MSP acquisitions are all about security

YES! It's Friday. News today about consolidation, a smart move from a UK MSP, and how budget pressures are actually good news for you.

🔴 The buyout wave is accelerating… and it's all about security

Fresh analysis from Omdia out yesterday looked at 169 MSP M&A deals (mergers and acquisitions… or murders and executions, if you’ve watched American Psycho) completed last year. And there’s a pattern.

Seventeen of those deals involved MSSPs. This was either MSSP’s acquiring competitors or MSPs acquiring security specialists to embed cybersecurity directly into their portfolio.

The conclusion: Cybersecurity is increasingly expected within a managed services contract. Omdia

The other big trend: Private equity-backed platforms are getting more strategic, moving beyond geographic scale to add ERP expertise, vertical specialisation, and AI-driven delivery models. Omdia

What does this mean for you? Well, if consolidation is being driven by buyers who want specialist capability, generalist MSPs without a clear niche maye find themselves either acquired for less than they hoped. Worth thinking about where your defensible territory is.

🟡 A UK MSP just doubled down on data infrastructure

Staying with murders… mergers and acquisitions…. Everything Tech Group, a Manchester UK based MSP founded in 2021, this week snapped up Nexstor, a Nottingham-based specialist in business-critical data platforms.

The deal adds £15m in revenues and 27 employees to Everything Tech’s headcount, taking the group to over 150 people. Nexstor brings specialist depth in data infrastructure and hybrid cloud… areas Everything Tech didn’t previously cover with its own dedicated unit. IT Channel Oxygen

That’s nine acquisitions in four years for a business that was turning over £17m in 2024. Founder Mark Allen previously built GCI to a £197m enterprise value through 27 acquisitions. So he knows exactly what he’s doing.

If you’re thinking about M&A as either a buyer or a seller, this is the blueprint: Acquire specific capability gaps, not just revenue.

🟢 Client budgets are under pressure… which is actually good for MSPs???

The IMF published its updated World Economic Outlook this week, and the headline is gloomy: The Iran war has stalled global economic momentum, pushing growth lower than expected in 2026 and creating inflationary pressure through rising energy costs. Washington Times

Before that makes you click off and go get another coffee, here’s why that’s actually not bad news for you specifically. When businesses feel the economic squeeze, the first instinct is to look at where they can cut costs without cutting capability. Outsourcing IT, rather than maintaining expensive in-house teams, looks increasingly attractive in exactly this environment. You become the answer to their problem, not a line item to cut.

The MSPs who’ll struggle are the ones positioned purely as a cost. The ones who’ll thrive are positioned as a solution. Big difference.

Right, have a good weekend. We’ll be back on Monday morning. Enjoy.