Report: IT & Business Services
Current Trends and Figures

Our 2H 2026 IT & Business Services M&A Market Report shows a market that has grown more discerning without growing less active. Deal activity has eased from its early-2025 highs, yet remains well ahead of the 2024 low, and the real contest has moved from the valuation to the structure. Buyers are meeting sellers’ expectations, but only by parking a growing share of the price behind earnouts, escrows and performance hurdles the seller no longer fully controls.

One question is now sorting the entire sector: does the revenue recur, or must it be rewon? Contracted, repeatable delivery is commanding richer terms, with IT Outsourced Services re-rating on the back of it, while project-based integration work is being marked down as buyers price AI’s impact on revenue durability directly into terms rather than the headline valuation. A rising earnout, the report argues, is buyer conviction inverted: it is asking the seller to prove the growth plan actually works before buyer paying in full for it.

The report also tracks a cooling in cross-border dealmaking, as tariff uncertainty and tighter foreign-investment screening push acquirers back towards jurisdictions they know, and maps how ecosystem-led consolidation around Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP and Atlassian continues to diverge as each platform follows its 

Key topics addressed in the report include:

• Why deal structure now carries as much negotiating weight as the headline valuation in 2026
• Valuation trends by subsector, and what durability of revenue is worth to buyers
• Ecosystem-led M&A dynamics around major enterprise platforms and certified service providers
• Subsector deep-dives across Tech Services & Support, IT Outsourced Services and Integration Services, plus notable acquirers and transactions