Disclaimer. The ranges on this page are third-party published estimates. The profile table is from Breakwater M&A’s 2026 article “MSP & IT Services Valuation Multiples 2026” at breakwaterma.com, as framed by MSP Dispatch in Josh Lima’s video “3× to 10× — How PE Buyers Are Valuing MSPs Right Now.” The EBITDA-size bands are the ranges Breakwater prints in “How to Sell an IT MSP Company” and attributes there to Aventis Advisors. Aventis’s own disclosed-deal write-up reports a median near 8.9× EV/EBITDA on a sample whose median transaction size was $38.5 million. None of this is a comparable transaction, a guarantee of any multiple or price, or the opinion of IBBR. What a buyer pays depends on the quality of the MSP, the sale process, and the structure of the offer: cash at close, earnout, rollover, escrow, working-capital peg, and employment. IBBR does not publish invented comps. Figures were checked against those public pages on 26 September 2026. Third-party ranges change. Read the source again before you rely on a number.
Profile bands (Breakwater 2026)
Breakwater heads this table “Typical EBITDA Multiple.” The first row is stated as a multiple of SDE, seller’s discretionary earnings, not EBITDA. Later rows sit under that EBITDA heading.
| MSP profile, as Breakwater states it | Published multiple |
|---|---|
| Small MSP (under $2M revenue), high owner dependency, mostly break/fix | 3×–4× SDE |
| Owner-operated MSP, 50–70% MRR, some team leverage | 4×–5.5× EBITDA |
| Established MSP, 70%+ MRR, diversified clients, management team in place | 5×–7× EBITDA |
| Specialized firm (cybersecurity, compliance, cloud), strong growth, minimal owner dependency | 6×–8× EBITDA |
| Platform-ready MSP ($3M+ EBITDA, scalable NOC/SOC, multi-location) | 7×–10×+ EBITDA |
Source: Breakwater M&A, MSP & IT Services Valuation Multiples 2026. MSP Dispatch’s framing of the same table: 3× to 10× — How PE Buyers Are Valuing MSPs Right Now.
EBITDA-size bands printed by Breakwater
Breakwater’s guide to selling an IT MSP publishes a second cut, by EBITDA size, and attributes it to Aventis Advisors. It answers a different question from the profile table above. Neither table is your price.
| EBITDA size, as Breakwater attributes it to Aventis | Published multiple |
|---|---|
| Sub-$1M EBITDA | 4.0×–6.0× EBITDA |
| $1M–$3M EBITDA | 6.5×–8.5× EBITDA |
| $3M–$5M EBITDA | 8.5×–10.0× EBITDA |
| $5M+ EBITDA | 10.0×–12.0× or higher, depending on quality |
Source of this presentation: Breakwater M&A, How to Sell an IT MSP Company, which credits Aventis Advisors for the size ranges.
Why 8.9× is the wrong headline for a small tuck-in
Aventis Advisors reports a median of about 8.9× EV/EBITDA across 120 disclosed MSP transactions, and states that the median transaction size in that set was $38.5 million. On the same page, Aventis shows implied multiples for smaller deals well under that headline, including about 5.2× in its under-$5 million column. A small owner-operated MSP is not that median deal.
Source: Aventis Advisors, MSP Valuation Multiples.
What those sources treat as the levers
Breakwater’s 2026 valuation article, and MSP Dispatch’s reading of it, call MRR percentage the largest lever. Buyers, in that article, want at least 60 percent of revenue from managed-services contracts. MSPs at 80 percent or more are described as commanding a premium. In one FAQ on that page, Breakwater describes the premium as about one to two turns versus project-heavy firms. That is Breakwater’s observation. It is not a result IBBR can promise. Moving break/fix work onto managed contracts is multi-year preparation, not a teaser footnote.
Breakwater’s separate sell guide uses a stricter rule-of-thumb list. Read it as their checklist, not as a hurdle IBBR invented:
- Monthly recurring revenue of at least 70 percent of total revenue.
- No single client above about 15 percent of annual revenue.
- Annual retention above 90 percent.
- Less than about 20 percent of the work handled by owners.
- Documented roles, contracts a buyer can actually take over, and a cyber posture that survives diligence.
The 60 percent figure and the 70 percent figure both appear in Breakwater’s public MSP pages. Ask which definition a buyer is using.
What IBBR will not do with these numbers
- We will not tell you the practice “is worth” 6× because a row in the table sounds familiar.
- We will not average the profile band with the size band and call it a comp.
- We will not apply the 8.9× disclosed-deal median to a small owner-operated MSP.
- We will not hide a weak structure behind a flattering multiple. Cash at close, earnout, rollover, escrow, the working-capital peg, and any employment agreement are the offer.