Your IT company got bought. Now what?
A lot of owners got the same letter this year. “We’re excited to announce we’ve joined…” followed by a logo they’ve never seen.
IT companies are being bought at a steady clip. Omdia counted 169 announced deals last year, most of them with private equity money behind them. The first quarter of this year was up again.
Arkansas has had its share. In 2023, Pearson-Kelly Technology of Springfield, Missouri, bought Digital Printing Solutions, a Rogers copier and print dealer, to bring its managed IT business to Northwest Arkansas. In January 2024, Little Rock’s Staley Technologies announced it had bought the managed IT and security division of a regional accounting firm. That April, Edafio, an Arkansas IT company, merged into Chicago-based Ascend Technologies under the same private equity owner. And this August, St. Louis-based GFI Digital bought TDS IT in Lowell.
Not every deal is private equity. Some are a bigger regional company buying a smaller one. For the customer, the questions are the same. I don’t know how any of these went for the customers involved, and that’s the point: you find out by checking.
I spent about ten years as CTO and CSO of an IT services firm, so I know how these changes look from the provider’s side of the table. So let me say the fair thing first: sometimes the new owner makes it better. More people, 24-hour coverage, better tools. That’s real.
Sometimes the people you trusted leave within a year, the price goes up at renewal, and the things that used to be included turn into line items.
You won’t know which one you got by reading the press release. You’ll know by checking five things.
- Who holds the keys. Your Microsoft 365, your domain, your firewall. The admin accounts should be in your company’s name, and someone inside your company should be able to get in.
- The contract. Find the renewal date, the notice period, and what it costs to leave. Read the assignment clause (the part that says whether they can hand your contract to a new owner). Most owners never have.
- The people. Ask by name: is the tech who knows our network still here? Who’s our contact now?
- The documentation. If they move you to a new ticket system, ask for an export of the old one. Years of notes about your systems live in there.
- The price and the scope. Get any changes in writing before the renewal, not after.
None of this is a fight. A good provider will answer all five in a week and thank you for asking.
If you got that letter this year, which of the five could you answer today?
If that list made you wince, here’s how to tell if your IT company is doing a good job, from someone who isn’t trying to replace them.
Sources: Omdia, MSP M&A 2025, Channel Dive on Q1 2026, Talk Business & Politics on Pearson-Kelly, Staley Technologies, and GFI Digital, and Ascend and Edafio’s announcement.