year sits beside it so we can read your growth. Round numbers are fine.
| Prior full yearCalendar 2025 | Trailing 12 monthsOct 2025 to Sep 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ||
| less Cost of goods sold | ||
| less Operating expenses | ||
| equals Net profit | $0 | $0 |
| plus Add-backs | ||
| equals Seller’s Discretionary Earnings | $0 | $0 |
Add-backs are the expenses a new owner would not carry: your own salary, personal costs run through the business, one-time expenses, depreciation and interest. Adding them back to net profit gives SDE, the number buyers actually pay a multiple on.
What makes you valuable
0 selectedCheck everything that is true today. These are the levers that move your multiple up, and they count towards your estimate once your figures are in above.
Where the risk sits
0 selectedBe honest here. Buyers find these in diligence anyway, and knowing them up front is how we protect your price.
Your figures, and how we got this number
Get your MSP valuation report
Receive a value range by email, a short list of the MRR, churn and staffing factors that move MSP pricing, and an optional advisor call.
This estimate is automated and draws on the earnings multiples our brokers work with on current deals; it is not an appraisal, a purchase offer or financial advice. Providers with mostly contracted recurring revenue, low churn, bundled security and a team that operates independently of the owner may achieve more, while break-fix or hardware-heavy revenue, concentrated clients or an owner who remains the lead engineer may mean less. We never share your figures.
MSP Exit Strategy: Preparing 12 to 24 Months Out
The cleanest MSP exits are planned well before the first buyer call. Start with your agreements: move break-fix and time-and-materials clients onto managed plans, put every client on a signed agreement with clear renewal terms, and check whether those agreements can be assigned to a new owner. If one or two clients make up a large part of MRR, focus new sales on reducing that dependence.
Next, step back from the service desk. Promote a service manager, document escalation paths and standard builds, and make sure admin credentials, vendor portals and license accounts sit in company systems rather than in your personal inbox. Standardize the tool stack where you can, because buyers price the work it takes to migrate clients onto their own.
Finally, prepare the books and the paperwork. Report managed services, projects and hardware resale as separate lines, review your own security controls and cyber insurance, and collect employee agreements and any compliance records you keep for regulated clients. Start that list with the documents needed to sell a business checklist on our blog.
The Process
Valuation & MRR Review
Confidential Marketing
Offers & LOI
Diligence & Transition
Talk to an MSP M&A Advisor
Who Buys Managed Service Providers
Consolidation has made MSPs one of the more actively acquired IT services businesses, and buyers come from several directions:
- Private equity-backed MSP platforms. They acquire add-ons to enter new regions or add skills, often paying with cash at closing plus an earn-out or equity rollover.
- Larger regional MSPs. Established providers buy competitors to add clients and technicians in markets they already serve.
- Cybersecurity firms and MSSPs. Security providers acquire MSPs to gain a client base they can cross-sell monitoring and compliance services into.
- IT consultancies, resellers and telecom providers. These firms buy MSPs to add recurring revenue to project or connectivity income.
- Individual operators and search funds. Experienced IT leaders buy smaller MSPs, frequently with SBA financing and a seller note.
- Senior staff. Service managers or partners sometimes buy out the owner over time.
IT services M&A rewards the same thing across all of them: agreements and people that stay. Buyers can browse current managed IT services businesses for sale.
Our MSP Business Brokers
Recently Sold MSP and IT Services Businesses
Selling an MSP Business: FAQ
Buyers usually start from SDE or EBITDA, add back owner pay and one-time costs, and then apply a multiple. The multiple depends on how much revenue comes from managed services agreements, client churn and concentration, margins and how well the team runs without you. Our free business valuation offers a starting range in minutes, and an advisor can refine it from there.
Pull together three years of financial statements, client-by-client MRR with agreement terms, vendor and license accounts, and a staff chart. From there, an advisor normalizes earnings, markets the MSP without naming it, handles LOI negotiations and manages diligence. Decide early how and when technicians and clients will be told.
Plan for roughly six to twelve months from first preparation to closing. Getting financials and the MRR schedule ready takes a few weeks, marketing and buyer meetings take a few months, and diligence on contracts, finances and security can add two or three more. Signed agreements and clean ticketing and billing data help shorten each stage.
An unsolicited offer tells you one buyer is interested, not what the market would pay. An MSP broker restates your earnings, brings competing acquirers into a single process and weighs proposals on upfront cash, earn-out targets, equity rollover and your role afterward. Keep client-level data private until you have a signed NDA.
There is no cost to get started. Our model is 100% performance-based. No retainers, no upfront fees: we earn a success fee only when your MSP actually sells. The exact fee structure for your company is explained in a free, confidential consultation.
Typical acquirers include private equity-backed MSP platforms, larger regional providers, cybersecurity firms, IT consultancies and resellers, telecom companies and individual operators using SBA loans. Platform buyers often pay part of the price through an earn-out or equity rollover, while individual buyers usually combine bank financing with a seller note and a longer owner transition.
The line is mostly about size. Business brokers usually sell smaller owner-run MSPs to individual buyers and local competitors. M&A advisors take on larger providers valued on EBITDA, build a full information memorandum and approach platform and strategic buyers nationally. DealPipe does both, and larger MSPs can work with our M&A advisory team.
Buyers first receive a profile with no company name, client names or identifying details. More information is released only after a signed NDA and screening, with client-level data shared last. Owners commonly brief key engineers just before signing, sometimes with a retention bonus, and meet major clients jointly with the buyer near closing.
Not automatically. Some agreements need client consent to be assigned, and distributor, licensing and partner programs often require the buyer to apply or re-register. In a stock sale contracts may stay in place, though change-of-control clauses still apply. Have your counsel review assignment terms early so the transition plan covers each one.
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