Is 2026 the right time to sell your MSP? And what could waiting cost you?

The MSP M&A market is experiencing extraordinary buyer interest, with well-run $3M–$10M revenue MSPs attracting 10+ offers and, in some cases, valuations previously reserved for much larger businesses.

In this episode of M&A Insights, Madhur Duggar of Excendio Advisors is joined by Rob Scott, Managing Partner of Scott & Scott and CEO of Monjur, and Nick Bartolo, tax and wealth advisor at Essential Partners, to explore what is driving this activity and what MSP founders should consider before exiting.

Topics Covered

1. Why $3M–$10M MSPs Are Attracting Record Buyer Interest

• Why private equity buyers are increasingly targeting smaller MSPs.
• How buyers are combining smaller acquisitions to build new platforms.
• What is driving 6–8x EBITDA multiples, and sometimes significantly higher valuations.

2. The Cost of Waiting to Sell

• Why growing EBITDA doesn't necessarily translate into a higher exit valuation.
• How declining market multiples could overwhelm improvements in growth and profitability.
• Why selling into a larger platform and retaining equity could provide a valuable second payday.

3. Customer Contracts: Your Most Valuable Asset

• Why contracts can make or break an MSP acquisition.
• How assignability, termination provisions and contract duration influence valuation.
• Why getting contracts exit-ready can take 5–18 months.

4. Maximizing Your After-Tax Proceeds

• Understanding adjusted EBITDA and common seller add-backs.
• Tax strategies that could materially reduce taxes on a business sale.
• Planning for financial independence after the exit.

5. Why Running a Competitive Sale Process Matters

• Why selling to the first buyer who approaches you can leave substantial value on the table.
• The Dallas Mavericks–Luka Dončić trade analogy: the danger of negotiating without testing the market.
• How a structured process can uncover buyers willing to pay a premium.

6. Preparing for Life After the Exit

• Why selling a business is fundamentally different from selling a house or car.
• Balancing valuation with the interests of employees, customers and family.
• Moving from concentrated business ownership to diversified personal wealth.

One Final Thought

"You get rich with concentration. You stay rich with diversification."

Whether you're planning an exit in the next 12 months or simply exploring your options, this episode offers practical insights from three advisors working directly with MSP founders and buyers.

Listen to understand what your MSP could be worth, what buyers are looking for, and how to prepare for a successful exit.

Reach out to Madhur at Madhur@excendio.com or 212.731.4230

Book an Appointment with him on his LinkedIn at (34) Madhur Duggar | LinkedIn

Check out Excendio Advisors and our amazing content at www.excendio.com

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar

What if you could buy or sell MSP client contracts without buying or selling an entire MSP?

As more smaller MSPs come to market, I expect we will see growing demand for transactions involving individual client contracts or portfolios of contracts.

Consider a few scenarios:

🔹 Looking to exit but too small for traditional M&A? Sell your portfolio of managed service contracts to another MSP.

🔹 Want to grow your MSP? Acquire contracts that fit your geography, industry specialization, and service capabilities—without acquiring an entire business.

🔹 Have clients that no longer fit your business model? Divest those contracts to an MSP better positioned to serve them.

🔹 Have a large client creating concentration concerns? Consider selling that contract separately rather than accepting a valuation discount on your entire business.

In my latest M&A Insights podcast, I spoke with Matt Yesbeck, Founder of MSPX Store, about his vision for creating a marketplace where MSPs can buy and sell individual managed service contracts.

A few interesting takeaways from our conversation:

· Contracts on the platform are generally being valued at 6–8x monthly recurring revenue, with longer-term MSAs potentially commanding more.

· MSPX Store provides a marketplace with confidential client listings, buyer-seller matching, and an escrow-supported transition process.

· Sellers can list individual contracts or entire portfolios and evaluate offers before deciding whether to transact.

· A contract that is unprofitable for one MSP may be highly attractive to another with a different cost structure or service model.

My view: As the MSP industry consolidates, I expect contract-level transactions to become an increasingly important alternative to traditional whole-company M&A—particularly for smaller MSPs.

Matt is building an interesting solution to address this opportunity.

🎙️ Listen to our conversation to learn more about how MSPX Store works and where contract-level M&A may be headed.

Explore the marketplace: https://www.mspx.store

Reach out to Madhur at Madhur@excendio.com or 212.731.4230

Book an Appointment with him on his LinkedIn at (34) Madhur Duggar | LinkedIn

Check out Excendio Advisors and our amazing content at www.excendio.com

Reach out to Matt Yesbeck on his LinkedIn at Matt Yesbeck | LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar

What role does Lyra Technologies play in helping Evergreen MSPs post-exit?

That was one of the questions I wanted to explore with Greg Zolkos, Regional CEO at Lyra Technologies for Evergreen’s MSPs in the South.

Greg sold his own MSP, Atlas Professional Services, to Evergreen after 16+ years as a founder. Today, he coaches more than 20 MSPs across the region.

What I liked about our conversation was how practical his advice was. Here are 7 takeaways for MSP founders:

1. Protect your client relationships before chasing the next dollar of growth.

Growth is a lot easier when you don’t have a leaky bucket.

Strong relationships drive retention. Retention means you aren’t constantly replacing lost revenue. Your team is happier. And organic growth becomes much easier.

This is a trust-based business. Spend your time where relationships are built—not at every conference or chasing every prospect.

2. Watch three numbers: organic growth, profitability and client retention.

There are hundreds of MSP KPIs. But these three matter the most

The lesson: don't drown yourself in metrics. Start with the few that tell you whether the underlying business is actually getting better.

3. Question every expense—even your garbage bill.

Greg calls it “controlling the controllables.”

One MSP was spending almost $3,000/month on trash collection.

Why?

The dumpster was being emptied five days a week—even though it was only full once or twice.

They changed the schedule.

Annual savings: ~$20,000.

Profit improvement isn't always another automation or PSA optimization. Sometimes it's sitting in your garbage.

4. Standardize your stack and your service delivery.

Five backup tools. Three security tools. Different processes for different clients.

Greg sees significant room for improvement here.

Standardization creates operational discipline—and makes it easier to automate, train people and scale without simply adding more headcount.

5. Clean your data now if you expect AI to help you later.

Poor documentation + poor ticket resolution notes + poor data hygiene = poor inputs for AI.

AI can't magically compensate for years of bad operational data.

The MSPs that clean up their data today will be much better positioned to automate tomorrow.

6. Use AI to solve your clients’ business problems—not just their IT problems.

Greg gave a great example of an engineering firm.

A human might spend 4–6 hours reviewing CAD documents and counting the rebar required for an estimate.

AI can potentially do that work in minutes.

That changes the conversation from:

"How can I manage your IT?"

to:

"Where is your business wasting time, and how can technology fix it?"

That makes an MSP far more valuable—and far stickier.

7. Find peers who will show you their numbers—and be willing to show yours.

Evergreen now has 120+ MSPs, giving the organization what Greg calls the ability to fire a lot of “test bullets.”

Its peer groups share scorecards down to metrics such as endpoints per employee and gross margin.

If your neighbor is generating 60% gross margin and you're at 40%, the conversation becomes pretty straightforward:

“What are you doing that I'm not?”

But that only works if founders are willing to be vulnerable enough to share what isn't working.
And that may be the broader lesson from my conversation with Greg.

Lyra gives MSPs access to things that are difficult to build efficiently on their own—recruiting, sales and go-to-market playbooks, back-office infrastructure, coaching and a large peer network.

But the objective isn't to take the founder further away from the business.

It's to free them to spend more time on the things that matter most: their people, their clients and their relationships.

This podcast is hosted by Madhur Duggar. Madhur is a Senior M&A Advisor at Excendio Advisors and focuses on IT Services

Reach out to Madhur at Madhur@excendio.com or 212.731.4230

Book an Appointment with him on his LinkedIn at (34) Madhur Duggar | LinkedIn

Check out Excendio Advisors and our amazing content at www.excendio.com

Reach out to Greg Zolkos on his LinkedIn at Gregory Zolkos | LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar