A recent MSPAlliance study of senior managed services executives found that while a solid one third of the surveyed companies were not interested in either selling or buying in 2009, there remains a great deal of interest (on both the buy and sell side) in the managed IT services industry.
The clear majority of companies surveyed indicated they are looking to make acquisition this year. However, roughly 25% of the respondents also said they would be willing to sell if the right offer came along. While the majority of interest sseems to be leaning towards acquisition of MSPs, there are a few lingering questions that remain.
1) Of those buyers how many are ready to make a purchase? More to the point, how many have enough capital to successfully consumate a trasnaction?
2) Are there enough fully or partially matured MSPs worth buying? There are indications that buyers are strongly favoring companies with high recurring revenues, at least one third of their total top line revenues. This could be a factor in why so few are visibly indicating their willingness to sell.